Falling Down the Stairs is a Humbling Experience

Thursday started off as a great day (well minus the whole Petey peeing on the bed thing, but that's another story for another blog entry titled "Adventures in Potty Training a Puppy from a Fourth Floor Walkup"), the weather was great, I got an excellent workout in at the gym, 3 miles on the elliptical and 30 minutes of swimming laps, and I have the whole day ahead of me to look forward to. Truly an awesome day.

I was thinking about what I was going to do with my awesome day while carrying Petey down the stairs to go out (yes, we have to carry him down the stairs because he's still too little to climb them), next thing I know I'm falling down the stairs and all I can think about is not landing on the 8 pound dog I'm carrying because I'm pretty sure it might have killed him. I didn't for one second think about how I was going to land and ended up doing a very awkward throwing the dog in front of me so I don't crush him thing.

I then landed directly on my right knee cap. Not one other part of my body took the impact. It was shockingly painful. And of course, Petey was no worse for the wear, he just stared at me with his head cocked to one side while I yelled for Jeff to come and help me because I just wasn't sure if I could get up. Of course then I burst into tears. Not because it hurt (it did) but because I was terrified that I had injured myself and I would no longer be able to train for the half or the full marathon and all of the goals I'd been working towards would be shattered. Dramatic much? Ha.

I spent the next 5 or so hours on the couch wallowing in my own pity and icing my knee. I couldn't believe how upset I was or how vulnerable I felt. It really hit home for me just how important all of this training is to me and how important my goals are to me. It also really hit home just how quickly things can change in an instant. I was lucky, I don't think I'm seriously injured but I could have been and that scared the crap out of me.

I will try and be more careful when carrying the little guy down the stairs. The next time I might not be so lucky to end up with only some rug burn and a couple of good bruises!