johnnyhongkong says…

On Saturday, I went out for a little 5K run on my normal route from our apartment in WeHo to La Cienega and back.

As I was nearing the last 3/4 mile, I noticed a guy walking ahead of me having just left a garage sale. He was carrying a VCR, talking on his cell phone, and was wearing a shirt that said, “Hawaii starts here” on the back. As I contemplated what this could have meant, I suddenly found myself in the air, horizontal to the concrete.

The thoughts came really quickly:

“Hawaii starts hhh…you can save yourself…Naw, dude, you’re going to scrub…fucking old running shoes…whee, flying! Shit - face plant.”

JHK meet concrete.

My right leg had swung out to the side and was wedged in between the wheel of a parked Jeep Cherokee and the curb. This prevented me from quickly getting up and running away. Precious seconds were being wasted as I could not get up and run away, which would have saved myself from the indignity of having to acknowledge that I had totally, without question or malicious provocation, scrubbed.

The guy wearing the T-shirt spun around and said, “HOLY SMOKES. ARE YOU OKAY?”

I finally got my ankle free, stood up, nodded at him and started running. He looked at me incredulously, “MAN, ARE YOU OKAY???!!” His concern gave me pause because it suddenly occurred to me that I might have a bone sticking out of my leg and that I just didn’t notice from the endorphins. I did a quick self check, saw that I was fine and continued my run, finishing in the neighborhood of my normal time, about 26 minutes.

Once home and the endorphins (and embarassment) wore off, it became clear that I broke my fall with my left knee (scrapped) and right wrist which I had sprained about five weeks ago and had only recently started healing. While Mary Milan has been applying Neosporin to the scrape, the wrist is probably re-sprained at best and cracked at worst. After a day of rest, ice and eating Advil like candy, I’m going to the doctor to get it checked out. Keep your fingers crossed because I can hardly do it without pain.

Ugh…