Broken Finger June 21, 2011

A girl was obnoxious and all in my face at a Cubbie Bear in Wrigley. I was sober and she was a mess. I had enough of her and we ended up in a fight. I walked away with just a broken index finger from a sloppy left hook. She's dead.

K that's a lie.

What really happened was Tuesday night I was running on the lakefront path near Fullerton by the small river where people canoe. I had a shiny package of shot blocks in my hand when a goose the size of a dinosaur attacked my hand! The goose is now dead.

K- also a lie.

I need help thinking of other good stories because people always ask you "what happened to your finger?" (Thanks Tom and company for all the "bucking bronco" jokes, but we'll keep it clean ;)!

What REALLY happened was Tuesday night I was ending my cool down on the track on Chicago Avenue near the lake behind the CMA- There are always softball teams playing on the field inside of the track. I was walking, watching the game- saw the whole play- pitch, a hit down straight to the shortstop- shortstop to first, runner out at first, first baseman attempting to out the runner on third- TOTALLY overthrew the ball right toward me. NOT thinking I put out my left hand to catch / swat the 16 inch softball. I don't play team sports- maybe ultimate frisbee and volleyball- but every team sport I've joined, I've been awful at. Flag football I caught the ball with my face, and was all around a mess. I don't play team sports- especially not softball.

Dislocated and broken. The guys felt bad, huddled around me, gave me ice and put me in a cab to Northwestern's ER. Daryl came to bring me Chipotle and keep me company :) MUCH appreciated.

When it happened, out of nowhere, Lynn runs up to me (she was on the track too- I didn't know it) and made a joke about not trying to catch softballs- the first thing out of my mouth was "Shit, how the hell am I supposed to swim now?" or bike? My main concern (not so much that my finger was a weird shape of skin and bone and all sorts of colors)

Well you can swim and bike with a broken finger.

The biking has been harder than the swimming. The first week- I had it in a splint- from the ER- after my appointment with the Hand surgeon, the buddy taped me, waiting now for a follow up appointment and an appointment with the physical therapist to avoid it stiffening up.

The first weekend, had to ride indoors (yuck) but got ride in- I was able to swim by taking splint off and buddy taping it and keeping a paddle on to protect it. I was pretty cautious about it and didn't try to push it.

The second week of having it in the buddy tape, I've been able to swim almost without noticing it, still kinda hurts when I swim.

Did a long ride which was tricky, holding on the aerobars or drinking and staying stable were all challenges, not to mention that with every bump, it would hurt, so Racine was less than an ideal route- but oh well- needed to get the ride in. I'm very hopeful that by the time Racine comes next weekend (July 17) I'll barely notice it? The doc said 6-8 weeks but maybe I really do have mutant healing powers like Wolverine and it will be back to normal in no time :)

(4th of July finger)

I haven't really told many people because don't want to use it as an excuse. If my next race is bad, I don't want it to be "Well, you had a broken finger" Nope, it's only a finger. If I bonk it's because of me. (Working on my positive thinking, but part of me always thinks I'm going to do much worse than I really do- especially lately- race / performance confidence WAY down- ugh) I'm going to cross that Ironman finish line- it may very well be next year. That would mean another year and summer of training, hopefully it would be easier the second time around- but if I do cross this year, sticking to 70.3s!! Maybe some destination 70.3s......