“It’s just a flesh wound.” (video)
I must have the absolutely dumbest running injury ever. At mile 7 of Saturday’s 15-miler, I fell hard on an icy sidewalk, bloodying my hands and my right knee. A solid fall that really hurt and led me to think I’d have to stop my run, I loudly used a wide assortment of 4-letter words with plenty of present participles and gerunds thrown in.
After washing out my wounds with snow for several minutes and then applying bandages, I realized that my knee had a solid 2″ abrasion, but actually was uninjured. A large scrape wouldn’t stop me, so I started back up and continued a quality 15.6 mile run. The post-fall part of the run was easily the strongest I felt, making for a very pleasing Saturday effort.
I haven’t run since. Not because my knee proper is at all injured (walking or sitting, it feels great), but because the skin on my knee refuses to stop slowly oozing blood. A scrape on the kneecap means that any significant bending of the knee reopens the wound a little. Sitting, standing, and stairs have been brutal as I try to gently prevent any reopening of the wound. My legs just want to go – and I have to tell them no. Just because of a flesh wound.
Leave a Reply