Day of Sadness

I have not posted my woes on this blog but three weeks before the Mini I sprained my medial ligament and had some severe muscle problems with my calf and hamstring. I have had back of the knee tightness for several weeks prior to my medial ligament strain but it was nothing I could not train thru. It would hurt really bad but once I started running then it would untighten and then when I was done running it would tighten back up to the point I could not bend my knee...well after a while it would not untighten even when running and boy did it hurt! Well one morning I was doing sprints on the treadmill, well Kim sprints...which is slow running for my friends but fast running for me...and all of a sudden this pain went zipping down my leg from my thigh to my shin...ouch I let out a BIG YELP...and listed off to the side of the treadmill...my yelp was so loud that Jay on the treadmill stopped running to check on me... not much stops him when he is hitting his stride so I must have yelled pretty loud...within a 1/2 hour I could not even put weight on it..panicked I called my doctor...went to see him...he said medial ligament strain...and fyi I have found that medial ligaments are NOT fast to forgive you for injuring them. At any rate I was lucky to get to run/walk the first part of the mini and walk the last miles from around 8 1/2-9 mile to 13.1. My medial ligament started to sting badly and that is when I started only walking...I moved my band around in hopes of holding that ligment enough to continue walk/run but no go...I moved it to the lower part of my thigh...then to below the kneecap...the to the kneecap...stopped took it off...it hurt...put it back on the started the whole moving it around thing again. Considering that I was injured I was not displeased that my 5 mile time was 1.08 cause usually it takes me an hour to do 5 anyway so consider that I was doing run 50 steps walk 50 steps I figured that was okay..but the rest of the time was in the toilet...oh well. I did find that when you run with your primary weight on one leg that at least one part of your body will turn bloody red to pay you back (see photos) and walking kills your hip flexors far more then running. I had a lot of compliments on my shirt which read "Temporarily Out Of Order" and then I had a knee with a lightning bolt coming out of it. I figured I might as well have fun with my broken body. The first file miles actually felt really good and at one point I thought I was healed..but alas I was not...(considering that on Thursday morning when I tried to run and my knee would not even bend I was giddy with joy when it bent on Saturday!)at around 8 1/2 my medial ligament says to me "That's enough you stupid woman. Walk or I shall make you cry like a baby". By the time I got to mile 12...my knee was hurting enough that I has hobbling and my toe on my foot was hurting really bad and felt like it was on fire. I did not think I was going to make it...I thought I was going to quit and then I remembered all the hard work I had been doing to even be able to go to the mini at all. And then I remembered all the hard work my friends had been doing to get me ready for the mini (Thank you Bob and Jillian)and I decided I was crossing that line even if I had to hop, crawl or hobble across...and hobble I did...I fastly hobbled. As soon as I got across one of the medical guys asked if I was okay..I said yep my knee and foot just hurt. I went to the rest area where I promptly sat down on the ground and announced I needed ice for my ligament...went got ice...was icing and thought OH MY TOE IS KILLING ME...I took off my shoe expecting to see a little blister and what met my eyes was GIANT BLOODY TOE...the man sitting next to me saw it and said.."you better have the medical tent look at that"....I hobbled over to the medical tent asked him if it was the grossest blister he had seen...much to my disappointment he said "No not anywhere even close" Dang! I asked him if my toe was going to fall off...he assured me it would not...I hobbled back to my tree put the ice on my ligament again and then put an ice bag on my toe and then promptly felt dizzy and thought I was gonna die...so I laid back on the ground...see picture. I look up to see my dearly beloved husband and son hovering over the top of my near dead body with their cameras snapping pictures...I did not care because I got the cool pictures you see posted. I should have some really cool pictures from my funeral when I actually die...probably my eyes bugged out and a cookie hanging out of mouth when I cross from the land of the living... Aside from my blood filled toe and my ligament screaming that it hates my guts I had a great time. We had a fabulous dinner with good food and even better company. Karen and I met at the pool on Sunday and soaked in the whirlpool till we were wrinkled as 90 year olds. I feel pretty good today...toe looks worse then it feels and the back of my knee is no more stiff then before I did the mini and the ligament has stopped screaming at me because I have been making it happy with rest, muffins and whirlpool. Also all I have determined that all the world's problems can be solved in a whirlpool..I am going to write President Bush and tell him that all he needs to do is get all the world leaders in a whirlpool and all issues would be resolved from religous strife to gas prices..I LOVE WHIRLPOOLS.