Saturday, August 24, 2013

Broken Hearts and Broken Bones



"Be careful in the weeks before the marathon. It's really easy to injure yourself just doing something stupid." Advice given to me by an experienced marathon runner.

Check. I always have to learn the hard way. At least I'm consistent.

So I carelessly fell and jammed my elbow into my rib. I went days refusing to go to the doctor because of 2 words. Health care. Expect a blog post on health care in this country in the near future. And you may even see me in Washington DC advocating for changes in this ridiculous system that totally screws the middle class.

Anyway, suffice it to say we have a high deductible plan & I had no desire to reach the $3,600 deductible at the end of the calendar year. I finally gave in a few days ago solely to get some medication to get a grip on the pain.

The X-rays initially showed chest contusions & left me painfully optimistic. I'm in week 15 of my first marathon training.

It's a bruise. I'll overcome it.

Ring ring this morning.

"The radiologist read your x-rays and it turns out your rib is fractured. Continue the vicadin and rest. Activity as tolerated"

The news hit me harder than the fall. The marathon is in 4 weeks.

I wallowed for only minutes which is progress for me. I was mad at myself. Embarrassed. Kicking myself.

But then I put on my gym clothes and I headed to do what I could at the Y. The doctor said activity as tolerated.

I wanted to share where I'm at. I figure that I owe it to the people that have been reading along faithfully and helping me with advice and rooting for me. This blog was intended to share my journey, the good and the not so good. There's value in both. It's easy to send the "Map my Run" to facebook when I reach a PR in distance. But if I really want to help people by sharing my journey, I need to be real. It's not a perfect journey. There are ups and downs. So many people have come such a long way with me through this process. It's easy to share success. Much harder to share pain.

So I don't know if I will make it to the finish line this year or if it will be next year. But stay tuned. I'm not ready to give up yet.

I came across this quote today and even though there's a part of me that is brokenhearted, the quote sums everything up perfectly.

"What you get by achieving your goals is not nearly as important as what you become by achieving your goals."

The person I used to be before I started running would never have believed that. So in many ways I've already achieved quite a goal.

But fyi...I'm still not giving up on the marathon :)

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