Spring Forward? Yes, yes, I did. Quite literally.

On Wednesday, I had a bit of crummy morning. It started out normal enough:

Step 1: Get up early.

Step 2: Run 10 miles at recovery pace.



 Brooks Transcend: Hot colors make it even more extravagant.

I was pretty excited to be heading out because I had new gear. I LOVE new gear, since I rarely treat myself. I just picked up the Brooks Transcend, a new pair of Brooks for me, actually they're new for everyone since Brooks just launched them. They were pretty expensive...like more than I usually spend for shoes, but I justified it by buying them ON SALE, and getting another pair that I will also use in my shoe rotation at a steep discount. Scott remarked that he thought the Brooks Transcend purchase was “extravagant.” Hey, with the discounts I actually spent less than had I bought 2 of my normal shoes at regular price. Given how cheap I am with most other parts of my life, I guess I get to be extravagant for once.

 

I got up at 4:30am which I've been told my some people is the middle of the night. Actually, it was still technically “night” out with the sky still the color of dark charcoal, and small twinkling stars reminding me that I wasn't alone. I stepped out of my front door adorned in my brand new, shiny Brooks, and I was trying out a new hand-held water bottle from Ultimate Direction. Pretty slick, right? Not ½ mile from my house, I wiped out BIG TIME. I think the bigger bottom on the Transcends caught the edge of one of the uneven sidewalks that are so pervasive in our part of town. Tree City USA, makes for big trees.

It's simple math, I will break it down for you:

Very big trees=ginormous roots=tons of uneven sidewalks

Period. 

This spot where I took a dive has a HUGE Giant Sequoia.  Roots...sidewalks with attitude...you get the drift. It's a beautiful specimen and I've marveled at it for years, but never had I seen it from the underside that close until that moment.  It's really old, too. I think maybe that tree has been here since dinosaurs walked the earth.  I'm not sure since I didn't have time to take a core sample.

It wasn't just the new shoes that made me fall, though. I was distracted, too. My entire consciousness was stuck on some bad news and I couldn't think about anything else. I can count the times I have fallen during a run and 2/4 were from having my mind on something else. As I was flying through the air with my arms outstretched, my new Ultimate Direction water bottle bolted off my my hand and landed lightly in the needles of the Giant Sequoia, and I landed hard mostly on my elbows and chest. “Huh”, I breathed, as the wind was slightly knocked out of me. It took me a second to pull my thoughts together. “Oh. Crap. I need to stop my Garmin.” Ha! Wouldn't that just be the first thing to come to mind?

Happy bubbles in my water bottle...too bad they don't taste happy.

As I assessed my injuries, which were pretty minor (scraped elbows, scratches from fallen branches on both legs, some bruises), I pulled myself together and started off into the darkness again. I was glad it was nothing serious. Later during the run, I found that I couldn't drink from my new super cool water bottle. WTF? To be fair, I didn't read the directions, I mean really, why should a water bottle be so complicated?? I had to stop at large intersection and that's when I discovered not just one, but two problems. I looked down at my Garmin and noticed that it had stopped working, claiming of all things: “DATABASE FULL.” Oh, right, it told me that a few days ago. Dammit. AND, after opening my water bottle to get a drink, I notice that the water was still soapy from when I had tried to wash it out before the run. FRICK!

Could this run have any more problems?

 

And, that's when it really hit me. This was completely nothing, really small potatoes compared to what someone else I know is going through.

Just the night before, I had learned that the brother of a good friend of mine had been diagnosed with cancer. Stage III. He's just a few years younger than me, and he is married with two children very close to the ages of our kids. I couldn't stop thinking about him. My mind was wrapped up with the sad and nearly sickening thoughts of this person, which was the other big reason why I fell down. The thought of what he and his family are going through is just heartbreaking. It can all change so quickly, one second you are living and enjoying life and the next you are told your time is almost up. Just like one second you are quietly running along, and the next you're sprawled out on the sidewalk like a rag doll tossed in the corner by a hurried child. It doesn't take much sometimes to interrupt our lives and remind us how fragile we are.   This quote was on repeat in my head:

As my thoughts rested on this person and his family, I realized that I had so much to be thankful for. So, I'd had a few “issues” during my run. Fell down, Garmin died, and my water bottle refused to work and only offered sudsy water.

 

So what?? A little unpleasantness, a little inconvenience? I realized that I was absolutely blessed to be having these “unpleasant” experiences at all. I was so lucky to be out running, enjoying a beautiful star-filled sky, smelling the first blooming lilacs and hearing the birds starting their early morning songs. Maybe it's a cliché, but I stood in the middle of my kitchen that morning thinking that no matter what happens to us, as long as we are living life, no matter the circumstances, then we are among the fortunate because life is truly a gift.