While I know better than to be superstitious, I somehow believe in the curse of Springtime. Here is the tale of the curse.
One of the premiere races of Tallahassee is the Springtime 10K. It is part of the larger Springtime Tallahassee events (or rather, the events are part of the 10K-we runners think we run the world). Every year I have had something bad happen right before or during the race. Some examples: one year I had a horrible sinus infection. Another year I pulled a muscle. First time. Ever. Yet another year I was kicking the kickstand of my Yamaha, slipped and fell-thus injuring my back.
So, what dire curse befell me this year? The worst ever. My skylight started leaking, so I (stupidly) went up to fix it. When I was coming down, the ladder just shot out from under me. I landed badly and did horrible things to my left knee. Weirdly, I took the main impact on my right leg-which was just fine. Of course, my left knee has been injured several times (including a few pre-Springtime injuries).
Fortunately, the X-rays (first time getting non-dental X-rays in my life) showed nothing broken. My knee is swollen up and the doctor prescribed some nifty pain killers. I did get the prescription filled, but will most likely do what I always do with pain meds-let it sit in the cabinet until it expires. Why do I even bother getting them filled? Well, I figure that if my pain tolerance should suddenly be overcome (normally it is set at “death”, but perhaps something less than death can break it) I’d want some drugs on hand…so I can run through the pain.
I really shouldn’t try running for a while, let alone racing. But, I am crazy as hell in regards to running. But, I’m a bit less crazy than I used to be-so if my knee isn’t working Saturday, I won’t be racing. That would make me…sad.
Now some philosophy: yeah, there really is no curse of Springtime. I just do stupid stuff and it really sticks out in my mind when I have a big race. I have bad stuff happen at other times, but don’t attribute it to any curse.
But, it makes for a good story. Weirdly, it gets better each year-something bad always happens right before Springtime. Now, let me add a bit more-it almost always happens on a Thursday. Spooky stuff.