Falls Run & Accident

Last Saturday I joined a group of 40 or more runners for the “Falls Run”. This is a comfortable 18 mile trail run visiting local falls. It is the first time I do this (previous years we went to Minneapolis between Christmas and New Year’s so I have missed all previous runs).

It is a nice scenic trail run. We started from Lock 29, ran up 5 miles to Pine Lane and to Boston. From Boston we ran 5 miles to the Brandywine Falls (1) and back, then 4 miles to Blue Hen Falls (2) and Buttermilk Falls (3) and then 5 more miles back to L29 via the Buckeye Trail and Pine Lane. It took exactly 3 hours of running.

Here are some pictures that I took from the Brandywine and Buttermilk Falls:

You can see more pictures (with me in the picture) in Nick’s blog here:

http://rtrsbm.blogspot.com/2009/12/m-cubed-for-122809.html

This would have been a perfect day, if it was not for an accident I had around mile 3 of the run. While crossing Boston Mills Road (from Pine Lane to Boston), I fell and hit my leg at the metal rail on the side of the road. This was clearly my fault. Instead of stopping and taking it easy, I tried to step on the piece of wood (see picture below, taken a few weeks ago with my wife going over the exact same rail - I marked the piece of wood I stepped at) to go over. The wood was icy, so I slipped and fell right at the sharp metal rail.

At first it hurt quite a bit. Michele was running ahead, turned around and asked if I was OK. I said I was fine and continued running. I knew I was hurt badly, but I could not decide whether to stop and call my wife to pick me up, run to Boston and from there to L29 and then drive home, or just keep running. I kept running. I decided to continue to Boston. At Boston I checked my leg (see picture above - I snapped this picture for memories). The wound looked really deep but it was not bleeding a lot and it was not hurting enough to force me to stop. So I decided to keep running, to finish this nice long run.

When I got home, my wife saw the wound and started screaming at me to go to the Emergency to have it stitched up, which is what I did. At the emergency I had 2 X-rays, a tetanus shot and 14 stitches put in my leg! Everyone was amazed that I kept running for 15 miles / 2 ½ hours, after this accident.

Anyway, I was able to run the next day and race on Thursday (New Year’s Eve) so it cannot be that bad. It is healing nicely right now.