Faceplant

It's happened again - I fell while running. And this time it's a doozy. I scraped up both hands and both knees, got a bit of road rash on my stomach, bruised my hip and knocked my chin on the pavement. Usually when I fall, I manage to roll off to one side, but this time I went flat on my stomach.

I blame the fall on my stiff neck, which I got as a result of inner-tubing behind the boat this weekend. Ella and I were on the tube together when B decided he needed to whip across the wake really fast. I lost my grip first and went flying. Julia said I did at least one somersault, but it felt more like three. Ella went flying, too, and when I popped up she was floating beside me with big, scared eyes. That night something in my neck popped and I've been sore and stiff ever since. It hurts to look down, so I wasn't watching my footing while running like I usually do. I have no idea what it was I tripped over: It could have been an ant.

Despite the bangs and scrapes, I was more worried about my glasses and my iPod, which were both tucked in the waist of my shorts. Fortunately both survived without injury.

I'm already worried about my left knee. The knee cap has already turned purple and started to swell beneath the cuts. It would be just my luck to have done some real damage this time around. I just can't seem to catch a break with running this summer.

Lily seems to have to inherited my lack of land-based coordination. Her poor knees and shins are a mess of bruises and scrapes from her many falls. Last week she wiped out at the Central Market playground and came over crying and bleeding. Once B cleaned her up, we realized that she didn't have a new injury - she had just ripped the scab off an old one.

Most of the time Lily pops right up after she falls and shouts, "I'm OK!" I would have liked to have done that this morning, but instead I just sat on the sidewalk, using my bandana to wipe off the blood and muttering miserably about how much I hate running right now.