When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Life has handed me lemons.

My dogs started whining in the middle of the night.  I came downstairs to let them out.  Half asleep, I thought I was stepping my right foot on the floor, when in fact there were a couple more steps.  I landed on the outside of the foot and fell to the floor, fracturing my 5th metatarsal bone.

I am in an orthopedic boot for the next six weeks.  While I am permitted to bear weight on the foot, I am using crutches because bearing weight on the foot is simply too painful.

Needless to say, I cannot run, and I will not be running the Carlsbad Marathon on January 19 as I had planned.

I suppose I could throw myself a little pity party.  And I'll be honest, as I lay in the emergency room this morning while my foot was x-rayed and splinted, I cried.  No honestly I sobbed.  Not from the pain, but rather because my running is being taken away from me.

I choose to be more positive.  I am going to take a few days off from exercising.  Then I can swim.  I can't push off the wall with my right foot, but I can get in a good workout.  I can lift some weights.  I can aqua jog.  And I'm sure my personal trainer Corey will come up with some fun stuff like one-legged burpees to keep me in shape.

As much as I'd love to become the one-legged fitness wonder, Coach Gerardo asked me to take the rest of the week off from training.  That is to keep me from doing more damage.  He suggests that one can take up to 2 weeks off from training and not lose fitness.

This will be a challenge but I will get through it.  Maybe my body could use the rest.  The last time I was in an orthopedic boot and couldn't run was 8 years ago.  It was during that time that I began swimming and riding my bike.  Ultimately, when my foot healed, I put it all together and became.... a triathlete.  Which I am to this day.

I will take on this new challenge of not running.  I will listen to my coach.  I will rest as I should.  And, in the next six weeks, I am going to become an awesome swimmer.