Well ladies and gents, since last Tuesday I am the proud owner of a fantastic new addition to my shoe closet. Sadly, I can't actually put it away for at least three weeks. Maybe like 5. Can you guess what it is? I'll give you a hint: its big, black, and velcro. Yep. You guessed it. I am in a boot. And it is joyous. I'll tell you the story. But let me back up a little.
As I'm sure all you know, I am on the Bountiful High Cross Country team. I absolutely LOVE it. Love it so much!!!! For two reasons:
1) I have such a passion for running. When I run, I feel free. You don't even understand how running changes me. I don't need to go into detail, I have posted about it before. Basically, running is one of my favorite things to do, and I want to run all the time. When I'm happy, I want to run. When I'm sad and crying, I have to run. When I'm stressed, I run. When I'm angry, it's my anger management tool. Running means so much to me. I feel better when I run. I LOVE it. And cross country gives me an excuse to run harder and faster and longer. Every day of my life!!
Running is beautiful. Running is simple. Running is POWER.
2) I'm convinced that some of the best boys and girls at Bountiful High are on the cross country team. It is seriously such a stellar group of people. I laugh so dang hard every practice. As girls are hurled over wanting to puke, we make each other laugh. When we're so tired we just want to collapse, we somehow find something funny about the painful situation that just makes practice a blast. I honestly love my team so much. They make me want to be better, and they are SO inspiring. We work so hard, and each of us brings each other up. I cannot tell you how great so many of the people are. It definitely fills you with adrenaline when you run past your beloved teammates as they are screaming your name and telling you to run harder.
Well, I've worked my freaking BUTT off to be on that team. We started practicing and getting ready for races the first day of summer. I ran every day I could. From the start of summer to the end of summer, I ran over 265 counted miles. Thats a lot of running. Well then school started, and I committed myself to about 2 hours or so every day after school to run with my team. I have honestly worked so hard. And two weeks ago, all that brutal work finally paid off because...(drumroll please)..... I MADE THE VARSITY TEAM!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am/was the 6th best girl runner in our whole school. Do you know how happy that made me?! I was pretty much freaking stoked.
Let me repeat "all that brutal work finally paid off because...". Yeah well. I thought it paid off. But it turns out, with every mile I was running, my bone in my right shin was getting weaker and weaker. I could tell because every practice and race became more and more painful, but I shook it off because I didn't want to quit running. I was determined to run region and go to state with my team. My determination was the death of me. My leg finally got so bad, I couldn't even run a warm up. So, on Tuesday, I went to the doctor to get it checked out. And... I have a stress fracture. I can't run for the rest of the season. AND I AM DEVASTATED.
Seriously. Devastated. I think I have had a total of 5 meltdowns since Tuesday. You don't understand how badly I want to RUN!!!! I know I sound stupid and like a complainer. Yeah, go ahead and say it. I should just buck up. But man its killing me. I haven't run since last friday. That is like 9 days. I'm honestly going through withdraws. I feel like a lazy butt. And it is honestly making me super depressed. The other day I was crying and since I always run when I cry, I thought to myself, "Alright this is ridiculous. I'm going running." And then I realized I was crying because I CAN'T go running. And then I was even more upset. Haha. Its kind of funny in a really awful way. And now I'm just sitting at my computer. Looking out my window pitifully. Wishing I was out there. Feet pounding the pavement. I will NEVER EVER take my amazing body and its serious talent for granted again. The ability to run is such a beautiful gift. I'm so lucky and blessed to have it. I cannot wait until my leg heals so I can run again!! Ahhh!! :)
Well. That is my story. Thank you for letting me vent.
Stay healthy, kids. And drink your milk so you have strong bones and don't get stress fractures like me. YAY.
