Beatitudes and my Broken / Sprained Ankle

Since the beginning of this year, I've been super consistent with my running. Very little biking, but averaging 20+ miles per week and following the Hal Higdon 1/2 marathon training program to a T. I WAS hoping to participate in the first Tobacco Road Marathon on March 20th.

I got a great coaching session from Marty at OSB Multisport in early January. We ran for close to an hour, where he helped me with my form, pacing, and HR analysis, and drills. He followed up with an email with a bunch of traing info. The most valuable being a Vdot calculator which helped me predict where I'd be and should train from a pace standpoint. I did all the speedwork and tempo runs religiously and made sure I was doing the drills as prescribed. I figured if I could keep it up I could pace around an 8:45 for a nice sub 2 our finish. Which ain't bad for a newbie.

Sadly, last Friday night at mile 2.9 of an easy 3 mile run at the American Tobacco Trail, I tripped over a stick at dusk and rolled my ankle over. I've rolled it over before but never felt like this. I was running behind my friend John, so I couldn't even blame him for pushing me....Arrgh. So what ensued????? I drove immediately to our primary care doc who happens to be in the plaza just outside our subdivision. They got me right in (after hour walkins) and gave me x-rays. After reading the x-rays, they indicated I had snapped my ligament on the medial side. And I was to proceed immediately to Triangle Ortho Urgent care. Turns out I do have a fracture, and tough to tell the extent of ligament damage without an MRI. Take this boot and crutches and comeback in three weeks. The good news is that the bones aren't displaced.

So I'll be in "Das Boot" for a 6 - 8 weeks. If that's not bad enough, I broke my bike about 3 weeks ago. The frame broke where the rear derailleur cable enters, so that's been sent back to the manufacturer for warranty evaluation.

Needless to say by Sunday morning I was lamenting missing my 4 miles @ pace from Saturday, and my 9 miles easy run on Sunday. I was worried about losing what little fitness I had gained this year, having to cancel a race, having a broken bike, not being able to train with my friends, and living with the ridicule of falling over a stick. Not good.

So Sunday at Mass, we had the Luke's Gospel from Jesus' Sermon on the Plain. Where he talks about the blessings (Beatitudes) and the Woes. Suddenly I was feeling a little hypocritical and not so woeful at all. More guilty for feeling sorry for myself. I started looking around and thinking of a couple of signs.

1) I'm not in Haiti, I have shelter for my family, I'm fed, hydrated, warm and surrounded by a family I love.

2) I'm healthy and in tact. Last Sunday, I did a Mountain Bike Marathon training race. 42 miles with 6 miles of muddy single track, 30 miles on the road, and 6 back on the single track. I finished 26 and was quite happy. Most impressive was the soldier from Ft. who was doing it with a prosthetic right leg. I rode for a bit with one of his buddies, another wounded Special Forces soldier who told me they were training to raise money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.

So whether it be Mark, or Luke, I should consider myself truly blessed and get over my woes.

P.S. I should donate some money to the foundation above. Fort Bragg is really close to home and it's a great cause for folks who are making great sacrifices for me.