Marathon Goal: Stay Upright.

See picture above...that's me. Notice knee that is forward, see the blood? Look closely, you'll see it. This was back in 2005, during the Golden Leaf 1/2 marathon in Aspen, CO. I had run about 12.5 miles at this point on terribly technical trails (up and down ski slopes, through woods and down very steep descents) and with about a mile to go, ate shit and gauged up my knee. My sole goal of this race was not to fall, as I had 2 rods in my left arm from having broken it 4 months earlier. Luckily, when I fell, the rods stayed put.

I was out running today, a nice easy 45 minutes, just a day before I take off for marathon #2 in Georgia on Saturday. It was broad daylight, and I was cruising along feeling good listening to my orange Ipod. Suddenly some rock jumped off the trail right into my path and decided to get into my way, and yep, Kelly took a spill. Isn't it great? I mean, the knee has finally healed up from the BIG fall about 3 weeks ago. Luckily, I protected the left knee and fell on the outside part of my right ankle. So, sore ankle, but safe knee. I walked in the door and said to Derick, "ONE GUESS what I did!" Needless to say, he guessed it.

SERIOUSLY, what is so hard about staying upright for me? It really is humorous, kind of, until it seems to become a regular thing. I have a theory, though. I grew up swimming, and I was always a GREAT kicker! I think my PR for a 100 yard dolphin kick with a board was something like 1:06. Seriously. So my theory is this:

Swimming Background+Strong Kicker= Weak Ankles+Clumsy runner.
Good Runner+Running Background= Stiff Ankles= Stays vertical when running.

Who's with me here? Where are my fellow swimmers who trip over every little thing when running? I know you are out there. Derick, my husband, 'says' he rolls his ankle when running but I have never seen it. I trip so much that at this point, it is kind of embarrassing. But hey, I am willing to admit it, I am a Klutz. You would think a lot of time running and time spent on trails when living in Colorado may have helped my problem, strengthened my ankles. But now, I seem to just avoid the Greenbelt here in Austin for fear that something on it may jump up and throw me violently to the ground.

OK, enough of my rambling. It is what it is, and I am about to head out to Birmingham, AL tomorrow to then drive to Albany, GA to run 26 miles on smoothly paved roads. No obstacles, I hope. I do hear there are a lot of turns on this course, let's just hope that the curbs I am running around are friendly to me.

Thanks for reading and good luck to you all in staying upright! Especially all you crazies who do the Jack and Adams Leadville 100 training runs on Thursday nights from 7:30-9:00, on the Greenbelt. You are tougher than nails in my book. Dangerous, I tell you....dangerous...