Inconvenient bump in the road, I mean pothole.

See that little pothole above this caption?  It was covered by a puddle.  I jumped the puddle and put my right foot right into the pothole, rolling my ankle in very hard.  In a split second, I managed to bruise both my knees and an elbow, twist my ankle, get wet from the waist down (puddle, not pee), and induce severe mental stress.

Wednesday evening, I thought I was being so graceful, leaping the puddle.  It was not to be.  I looked like an idiot.  I was on my hands and knees next to the highway screaming profanities.  Yes, I twisted my ankle, hard.  I was nauseous and dizzy when I stood up after the fall.  I was so out of it, I didn't even realize I had hydrocortisone with me.

Kitty gave me a ride home and helped me into my house.  When I got into the house, I took 20 mg of HC.  Freaking out, I had my husband drive me to the hospital for an X-Ray.  I needed to know if my Morocco trip on March 29 was to be or not to be!  The ankle hurt very badly and my brain hurt worse.  I think the mental pain was worse than the physical.

The bruising about an hour after the twist

While in the hospital, I got no pain killers and the service was slow (it was busy).  I got no painkillers but didn't really need them after about 3 hours.  I texted Ashley who did my thinking for me, I needed to know if I needed more HC.  She told me to take 50 mg.  I took another 20 mg immediately getting my post injury intake up to 40 mg.  I felt comfortable with that.  Luckily the PA on duty, Lis, at our small hospital is really athletic and knows about MdS.  She was very sympathetic about my mental pain.  She said all the right things to me, that it wasn't broken and it would be well enough to run on by the April 3 start of the race.  She got me in with Dr. Brown at 11 am the next morning.

Thursday morning before my appointment with Dr. Brown I contacted Dan at Streubel Physical Therapy.  He got back to me immediately and Sharon got me in to see Marijke right after my appointment with Dr. Brown.  Sometimes living in a small town is so satisfying!!!!!!  I got great care from start to finish with this whole debacle.  All of them were so compassionate, including Sharon the receptionist/massage therapist at Dan's office.  They all are athletic enough to know what a big deal MdS is to me.  I doubled my steroids all day on Thursday.

The UNBROKEN ANKLE

Marijke's expert taping job to help with the swelling.

I used these tissues on Thursday.  Thursday was a tough day.

Friday I took an extra 10 of HC.  Today, Saturday, I might take 5 mg later.  I can feel the fatigue setting in.

Any how, the verdict overall is that I will be fine.  I have enough time to heal.  It doesn't hurt so much as ache and feel swollen (as it is).  I'm RICEing it.  Dr. Brown told me that I could walk my mile on it so my streak is not over!!!

I am feeling quite a bit of fatigue.  Very disproportionate to the severity of the injury.  I think I'm going to start an aggressive core and upper body workout program.  I might be able to ride a recumbent bike if my ass can handle it, the ass falls asleep on the recumbent.  I think exercise does more for me than keep me in shape, I think it fights some fatigue!  The ankle is bruised on both sides today and gross looking.  The pain is not bad but I don't feel like running on it or even walking much.  I'm going to take this time to get bills paid, schedule the next two weeks and take care of business so I can run in three weeks!

If you're wondering why I went into so much detail here about meds, how I feel and what I've been doing the last three days, it's more for my records than yours.  This is the only consistent diary I've got and I'm taking advantage of it. :)

Thanks, snow, skijoring and more snow, some MdS

Wolf tracks?

Huge stride!

Well, I'm going to lead off this post with thanks.  Thanks to all of the wonderful people who are sharing bits of themselves with me to take to MdS!  The charms and beads I have received are WONDERFUL!!!  I will post a picture of the completed necklace before I leave.  By the way, I fly out of Jackson, Wyoming on March 29th and arrive in Ouazazarte, Morocco on March 30th.  If you want to send me a bead or charm that I will put on a necklace and wear during the race, send it to  Dusty Hardman, 7302 Lakeside Rd, Victor, ID 83455.  In the last post, I didn't put my address.  It's easier for me to just post my address here.

What a mess.

MdS preparations are coming along slowly but surely.  I've made a mess of a spot in the living room and I'm at a little bit of a stand still with packing food.  It will all come along in time!  I've got 19 days to pull it all together.  I will try to do a post on international travel, medications and paperwork that you should have.

Back to the pictures...

One of two eagles I saw on Saturday.  I love large birds.

Taken through a telescope with my camera.  It's a trumpeter swan.

My dog being weird.  Why is she sleeping under the coffee table???

Now on to the skijoring...

Seriously, there was a skijoring competition in Victor last weekend.  It was highly entertaining.  Video of skijoring below.

Random picture.  I like the idea of no pavement.

Jason, this one's for you.  I DO live in redneck country!

A weird sight.  I looked over White Bridge into the beautiful Teton River and what did I see?  Frosty the snowman was waving at me.

Here's the part where I whine about the snow...

Over on the west side of the valley, there's SO MUCH snow!!

The 500 gallon propane tank is nowhere to be seen.

Somehow when I was editing this picture, I transposed the picture.  What is says is that there is 2.75 feet of snow in my front yard, much less than in the back.  In the picture above of the propane tank, the snow is about four feet deep.

Out on 650 South, the wind kicked up and snow started blowing.

Beads, Berbers and Blizzards

On my long run last Sunday, I tried to pretend that I was running in the desert.  This is what it looked like in my mind.  My Photoshop skills stink.

Reality was a vast expanse of snow and wind.

With 28 days until I leave for Marathon des Sables, training is winding down and preparation is getting into gear (ha, pun intended!).  I have a little bit more time now than I have in the last five weeks.  Whew!  There's lots of packing to do, things to buy and logistics to put into my brain.

What I'd like to do is wear a necklace with beads or other small objects from friends and Addisonians.  I'd like to take a little piece of each of you into the Sahara Desert.  It doesn't have to be new or fancy or even a bead, just something really small (under 1 inch) and that won't tickle (like hairy).  If you are interested in sending me something, email me at my regular email address or contact@addisonssupport.com so I can give you my address.  If you need a couple of bucks for postage, I will be happy to send you a small prepaid envelope.

So far, I have a square pearl from Leigh and parts from a bracelet that Nancy gave me (sorry Nance, I didn't take it off after you gave it to me and I wore it out!).

Berbers - I thought I needed some clever alliteration in the title!  There will be Berbers at Marathon des Sable!  They will be transporting and setting up tents.  Want to see a cool video about MdS?  Here you go.

Blizzard - last Sunday I did my long run.  The morning started out nice enough with no breeze and fluffy ankle deep snow.  It was gorgeous!

Pretending the snow is sand.

Stopped at the coffee shop to warm up and get some espresso.   Because I'm so dang slow, I don't mind taking pictures, drinking coffee and looking around on runs.  Heck, I'm not going to win so why don't I enjoy the hell out of it.

I had to take a picture of this poor horse.  He's the ugliest paint I've EVER seen!

About 25 miles in, I was alternately slipping on ice and tripping over drifts.  I don't know if you can tell from this picture, it was nearly a white out at times.  I'm smiling because I was laughing so hard at what a crazy person I was.  The wind was blowing SO HARD.  At this point I though, I could have Paul pick me up.  Oh, no, he can't the drifts are too big and the car can't get through!!

By the time I got home, the sun had momentarily come out, the drifts in our yard were 4 - 5 feet high!  That's a 500 gallon propane tank.  You can't tell there's a 3 foot high deck under about half of the picture and several lilac bushes half way!