Back in February Dallas had the biggest snow fall ever recorded.  It was crazy!  The city shut down for two days, and turned into a winter wonderland.  Of course with snow you have snowmen being built in almost every yard or open field.  Everyone wanted to get in on the action, and that included me.

Snowday 2010

During these two snow days I built and rebuilt snowmen and snowwomen.  If you need to know what the difference is, then you may wanna go have “the talk” with your parents.  I rolled up snowballs and stacked them as high as possible.  Who knew that giant orbs of the white fluffy stuff could be so HEAVY??  I rolled, pushed, and grunted my way through the yard making the biggest spheres possible!  With all that heavy lifting, in the freezing temperature, came the back spasms; those little or big knots in the muscle that feel like stones under the skin. I had a good one in my middle back, but I managed to tune it out for the most part.

THAT was my biggest mistake.

A couple of days later, when the pavement was drying up, I went out for my usual lunchtime walk.  I was walking pretty fast at this point, and even had thrown in a few sprints in the back of the property at work.   I walked my usual route, and did some stretching along the way.    I got a little over-confident and started to do my sprints.  The first one I got about 50 feet before I felt AND heard a tear in my back!   I almost fainted.  I could not even walk without this hellacious pain in my back.  Bad thing was, I had to walk back about 1/2 mile to my office.  It was the most painful walk ever.

That decision sidelined me for weeks.  I ended up at a Sports Medicine clinic, and in physical therapy.  One good thing that did come out of it, was that I was introduced to Larry my Pedorthist, and that I ended up with my Supershoes!

From that day forward, I have listened to my body more than my stubbornness.  I still push the limit a tiny bit, but know when it’s best to wave the white flag for a couple of days.

My white flag… today I am waving it.  I may wave it tomorrow, but at least I know I will be back on my feet running again sooner than I would be if I were to get out and run right now.

That experience keeps me sane in times like this.