Can't believe it...INJURED

RUN 14.5-ish miles in 2.5 hours

Can't believe it. Haven't really wrapped my head around it. After being so happy about finally feeling recovered, after making inquires about Evolve swimming, after signing up to work with a personal trainer....injured again.

Not sure how long this one will last - a week, multiple weeks? I'm trying to be optimistic without being in denial.

My goal for this run was two-fold: Nail the prerun nutrition (I've been eating too much last few long runs) and break the 20-mile barrier for the first time in 2016. That's a mental barrier mostly, it's not that 20 is particularly hard to do, it's just gotta get done. This is the 2nd time this year I've attempted, and another fail! (The first one, I ate too much!).

TV and I went to a new area -- the Busch Conservation Area. At the LV run I did just a few weeks ago I learned from EC about a few miles of gravel roads north of the Mound. Neither TV nor I were familiar with these, so we went for those today. Beautiful! Multiple fishing lakes connected by gravel roads, prairie, trees. Ammo bunkers with bad graffiti, rustic signs directing us to the 20-some lakes in the area, and enough cars going by that we weren't entirely lost or alone.

We stuck to the gravel roads to connect, and when we could took a foot trail to each lake, and when we could ran around the lake. There wasn't really a trail going around the lakes, more of an animal path that was inconsistent and in some instances non-existent.

Saw fishermen (they didn't talk much), saw a guy getting ready to train his dog in a field (he really didn't talk much!). Otherwise we chatted and enjoyed the trail-non-trail aspect of the run. I came to a realization at some of the difficult to run areas -- that I'm having trouble balancing to jump a creek or mud. Is it my back, am I hesitant? Weak? Not concentrating?

Lake 12, then 36, then 22, and 23, then up to Lake 33, the sign said it had a spillway and a creek! The spillway was pretty, we stopped to enjoy the waterfall and view from that end of the lake. Decided to run around the lake on a path that mostly followed a levee type bank. This worked until we got to the opposite end -- the trail disappeared mostly. I saw a white, empty turtle shell, but didn't see the cable-like vine firmly anchored at both ends at my feet. I went down so fast and so hard that I couldn't even get my hands under me. I smacked the ground (SMACKED, is a better way to put it!) on my left arm, had the wind knocked out of me, felt something pop.

I didn't get up right away, I knew I'd have a hit of adrenaline and I needed air. TV came back and waited, I rolled over and got up. Everything felt OK but my chest HURT. Tried walking to calm down. Looked for the cause of my fall and marveled at how effective it was. Shortly thereafter tripped over another one but at least didn't fall.

Tried raising my arm overhead. Couldn't. Maybe because of pain? Kept testing, evaluating, moving, thinking, trying to stay calm. Oh boy that last one was hardest.

The trail/path disappeared and soon we were in tall grass/bushes following what might have been an animal trail. I just mindlessly followed TV, still stuck in my head and tumble of thoughts. We had to turn around soon, went back to the lake, and had to make a series of muddy, deep creek crossings. I couldn't jump, even taking a hard step hurt, so I took time and TV build up steps for me to get across as he could. Soon we spotted a road and I was able to try running again.

I could run, but I couldn't breath well. This of course meant I couldn't really run all that well either! Each uphill incline I had to walk eventually. We didn't know how far back it was to the truck but knew the direction to go. I kept talking about anything -- the possibility of Luke Skywalker being gay (NPR topic yesterday), the Star Wars holiday special, food, blah blah blah. We kept going and I wasn't feeling terribly pained but I was hurting.

Can you believe I wanted to run the last 5.5 miles?! What cut me off was the fact that TV said he'd be home "in the afternoon" for an event he and M planned to attend! Otherwise, I would have kept going.

Driving hurt. A stop at Home Depot hurt. But I wasn't too broken or damaged. I figured tomorrow would reveal more damages, so I got my shopping errands done this evening and crawled lamely into bed.