The change of seasons is upon us

I love spring.

I really love it.

Spring doesn't always love me, but I will always love it.

When the first signs start to appear, I get so excited that winter is almost done.  My feelings towards winter are about the exact opposite of my love for spring.  But I digress...

My runs lately have been much more appealing because of all the blooms I keep finding. 

Today was just absolutely gorgeous.  I turned off the heater, opened all the windows, and put on my shorts.

I was so excited about everything, that today I brought along my camera for the ride run. 

Quite literally.

I love living in Georgia.  It's such a nice change from the barren flat lands known as central Illinois.  Here we have trees and elevation changes.  In Illinois, you can see for miles and miles because the land is so flat.  You can see for miles and miles here, too, but only if you're on top of a hill.

The hills and I have a love/hate relationship.  I love that there are hills all around us, but I really hate running on them.  Hills are not my friend.  We've slowly learned to tolerate each other, but it's taken a long time. 

Hills like this are not uncommon. 

I've just learned to limit my time on them.

I've also learned how to create routes that end up on the trail.

I can get a break from the hills and enjoy all the beautiful trees.

I've made friends with the neighborhood pup.

Is it really considered friends if she barks at me while I run by?

I finish my run and take a moment to get a great shot of dogwood blooms in the sun.

But wait, there's more!

I'm so busy walking and taking this picture that I don't notice the manhole that was inconveniently left open in the ground.

Notice the word "LOCK"?  It was definitely not locked.  Notice my leg?  There are definitely scratches on it.

Why, you ask?

Because while I was taking the beautiful shot of the tree blooms, my leg went straight down into the manhole. 

And down I went with it!

My camera broke, my water bottle flung out of my hand, and I had to drag my legs out of the hole.

Luckily (or maybe unluckily?) no one was around to see me.  It took a few minutes for me to comprehend what just happened as I sat there in shock.

So what did I do?  I remembered I had a camera on Phillip's old phone that I use as a stopwatch, and I took a picture of the scene.  A bit blurry, but I was shaking a bit.

I managed to pick myself up along with all my flung belongings, and start walking - up the hill I may add - back home.

I call Phillip.  "You know how I tend to hurt myself when I go running?"

Enter Injury #5. 

WARNING:  I'm a bloody mess.

Not only was my right shin cut and bleeding pretty good, it swelled up at least an inch off my bone.  And notice that the inside of my left knee is all scratched up.

Scratches starting from the outside of my upper left thigh to across and down the inside of my left knee.  It's all swollen just above where you can't see in the picture.

I'm going to have a massive bruise.

And finally, just a scratch (hah!) on my elbow.  I discovered that it's really difficult taking a picture of your elbow with a phone.

All I could do was laugh. 

I mean, really. 

I've hurt myself pretty good on these runs before, but this sure tops them all. 

But seriously, please let this be the worse thing I do to myself.