By Daddy Clay Thursday, October 20th, 2011

Somehow, I’m on the track an hour before dawn, a thick neoprene sleeve on my lower left leg, a bulky knee brace on my right. My gate is somewhere between shambling and wince-inducing. I feel like a newbie, like I did almost three years and three thousand miles ago when I took up running again, heavy and puffing in my sweatband and grey hoodie.

About a month ago, my athletic legacy reappeared with a deep plastic-y crunch in my knee. At the time, I thought that was it, the Big One, the one I compulsively imagine over and over in graphic detail. The end of the line for me.

It was bad, but not the end. Since the re-injury, I’ve rehabbed in the pool and on the exercise bike on the brink of panic. With all else going on in my life, I need to run. I am almost driven to distraction with worry because it feels like nothing else will do. (Who’s got two grand for a bike? And I abhor the pool.) Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: communication, fathers, healing, injury, insight, magic, owls, parenting, running, sons, teens
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