Tweaked

For four weeks in-a-row, my coworker and I have sacrificed our lunch hour to squeeze in nine mile runs. Today, however, we decide to go for ten.

Bad idea. It is hot. Damn hot. Even worse, both of us have not run all week. We go out way too fast. We cannot seem to get a good breathing rhythm going, but the air seems to be affecting me more. On the slight incline through Palisades Park, I drop way behind. My coworker is not in view when I need to stop at the beginning of San Vicente. I have no idea how long he had been waiting when I finally reach him at the five mile mark.

Instead of going for ten, I decide that we are better off turning our ten mile out-and-back into an orbit of Santa Monica. We have not completed this orbit before, but we know the route will take us into Brentwood and I am pretty sure it will still total around nine miles. The only catch with going in this direction is that we do not get the benefit of running back down the hill we just ran up. Ideally, we would have run the orbit counterclockwise.

The road flattens out as we reach Brentwood, but we have to move to the sidewalk as San Vicente's center median seems less runner friendly here. It is then that I catch my right toe on a lifted block of concrete and start to fall forward, just catching myself by flinging my right leg forward, locking my knee and ankle into a rigid structure to catch my fall. In absorbing the momentum, I lose my breath, but manage to stay upright.

Shortly thereafter, the concrete sidewalk turns to dirt under a canopy of trees. While the shade is a pleasant reprieve from the heat, it makes it hard to make out the terrain. My right foot lands awkwardly on a rock embedded within the dirt and rolls inward. It hurts. I come limping to a stop. I stop for a bit to walk off the pain.

My coworker suggests we take a shortcut directly back to the office, but I feel that Bundy is close enough by that we can complete the orbit I originally wanted to do. My ankle, though feeling funky, seems to be holding up even at an increased pace.

We make it back to the office. My pace is off, but still respectable. I just hope I have not screwed up my next few races.