26.89k, 890 calories and 4 stitches later

grrr.  i'm so frustrated right now.  I'm almost thinking that I'm not meant to run the 30k distance! Seems that each time it comes up, an injury gets in my way, as I missed Around the Bay in March due to injury.

I went to the sports injury doc again last night.  On wednesday when I went for my treatment, we redid my gait analysis with my new shoes and orthotics to see how my gait is, and if there could still be some pronation in my right foot causing the shin splints on my left leg.  I'm starting to think my left side is jinxed, just like Marlene!!! Read on.  So, last night he tells me that even with the new Asics and orthotics, I'm still pronating on my right.  crap.

He told me that there's another doc in the office who's a seasoned marathon runner, 30+ years experience running, 20+ being a sports injury doc, and wants him to review my video gait analysis, and perhaps do a treatment on me and work on my gait to see if perhaps small corrections could make a change... and talk about shoes.  Also maybe putting in a bit of a medial post on the orthotic, a bit of a support under the ball of my right foot to reduce the pronation.  Ok.  So he says that the 30k is still not out of the question, but to keep up with cycling, and maybe some water swimming, and next week, he'd like to have me back out running.  He said that if I wanted to try a few short runs on the treadmill, I'm ok to do that, but if I'm still in the wrong shoes, I'm not sure I want to risk further injury.  That takes us to this morning.

Actually, last night while running errands, we stopped by the bike shop as I wanted to pick up a pair of bike shorts, since my butt hasn't been super happy wearing regular shorts on longer rides.  So I picked up a pair of shorts, and a shirt.... This morning I got up, sporting my new threads.

My ride was awesome.  Everything was great, some hills, little wind, I felt great.  As I got within about 2km from the house, the cloud overhead decided to start spitting out rain -- why would today be any different right? LOL  No big deal since I was close to home.  On my last stretch, I could hear a car behind me... and as it passed me, it was coming towards the ride, avoiding a piece of cardboard in the middle of the road.  I don't even think the driver was aware of me being on the road, let alone how far they had gone towards the curb.  Being totally aware of what was going on, i slowed down and also moved to the right, and ended up slipping in the drainage grate, and falling.  In the midst of my fall, something cut my left leg, and i landed on the same friggen hip that I did 2 days ago!!!  No pain, I rode home, but as I got off my bike realized I was bleeding pretty good now.  Got in the house, got a wet facecloth to start cleaning the wound, and realized it was a gash... nasty and deep.  not a cut.  Don't worry, I won't gross anyone out with pics,  cuz I even have a hard time stomaching it.  Looking back, I'm not sure what I could have done differently to prevent this!  Sharing the road with cars, especially with drivers that are distracted, or that are not paying attention is a risk!  I fully understand that.... luckily i saw what was about to happen.

Jay said we had to go the ER.  I hate needles, I hate stitches, I hate hospitals and I hate Emergency Rooms.  I was bound and determined to go in there and tell them that I'm not in pain, don't need to waste their time, and I could go home, but they strongly suggested that I'd then be left with a huge scar, with a huge potential for infection, causing many more issues than simply getting stitches.

After about an hour, lots of fear and tears later (I've been petrified of needles for years, more lately... yes, I'm a big suck) I was done.  4 stitches.  

Again, it could have been a lot worse, so I'm of course thankful.  But I'm also very frustrated. It's the same leg as my shin splints, dead center in the middle of the back of my leg, a few inches above my achilles tendon.  Again, lucky, cuz this could have been nasty.  Now I won't be able to get a proper treatment for my shin splints next week, and 7-10 days to get my stitches out. When I asked if I was going to be able to run my 30k in 2 weeks, his expression changed.  A lot. He also didn't say no, but I kinda saw it in his face.  He said not to run for a few days for sure, but because of where it is on my calf, I have a fairly high chance of reopening the wound.

So between the stitches and the shin splints, still not sure if i'm in correct shoes, maybe needing a modification to my orthotics, it may be a few weeks before I can get a good run in, and not sure that I'll be wise to go on with the race.  Sigh... I know there will be many others, but I'm so sad.  

We went to a friends' place for a bbq this afternoon... and on the way home, I had to go to the drug store to get some more bandages.  They had a Wii Fit in stock-- 1 left!  I redeemed my loyalty points and bought it...  I figure that maybe this will hopefully be a much safer form of cross-training for me.

Alright, enough of this pity party, sorry I'm just in a funk.  I'm supposed to go to a pool party tomorrow, but can't swim either.  :(  So no water running either, obviously.  Ok, I'm done.