The Ramlings of Denise: What Goes Up Must Come Down...

You know that old saying, right?

Well, todays theme is a little more like, what goes down, must get up!!

About 2 minutes into my walk today, the dog was tugging at the leash a bit and I looked over at her, to tell her to stop pulling me, which she totally would have understood, cuz she's that smart, but I didn't get the words outta my mouth cuz I stepped in a hole, I twisted my ankle and fell down, ALL the WAY down. I fall a lot, I'm used to such things, but I HATE when I'm out in public and I fall. You want to cry, but you're not sure if it's cuz it hurts or becuz you've just embarrassed yourself, again. The severity of this tumble is somewhat less, than a lot of my previous ones. ~Like the time I fell down the stairs and broke my arm, or just a couple of years ago when we were at Redbud, an Outdoor National Motocross race {Maddy, if you are reading this now, we will take a short pause for you to laugh yourself into tears (yet again) and then compose yourself enough to continue reading!} that fall was a pretty good one, my ankle got huge and black, blue and purple!! But that was my only injury. I picked myself up {yeah, no help from my family members, in fact Ryan stood there and shook his head as if to say "there she goes again!"} I soldiered on, watching the entire race. Sure, I couldn't get shoes on for 2 days after, my foot got so big! Back to today, I had a few more injuries, scuffed my elbow, and my knee pretty good, and twisted my ankle. I even ended up with a stone in my mouth, for real!!!! Go ahead, laugh, it is kinda funny. After the fall, I get up and assess the damages and decide if I can limp back home or if the dog will be required to drag me. Realizing the dog is not up for that challenge, I limp home. Along the way, I fight the urge to cry like a girl, and I realize it's not becuz it hurts that bad, although it is a bit painful. Not only do I move slow, but I think slow, so I take the next few minutes to reflect on exactly why am I so upset over a tiny {yet public} fall. Turns out, I'm concerned that if this hurts, and I can't run, it might set me back at least 2 weeks, and then I will never make the 5K deadline!!! In the past I may have been glad that the universe had just offered me a way out of an obligation, I was just provided with the PERFECT excuse, an injury, but today I was upset by it. This is a most strange turn of events. Who am I becoming?!?!? So, I bandage myself up {another event I'm all too familiar with} and decide to go back out and try to walk and see how that goes, if it's good, I'll break into the running thing!! I walked about 5 minutes and decided, it was pretty good, so I ran. I went the entire 1.75miles, walking/running.

While I was running I got to thinking maybe I should've just stayed in bed today. And then a lot of other strange things start to flow through my crazy brain, the way things tend to go with my brain!!! I'm one of those people, who tries to look at every situation and find the good, the life lessons, to decide if this is meant to be a challenge or if somehow there was a sign intended, if the universe was trying to speak to me. And something occurred to me, lately I've been hearing a lot of people talk about their fitness experiences, and I'm finding myself comparing {I know, NEVER a good idea} It just seems like so many people are making so much more progress than me, going faster, further. And for a brief moment it had been kinda getting me down {I know, stupid}!! So here's what I've concluded from this morning's incident:

~Walk your own walk/Run your own run. You always have, why change that now, it'll only cause you to stumble and fall!

~When you start concerning yourself with what others are doing, you might not be paying attention to what you are doing, and you always want to be paying attention to what you are doing, and to your surroundings. Consider paying attention to what your dog is doing too, cuz obviously SHE was paying closer attention to your surroundings than you were, she did try to pull you away from the hole! Trust your dog!

~Always look in the direction where YOUR goals {and/or feet} are headed and you will be less likely to fall.

~What goes down, MUST get up!! Always keep getting up, no matter how often you fall down, that's what makes you stronger.

~Change can be painful, and these are some big changes that you've been making. Not just the eating, and the fitness, but somewhere along this journey, you are becoming the kind of person who tries to figure out how to fight through a situation, instead of find excuses to get out of it.

~Okay, and there may have been a lesson on gratefulness and appreciation, for how far I've come, without having a heart attack, oh and possibly a snippet about believing in oneself…

~And if you never win a trophy, you'll always have that big ass scar on your knee to remember the 5K you trained your ass off for!!!

Sometimes, the Universe just has to throw you, face down, in the dirt to make you see things clearly. Maybe that just happens to us stubborn people who refuse to see things otherwise.

My knee, that is a big ass Band Aid

Let me also say that, as much as I LOVE my inspirational music, this gave a whole new meaning to the lyrics from Road of Determination when Tallon says "I will not fall to my knees, for something NOT worked for!"