Silver Lining

Day Off

Have you ever seen the video of the world's largest man dancing? The man who remains confined to his bed for all hours of the day, whose only exercise is when someone turns on the radio and he is able to slowly wiggle his upper body around? I bring this up not to belittle him, nor to make any direct comparisons between my situation and his, but at the same time I can honestly say that I've gotten a glimpse of what he must feel like (minus about 1000 pounds) in the past 24 hours. During that time I have been largely confined to my bed--we recently got rid of our couch and only have floor cushions in the living room, although Jordan did inflate our new deluxe air mattress (with headboard) so that I could watch tv in the living room--and have been rendered more or less immobile. Standing hurts. Walking hurts. Putting any weight whatsoever on the ball of my foot hurts.

Yesterday afternoon, growing weary of my situation, I decided it would be a nice diversion to head down to the pool for an hour or so. The pool in our complex is located roughly 100 yards from our building, and I figured it wouldn't be too much of an ordeal to hobble down there. Midway through what felt like a five-minute descent down our staircase (we live on the second floor), I encountered an older woman who lives on the floor below us. She has mobility problems and usually gets around with the aid of a walker, today being no exception. Naturally she noticed my unusual condition and asked what was wrong. Not wanting to get into all the details, I replied merely that I'd hurt my foot. With a look of genuine concern, she wished me well and then asked if I would like to borrow her extra walker.

Is it sad that by the time I'd dragged myself down to the pool a full five minutes later, I almost wanted to take her up on it?

Needless to say, the pool excursion was the extent of my activity for the day.

I continued my pity party on Sunday morning when Jordan rose early to join Caitlin and co. for her badass marathon simulation run. They absolutely rocked it and of course I was beyond jealous. Isn't that the irony? We runners spend so much time complaining about and dreading long runs and workouts, always yearning for a few more minutes under the covers or a Saturday night that doesn't involve a 9pm bedtime. Then as soon as we are granted--or forced--these very luxuries, we instantly want things to go back to the way they were before. Such was certainly the case today.

Fortunately, I have some great friends. Friends who forced me out of my funk by, well, invading my house. (To be fair, Jordan invited them.) I got a call from my dear boyfriend just as the long run had concluded, telling me that Caitlin, Billy and John were coming over for breakfast and asking that I clean the place up a bit. I surveyed the condition of the apartment, took mental note of my own condition (still in bed, still unable to walk) and asked him how much time I had. "Twenty minutes," he said in a tone that suggested it was a perfectly generous window. Thus I stepped down onto my good foot and commenced frantically trying to make things presentable.

And so, despite my precious mental and emotional state, the day ended up being a lot of fun. We had breakfast, we went to the pool, we went to dinner and some old-fashioned porch sitting at Denise's new place. Tyler even gifted me with his state-of-the-art walking boot, a souvenir from his own recent stress fracture. To say that all was right with the world today would be a bit of a stretch, but I certainly came away with a renewed appreciation for my friends. If I can't spend my time running, at least I'm able to spend it surrounded by people who love me even though I'm a gimp.