Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Saturday I was supposed to run a half marathon. I hurt my foot a week before the race, two days after my ten mile run of fun. I wish I could tell you what I did, but we’re still figuring that out. All I know is that I didn’t tear a ligament, and I haven’t broken anything.
Am I upset? Yes. Not as much as I was Saturday, but yes. I didn’t run very much last year because my daughter gave me a concussion in the spring of 2017. She didn’t mean to. She is always very sorry when she hurts me, but that doesn’t change the fact that the child has been banging her head into mine from babyhood on. At six months old she knocked my front teeth loose.
After that first memorable whack, she’s specialized in hits to the chin, which throws my neck out. This is why I keep my chiropractor on speed dial. The poor man was half way convinced I was part of a fight club. That’s code for ‘I worry someone is hurting you.’ I am beyond grateful to him for having the courage to ask. It turns out that my nine year old is the one hitting me. While it’s sometimes debilitating, it isn’t abuse–but he didn’t know that. I might have needed help getting out of a situation, and he was willing to help.
Photo by Sarah Cervantes on Unsplash
In any event, it was a bad concussion. I was banned from all screens, all reading, and any exercise over a slow shamble, for two weeks. I couldn’t run for a month. And once I could run, I had to start very conservatively lest I suffered a relapse.
2018 was the year I returned to health. It’s been slow–it turns out that sitting on a couch not doing anything is a signal that my body should start breaking spontaneously–but I’ve gradually regained most of my endurance. I even started strength training semi-regularly. I can’t sign up for a half marathon every three months the way I used to, but Saturday’s half was going to be the signal that I was almost there. A symbol of good things to come.
I’m trying not to think about how long this injury might take to heal. I have two main coping mechanisms–knitting and running. On the down side, this means I’ve (temporarily) lost 50% of my coping skills. On the up side, I have finished a sweater, a pair of boot socks, and I have another pair of socks on the way. Some people go on drinking benders. I go on fiber benders. And the knitting will continue until morale (and my foot) improves.