My leg hurts, a little.

I was in the middle of writing a post about all the things that happened this weekend (which I will finish soon), but I got tired of tapping away on the iPad and really the event this weekend that had the most serious effect on me happened at the end.

I got injured. Not a running injury, but an injury while running.... I got bit by a dog.

I know. How could this happen? I'm sure everyone is afraid of it, but (luckily) it hardly ever happens. (Because most people in the world don't own vicious dogs, that they allow to roam loose, and attack innocent bypassers. I'm just saying.)

I was running out to my parents' house on Sunday morning, and I was less than half a mile away, when a medium-sized brown dog (pit bull-like) came running down a driveway, crossed the road, bit me in the back of my leg above the knee, and ran back. It's a pretty busy road but there were no cars around at the time...not even the local police that often cruise around trying to nab speeders.

I stood there and shrieked a little, for a moment, then I finished the run. Actually I added about a tenth of a mile at the end to get up to my distance goal (12.7 miles). I could feel the bit throbbing a little. Blood was running down my leg, but not gushing.

Then I went and rang my parents' doorbell (I didn't want to go into the house bleeding without warning them) and my mom came to the door.

From there I rinsed off the blood in the shower and my mom looked at the wound (I couldn't see it well because it's the back of my leg). There were two medium-small punctures (teeth) and a few smaller scrapes.  I really did not want to go to the walk-in clinic or emergency room. Plus I didn't even have my insurance card or driver's license with me. So I called the Group Health consulting nurse (they were able to look up my number) and asked what to do.

She agreed that I wouldn't necessarily have to come in if I rinsed it well and bandaged it with antibiotic cream. She also told me I couldn't run for two days. That bothered me at the time, but I was still under the effects of endorphins (from the run) and adrenaline (from the injury) and didn't yet feel the discomfort I would feel later (running was not tempting). I also couldn't go swimming, which was really disappointing! It was the hottest day of the year and we had big plans for swimming at the beach.

I started out with bandaids but throughout the day they kept falling off. It was a combination of me moving around making them unstick and also that the wounds kept seeping blood and fluid. Not a gusher or anything, but it soaked the bandaid then it loosened up and so forth. I made it through the day with bandaids then ended up with a gauze pad and tape in the evening.

That was Sunday. Today is Tuesday and I haven't run yet (Monday and Tuesday were my two days off). I didn't try to go cross train or anything because I figured that any kind of leg work would be problematic. I regretted not having a weight training routine because I could have gone and done upper body stuff...but this was probably not the time to start.

The back of my leg at the injury site is still definitely sore, but I think it's getting better. It's complicated because my legs (quads) are also quite sore from trail running, so that makes it hard to judge what body pain is solely from the dog bite! Yesterday I was pretty much crippled and limping. Today I am stiff and store whenever I get up from sitting or not moving, but once I walk around I'm better.

I want to try running tomorrow. I'm so worried that it will be painful and awkward (the DOMS from the weekend will still be a factor, as well). I've run with pain before--my knees were bruised and scraped when I set out on Sunday morning--but usually it fades to mild discomfort once I get warmed up. Hopefully that will be the case here too.

I'm trying to tell myself that this won't be a major damper on my training. Even missing a few days this week will be no worse than a taper. Luckily this is a cutback week anyway (last week was high mileage), and if I run four days instead of five (which is the best case scenario), or even only three days, it's fine.

I'm continuing to consider today a full rest day and tomorrow I'll try to get back on track with an easy run (Wednesday speed work will have to wait a week). 

I guess I'll have to think twice about running to my parents' house anymore. I've already been contemplating an alternate route where my mom meets me at Starbucks instead....