Well, it’s Monday. Normally, that means it’s time for a weekend recap. I don’t have a ton of stuff for a weekend recap, because it was fairly uneventful and there was no flying involved, but I do have a few random things to share, including me and Jack finally making into Runner’s World!
Real quick, if you’ve never been here before, click here to see why I’m trying to run 61 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for Train 4 Autism.
This weekend, I ran marathon No. 53 of the year, the Eye Q Two Cities Marathon in Fresno and Clovis, Calif. Read my recap here.
The Trip Before My Trip
On Friday morning, I took Jack to school. He was a little late, so I had to walk him back to his classroom, which is in portables behind the main building. When I got there, I realized I had left his sippy cup in my car. I never do that. Never. Well, except on Friday.
He had been off most of his supplements for about three days, because we needed him to be three days removed before obtaining a stool sample for a test. So, I called Tiff at home and asked her if there was anything in his sippy cup (normally, his water is spiked). Indeed, there was. So, I ran back to the car to get it. It wasn’t an all-out sprint, but it was a decent effort, probably a 7:15 or so pace.
With my 200 pounds of body weight, I have a fair amount of velocity when I run. I rounded the corner of the main building and the sun was right in my eyes. I couldn’t see a thing. While I squinted to try to see, a brick planter jumped right out in front of me. I smacked into it in full stride, kicking with my right foot, then smacking into it with my right shin and flying over it like Superman. I swear I traveled more than 10 feet in mid air.
I twisted a bit to my let, stuck out my hands and most of the impact on the ground was absorbed by my left wrist and elbow. I got some sweet road rash on the edge of my wrist and a nice, deep cut on my left elbow. I couldn’t see what happened to my right leg, but it hurt. I could see I tore my jeans, though.
I spent about 10 seconds on the ground when a woman and her special-needs son walked up. He was distraught after seeing me fall and she wanted to make sure I was OK. I picked myself up and was a little bit dizzy. I was seeing stars all over the place, so I sat back down on that mean, mean planter. I got up about 30 seconds later, then went to my car to get Jack’s cup. On the way back to the classroom, I went to the nurse’s office.
I hadn’t been to an elementary school nurse’s office in about 25 years!
I cleaned up my elbow, bandaged my elbow and went on with my day. I felt pretty sore and banged up and was walking with a limp. At least I had nearly two full days until my marathon, right?
I posted the following as my Facebook status that morning:
Sam Felsenfeld just came from the nurse’s office at Jack’s school. Jack is fine. Sam needs to observe the “no running on the blacktop” rule.
I went to the gym on Friday night to run five easy miles on the treadmill. I was concerned that I’d have troubles running and I wanted to discover problems with my motion BEFORE race day. I was fine, life goes on. It’s funny, though. 53 marathons this year, and my three worst injuries that have impacted my running over the past 18 months have been non-running injuries. I suffered a severely sprained ankle walking through a parking lot, my right big toe still hurts from dropping a desk on it on February 5, and now this.
Oh well, life goes on!
I cut up my leg like that through my jeans. It felt pretty bruised, too.
Get The December Runner’s World!
Finally, here it is! Not the biggest piece in the world, but it’s going to be seen by a lot of people. It’s on page 28, early in the magazine. And it’s the best picture ever of me and Jack!
That photographer was money!
This Looked So, So Wrong
On Saturday night, I went out to dinner with a friend of mine from college named Janet. I knew her from the college paper I met Tiff at, so she’s know us for 16 years, although I’ve known her for close to 18, because I met her before Tiff joined the staff. She lives near Fresno, so while I was in town, we caught up.
It was just me and her going to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen, but it was no big deal. In fact, I talked to Tiff while I was out and Janet said hi to her in the background.
Well, we’re sitting there at dinner and the waitress was about to take our orders, and my cell phone rang. So I stopped mid-sentence and told her, “Hang on — it might be wife.”
No sooner did the words come out of my mouth than I realized how wrong that looked. I did some quick explaining to the waitress that I wasn’t on a date, that my wife knew and there was nothing bad going on. It felt so weird to have to explain it!
It was my brother, which was a bummer. I couldn’t tell him, “Hey babe, I’m at dinner with Janet!”
How Not To Refuel
Yesterday was November 7, the day I broke my neck in 1991. For a few different reasons, I have a standard lunch at McDonald’s every year on that date. It’s a six-piece Chicken McNuggets meal plus a hot fudge sundae. I was with my brother yesterday, and he wanted two double hamburgers, so I went in and bought those for him. Except I bought him McDoubles, which are basically double hamburgers with one slice of cheese. He doesn’t like cheese on a burger, so he didn’t eat them. Plus, McDonald’s lets you upsize to a 10-piece meal for an extra 50 cents.
So here’s what I had for lunch:
– 10 piece Chicken McNuggets with barbecue sauce
– Large fries
– Two McDoubles
– Hot fudge sundae
– Large Diet Coke (I’m counting my calories, you know?)
When we got home, my daughter’s birthday party was starting. I continued to plow.
– Enchiladas
– Chips with seven-layer dip
– Large piece of Costco cake
– Homemade vanilla ice cream
– Salad (because I want to be healthy, you know?)
I skipped dinner. But guess what I’m having for dinner tonight?
That’s All For Today
I wrote that last night, and what I really meant was, “That’s all for tonight.” I was tired. Have a great Monday, everybody! I’ll see you back here tomorrow!