After feeling like crap for 3 days, I left work early today extremely frustrated. Thousands of milligrams of Vitamin C and tons of sleep just weren’t doing anything. I was going to take a nap, but decided to go for a run instead. I know that might sound odd, but I’ve found that an easy run often seems to boost my immune system (and, yes, this is proven scientifically). Besides, I could always nap afterwords.

I had been lightheaded biking home on Friday, so I thought running was fairly safe. Ha! I felt pretty good on my run even though temps were in the 30s (well, the sun was out and their was barely any wind). As usual, I went with just shorts and a Sporthill top. I ran south along the lakefront path, but opted for dirt instead of the pavement. I thought it would easier on my legs. Hee, hee…I found just the right slick spot about 2 miles into my run.

Making the transition from the dirt to the pavement, my foot got caught in the mud. I slipped, tripped, and stumbled right onto to the pavement. I’ve done this a million of times on the trails, but rarely anything like this. I got up and was laughing. Thankfully, the path was dead so no one saw me. I got up and checked my knee, which as covered in blood. No problem. I finished the 400 m to my turnaround and headed home. I snapped a few photos of the carnage below. It looks a lot worse than it feels, but I’m sure my knee will be sore tomorrow.

My fall today reminded me a bit of a one that I had during the spring of my senior year of track at Beloit. We were out for an easy run when I tripped on the sidewalk. I started running again, only to have my teammate Warren say, “Hey, Pete, you left some skin here on the sidewalk.” My teammates encouraged me to head back to training room, where the training staff was no stranger to having clean out our wounds. Ah, the joys of spring!