7:09am.....8 miles in 1:03:38.....7:57 pace.

Noon.......5.1 miles in 40:03.....7:51 pace.

13.1 miles for the day.

MTD= 342.3
YTD= 683.4
LTD= 69,024.0

24 years ago today I had a hiking accident that ended a 542 day running streak.....a broken ankle...broken finger....200 stitches in my head and two days in the hospital.....this little story is buried way back in the blog in 2006......to sum up....I decided one AM it was a good day to go hike by myself up the side of a mountain....and I mean the mountain....no trail.....what goes up......must come down...took my about an hour to get up the side of this thing.....when I looked down.....I realized it was very steep.......I started a very slow trip down.....until I hit some loose ground and I started to slide.......very fast.......I slid until I actually went upright and then head first into some very large rocks....I recall my head feeling like a basketball bing dribbled on the rocks....when I was done falling......I sat up.....and the blood gushed out of my head.......I knew I was hurt pretty bad and for a very brief moment......I was very scared because I was only about half way down the hill and if I fell again......I was not going to be getting back up......anyway it took about another 30 minutes to slowly get to my car......later I found out that one ankle was broke and the other was sprained......also the right ring finger was broke.....that was the only thing that hit the rocks before my head........I got in my car and in my very dazed state I thought I would just drive home and clean myself up....well......I started driving down the mountain and after about a mile I realized I was driving up the mountian....ever try to drive with one broken ankle and the other sprained?
After I turned the car around I drove for a few more miles and decided I was not going to make it home.....I stopped at a cabin and knocked on the door and asked the lady to call an ambulance for me.....she did and it came and I went with them.....LOL.....they thought I had been in a car accident.......I got to the hospital and it just happned that my grandmother was in the same hospital....so my dear mom was already there....they cut off my pants.......last thing I remember was them sticking big needles in my head so they could start sewing....I had several deep gashes to the skull....lucky for me it was under my gorgous mane......that would be shaved off..........long story short.......I lived and found out I was a better runner then a hiker.

It did have a negative impact on my running....hard to run with a cast on.....oh...I did try.....after about 3 weeks......made about a 1/10th mile before I gave up.

It did end my first decent running streak at 542 days.

At the time was doing 10 miles a day and had run my first marathon 6 weeks prior in 3;03:03.

I would say it took me about a full 6 years to get my running back to the level I wanted....oh I put in thousands of miles from 1984 on.......about 1,600 in '87......2,000 in '88 and 2,100 in '89.....but it all started to feel right again in 1990........so that is my leap day story.