Running joke

I've seen a lot of alarmist headlines that tell me running is terrible exercise. I don't read the articles, but I've certainly noticed the prevalence of anti-running headlines.

I run anyway because it clears my head, I think creatively, I get outside, and I enjoy it. Having said that... I was in the woods on Stormont Estate Tuesday morning running down a hill when I tripped on the root of a pine tree sticking a few inches above the ground. It was the same colour as the path--easy to miss. I went flying horizontally like Superman, with no chance to get my feet under myself. My hands, elbow and forearm took the brunt of it. I think they found a few rocks on the path (something bigger than gravel but smaller than an apple), and so they are sliced up pretty good. I lay there whimpering and hyperventilating for a while. When I'm in pain, I tend to panic, which doesn't help. Finally I collected myself and walked 10 or 15 minutes out of the woods to the security hut at the entrance to Stormont. The guard was eating breakfast and watching Everybody Loves Raymond. I convinced him to let me use his cellphone to call David. Except I don't know David's number, so I called my number, which went right to voice mail. Sigh. I collected myself again and walked 25 minutes or so home--cold, hungry, and in quite a lot of pain. David gave me some Aleve, cleaned my wounds, and put me to bed.

What amazes me is how general the pain is. My neck, shoulders, hips--I ached everywhere for the first two days. I felt like I'd been hit by a 2by4 across my shoulders. My spine felt bruised. Three days on I'm finally feeling better, but it was scary to feel so fragile for the first two days.

In the U.S., I had a facility for remembering phone numbers. Area codes and local prefixes made it easy. When I was run over in 2008, I screamed out David's phone number, pleading with someone to call him. I didn't know that I knew it--but I'd used it a few times and it had stuck. Here, cellphone numbers have 11 digits and there is no rhyme nor reason to the numbers. And since they're preprogrammed, you never dial them. So I must now endeavour to remember his number lest I "run" into trouble again.
11-12