I was planning to get in a couple of miles before meeting up with Larry and Wayne but I got out a little later than planned. I still thought I might be able to get 1.5 miles in, but I ran so slowly that I only got in 1 mile. We met up and wandered the local streets on a variation of my Serpentine route another 5.75 miles. During these meanderings there was a lot of great conversation. I was so engrossed at one point that I didn't notice the bad patchwork on the road and stepped on the edge of some asphalt that was sticking up. Last Friday I realized I'd turned my ankle on a rock in the road when I suddenly started feeling pain in my ankle. This time I realized something had occurred when my body slammed onto the road. I followed my normal strategy of immediately getting up and trying to run it off. Once again it worked out, although I wasn't sure at first. I've rolled my ankle so many times that now one of the first things I do is rate it on a 1-10 scale. Last Friday's was a high 3. At first I rated today's a high 4 (same ankle by the way), but after a block or so it felt much better so I downgraded it to a 3. Based on the small amount of pain I felt at the end of the run and now, I might even rate it a high 2. I'll feel a little pain for a few days but I don't think it will affect my running. I guess one of the advantages of so many sprains is that they don't do quite so much damage anymore. I guess the tendons are already stretched out.
I don't normally fall when I roll an ankle. The neat thing about falling is being able to show your bloody wounds to your wife and kids when you get home. It's kind of macho I think, even though this morning it wasn't all that glorious (or gore-ious). I tore some skin off my left palm and scraped my left knee. I think it would have been worse but I was wearing knit gloves and my long running pants. The pants are damaged a little, but it did not tear a hole in them. The gloves didn't seem damaged at all.
All in all I think I was pretty lucky. In recent years I've been reluctant to play basketball because I've been afraid of turning an ankle. After Friday and today, I'm thinking maybe basketball is the safer sport. I'll sure be glad when it gets a little lighter for my morning runs. It obviously wasn't runners that decided to expand daylight savings time.
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