I'm a runner.  For the past few years, I have been enjoying early morning runs.  When I say early morning, I'm talking 4:30 or 5:00.  Yes it's dark, but since there are so few cars on the road and I can see their headlights from quite a distance away, I have found that I can feel safe running right in the middle of the road and relying moonlight.  This plan has worked flawlessly hundreds of times.  Then there was Monday.

I was 7 miles into a 10 miler when a car started coming towards me.  I moved to the left shoulder of the road but didn't slow down.  Then it hit me.  Not the car, thank goodness.  No it was a branch sticking out into the bike lane.  I didn't see it coming so I didn't flinch or close my eye.  I just hit it head on with an open eye.  After curling up in a ball on the side of the road for a few minutes, I got up and ran home so my wife could take me to the ER.  I learned a few things this week:

1. When you are running in the dark and you see a car driving towards you, just stop and get out of the way.  Yes, this will knock a few seconds off your pace but it'll be better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.
2. When you are running in the dark, carry a cell phone.  This way, if something tragic does happen, you can call for a ride instead of having to run 3 miles home while blotting blood off your face and wondering exactly where that blood is coming from.
3. When the guy taking your info at the ER asks "On a scale of one to ten, how bad is the pain?" he wants you to give him a number.  I responded with "Well, it's pretty bad but I guess it could be a lot worse." I wasn't thinking straight and he let me know that by rolling his eyes and repeating "On a scale of one to ten…"
4. Don't bring your kids to the Emergency Room.  After a few eye tests and a CT Scan, I was in the ER waiting room when my wife showed up with our two youngest kids.  I was delighted to see them but the looks we received from other patients made it clear that others weren't as excited to have a 3 year old and a 1 year old running around the waiting room.  They left quickly.
5. Neon yellow snot isn't necessarily reason for alarm.  It turns out that certain eye drops will do this to you (or so I was told after a frantic call to the doctor).
6. Having a big puffy eye can be socially awkward.  You can either ease the awkwardness by explaining what happened or enhance the awkwardness by responding to the quizzical looks with "What? Do I have something on my face?"