Bloody Manholes!

Warning: this is a long post, but I think you'll find it entertaining.

The title of this post was also the subject line of an e-mail I received from Jim last night. That same e-mail started by saying, "Hoping the chin and knee aren't too bad?! Must say at the end you looked rather scary!" Rather scary indeed. In fact, I looked like someone had stabbed me in the throat and I was still bleeding almost as bad as if that had actually been the case. What happened, you ask. Well, as the theme song to Gilligan's Island goes, "just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip" (or should I say fall).

Last night's workout was to be a 25 min w-up, followed by 5X2 min on/off, and a 15 min c-down. Nothing too serious, just something to shake the legs out a bit. We knew we were in for a fun night because it was 33 degrees and raining steady, but the roads and sidewalks seemed clear of ice and they were. Metal manhole covers, however, were not. More on that in a second. Jim and I had just about finished the w-up and we were literally seconds from starting the fartlek when we rounded a turn and BLAM, down goes Crowder. I landed right on my chin and hit hard enough that I actually heard the impact. I laid there for a second, checking to see if I still had all my teeth, then hopped up and proceeded to check the rest of myself. Oddly enough my main concerns were whether or not I'd ripped my expensive running pants and if my Garmin was alright. Thankfully both were in tact. Both my knees hurt, the left enough that I had a slight limp at first, but everything else seemed to be ok. I had also managed to roll into a puddle of water, so I was now wetter than ever and a little cold, but not one to bail on a workout, I told Jim that we'd run another couple of minutes and then I'd see if I could start, which of course I did.

Talk about a crappy workout. I just had no rhythm at all, and I guess for good reason. Of course it didn't help that I'd gotten my pants so wet that I had to keep pulling them up every couple of minutes just to keep them on. In the way of positives, except for the right one burning like someone had a match to it, my knees seemed to be holding fine, so I pushed ahead, all the time thinking that my chin really hurt. I told Jim that I felt like I'd taken an uppercut from Mike Tyson in his prime and was sure people at work tomorrow would give me a hard time about how I must have mouthed off to my wife.

In any event, we completed the workout, and in spite of the way it felt, honestly it went ok. Per the Garmin, we were running under 5:30 pace, which is slow but well within the goal for the night, and my heart rate was in the 170's. Perfect! What wasn't perfect was my chin. As we were about to finish, I asked Jim what it looked like and his response was "Well, it's going to look worse than it is. Blood has run down your chin and is all over your neck." Nice! That's why I asked. I didn't want to walk into the college looking like something out of Friday the 13th, so I covered up my neck and chin and headed for the locker room. After a brief chat with the President of the college during which I kept my back to him (ha, ha), I finally got to take a look. My initial reaction was, "Oh man, this is bad. I'm gonna need stitches. Now what?" I had a hole about the size of the end of your pinky finger in the bottom of my chin, and it was bleeding like a stuck hog. I forewent a shower, cleaned it up the best I could, and headed out, driving home with one hand on the wheel and another on a towel applying pressure to the wound.

Once I got home, I had Leslie take a look at it. She immediately said I needed to go to the Emergency Room for stitches, and she was 100% right and I knew it. The problem is I just didn't want to drive all the way back to Roanoke and spend 4-5 hours in the midst of a freak show while waiting to be seen. I've been there and done that. So, to the great displeasure of my wonderful wife, I bandaged it up the best I could and went to bed.

When I got up this morning, I took everything off and took a look. Not good. The fact that the night before when I applied Neosporin to it the ointment actually disappeared up into my chin should have been a clue that this wasn't gonna heal without some help. I still had a very nice hole and it was still "oozing" for lack of a better term. Based on that, I stopped by the clinic on the way in to work where I got a lecture and was told they wouldn't be able to stitch it based on how long it had been. So the doc proceeded to attempt to "steri-strip" it and tell me that I wouldn't be able to run for several days or the strips would come lose. My reply was, "Well that isn't gonna work." Fortunately for me, the steri-strips wouldn't hold. The wound was too big, so he had to reluctantly stitch me up. As the nurse walked out to get the stitching materials, I said, "Now I can run with stitches, right?" He laughed and replied that yes I could. When the nurse returned he was like "You're not gonna believe this guy. The first thing he did after you left is ask if he could run with stitches. He's insane." If only he knew.

So I got sown up with five stitches and received a tetanus shot and a prescription for an antibiotic to boot, relieved that not only was my face now in one piece but I wouldn't have to miss a workout either. After all, my knees were fine, just two nice strawberries on the right and a purple spot on the left, so the last thing I wanted was for my face to knock me out of a run. For those who might not know, I spent a good 8 years racing motocross. During all that time, I never broke a bone, nor did I ever need stitches. Since giving up dirt bikes for running shoes, I've had four stress fractures and now stitches. I guess that means what I've learned is that running is more hazardous to your health than sailing through the air on a motorcycle. I also have the new found knowledge that when it's cold and rainy, just because the roads are fine doesn't mean you don't have to watch out for those bloody manhole covers! Anyway, that concludes my adventure. To borrow another phrase from Jim, "Cheers everyone!"