Going to the Hospital

My father in law is visiting this weekend and we have had a wonderful visit. Megan adores having her Grandpa around. She is going to be devastated when he heads home Tuesday morning. We are gonna miss him too.

I had a bit of a late start this morning. I wasn't too rushed and with a 4 hour run looming ahead of me I was kind of dragging my feet a bit. But man, once I got started I was having a great run. It was one of those runs that just clicks and everything feels good. I was running at a great pace too. Well, a great pace for me that is. I looked down at my foreman somewhere during the first mile and I was running a 13:02 mile. That in itself is not unusual. At any given time during a run I could be running a 13 minute mile, sustaining it is my problem. Imagine my surprise then when I finished that first mile in 13:02. And my second mile? 12:48. My third was 13:08. I was running a solid 13ish mile the whole run and it felt good.

I ran the Sac and Fox again today. My plan was to run on the trail to the halfway point, run off the trail to the main road and back which is .3 miles, continue running past the trail entrance to the nature center and back hoping it was at least a mile, and then jumping back on the trail to run to the end and then all the way back again. My plan would have put me at the 16 mile mark about a 1/4 of the mile away from my car which is what I was hoping for. But as I learned during my last 16 mile run, plans are meant to be changed.

The first part of my plan went off without a hitch. It was even exactly 1 mile there and back to the nature center. Unfortunately about a 1/4 a mile away from the trailhead, or should I call it the trailend(?), my phone rings to let me know that I have a message. I check it and it's Jason letting me know that he hurt his ankle pretty badly and he is headed to the hospital to check it out. Thank God my father in law was here and was able to drive Jason to the hospital and take care of Megan until I got there. I called them immediately and they were in route to the hospital. I let them know that I would meet them there as soon as I could. I was an hour and forty-five minutes away from my car at this point but only about five minutes away from the trailhead. Luckily I had my cell phone with me and I had the phone number programmed for the only other people we know in Cedar Rapids. Thank God he was home and I was able to call in a favor. I ran off the trailhead and towards the direction he would be coming from and was even able to log an additional 1 1/2 miles before he picked me up.

Jared dropped me off at my car and then I rushed to the hospital. I got there just in time to catch Jason before he was taken from triage to x-ray. He had a knot on his ankle about the size of a large orange. He had been trying to get our unruly daughter out of the tunnels at McDonalds and missed a step and rolled his ankle. The x-ray showed a piece of bone chipped off and a space between the joint that doesn't look right. He is supposed to go to the orthopedic surgeon on Tuesday to get it checked out further and to see if he is needing surgery. He is home now with a moon boot, crutches and some serious pain meds.

Running Stats

Running Time: 2:11:45
Running Distance: 9.95 mi
Average Pace: 13:15/mi

Note: I cannot believe that I was .05 mi away from a 10 mile run. I just could not justify running that little bit further when my wonderful hubby was headed to the hospital.