The String!

A sarcastic writer once wrote that a running career is a connection of injuries and illness strung together with short periods of running. Now, in 36 years of running, I have covered over 100 thousand kilometers, so there had to be some long periods of continuous running. It seemed that at the beginning and of late, the interruptions were more common, and the running periods shorter. 3 uninterrupted months now seems much more common. Now, in those 36 years, I have battled exercised induced asthma, four back surgeries, surgeries on both feet, a broken right ankle on both sides, and a knee fracture. Beyond that, there have been hundreds of muscle pulls, strains, tendon and ligament issues, and a plethora of things that just hurt. Whenever I get an xray now, the doctor says, "did you ever fall or fracture (insert body part)"? Yes, I have eaten dirt or pavement at least once yearly in those 36 years. After coming home from getting deb's stitches out on Tuesday, I started to get a bad case of the flu, and spent the day today wheezing, coughing, and eating aspirin and throat lozenges. So, the string analogy is as follows....every time one of these events occurs, it is like breaking the string and tying a knot in it. Now, over time, the knots get so plentiful, that the weakened string looks more like a knot ball, gets continually shorter, and if you start to use your brains spacial perceptions, you begin to realize that you are getting to a place where the string that is left is getting too short and frayed to be able to be knotted. Hhmmnnnn.....that time seems to be getting very close........