Reality Check

Every Thanksgiving since 1999, I've been at the start line of the Run to Feed the Hungry in Sacramento. Over those years, the race has grown from 8,000 to more than 30,000 and is now Sacramento's largest road race. It's a great Thanksgiving tradition for me - one that to give up, you're going to have to dangle something better than a 'Round the World ticket. Actually, I don't really know WHAT you could dangle in front of me to give it up.

This was the first year in the last 10 that I wasn't at the start line on Thursday morning. I didn't run with the masses down J Street. I didn't see the people playing football in McKinley Park. (Sidebar - a few years back, my cousin Mark, in a beer bottle costume, ran off-course, into the game, caught a pass, scored a touchdown and came back to the race. The whole thing was played out in slow motion, just like out of a sitcom.) And I didn't get to taste that long straight-away down Elvas Blvd for the last two miles.

Instead, I kissed Mike and Campbell good-bye in the starting corral and hobbled my way past the start to get a good photo. To say I was a bit emotional is an understatement. As I write this, I'm still pretty devastated that I didn't get to run this year. And as you might be able to guess, I'm not exactly handling being broken all that well.

Mike and Campbell at the start:


And coming in for the finish:


On the upside - I'm no longer in a big, huge, full-leg brace and have "graduated" to a shorter brace. I'm still swollen and a bit bruised though. On Tuesday 11/24, the nurse took out my stitches.



Doctor then told me that I should be working heavily on range-of-motion (ROM) now - and to start physical therapy on Monday 11/30.

While I was in Sacramento, Mike and I went to the gym - me to work on the bike, Mike to work out. In 20 minutes on the bike, I completed the same amount of revolutions as I normally would in about three minutes. It was tough to straighten and even tougher to bend on every revolution. And it - for lack of a better word - sucked being the one person in the entire gym who could barely ride the bike. Long way to go.

But all that being said, I've been walking well without crutches and hope to "graduate" to driving again soon.