In 27 days, I ran 4 races. The streak started with a 26.2 mile marathon in Green Bay. Followed by a 10k in Casco, WI, where I placed 3rd in my age group. Then there was the Luxemburg, WI 5k. Then for the first time I joined 14,000 fellow runners and walkers for the Bellin Run in Green Bay. My weight was down 18 pounds since I started training in November. During the first month, I lifted weights but did not run – much. I continued the weight training, so not only was I lighter, I was stronger. I had run 180 miles in April. That included 3 straight weeks of at least 40 miles. I had never been able to get over 35 miles in a week without sustaining some sort of overuse injury. The weight training worked. Maybe I was feeling younger than my 58 years.
That is when I got a dose of humility. I was playing hoops with my 8 year old granddaughter. My shot looked pretty good. I was tipping in her shots or tipping them back to her. Yes, I was getting some air under my feet. Thanks to my new found fitness. Then I heard a crack, and fell down. Me- being me – got up and took a couple more shots, but I could not put any weight on my right foot. It hurt. Discretion being the better part of valor, I finally listened to my EMT wife and sat down and iced it.
It was still bad the next morning. I was on vacation and went to one of those urgent care places to get it looked at. I could wiggle my toes a little bit. My wife could feel a pulse in my foot. Those were positive signs. The sound of the crack and the swelling weren't. X-rays clearly showed a broken bone. You get humility when you can't shoot buckets with an 8 year old and not get hurt. It was kind of humiliating.
We were on vacation. I had broken my foot within 10 minutes of our arrival. We had not even checked into our hotel yet. To make matters worse the hotel was not exactly handicap friendly. The breakfast was in a separate building. By the time we left our room, got out of the main building, I already needed a rest. Then I had to descend two flights of stairs. Again- I needed to rest. When we got to the cafe, they had a continental breakfast for the hotel guests. I couldn't even carry my plate back to the table. It was definitely humiliating for me.
This was a struggle. It opened my eyes to what handicapped people face everyday. My wife correctly points out that I can be a bit stubborn. She wanted me to get a wheelchair, but I insisted on just crutches. When we went to the local Wal-Mart to pick up some Ibuprofen, a nice woman offered to get me one of those motorized shopping carts – not a chance! By the time we were done, I was exhausted. I sat on the bench and rested while my wife checked out.