Before my marathon a co-worker asked if I would like to play “indoor softball”.  Since I played on the summer work team (outside mind you) I thought this would be another good way to uh…mix things up.  Now the only sports I’ve ever played “indoors” is basketball and volleyball.  So nothing could have prepared me for the evil, known as indoor “softball”.  Ladies and Gents…let me be the first to tell you, softball wasn’t meant to be played indoors.  Oh no, no, no! 

I enter the indoor facility to find a walled area with a net enclosing the “field” and AstroTurf.  So, I’m looking at this and think okay, this is different but let’s see where this goes.  My co-worker friend comes up to me and starts explaining the “rules” which were as follows:

1.  You can play it off the net ~ what?

2.  If you hit the wall where it says homerun, well that’s a home run ~ okay.

3.  When you run to first base you can over shoot it as long as you stay between the wall and the red line ~ there’s about 8 inches of space:\

4.  Oh and it’s hard to get use to the AstroTurf ~ no kidding.

Oh AstroTurf, how do I hate thee…let me count the ways.  When I stepped on to the “field” I noticed the bounce.  Oohh this is kind of neat.  I started frolicking around like some pony in the meadow.  Wow, can you imagine running on this stuff for a long distance I exclaimed.  This would be so easy on my…wait for it….knees!

The game begins and I do something called take a base ~ I have no idea what I did but I was able to get on base without hitting ~ sorry some strange rule and it wasn’t a “walk” either ~ whatever.  The ball is hit…I’m off to second.  As I approached second I began to stop.  I stopped alright.  Did I mention AstroTurf will decide when you stop?  Since I’ve never run on AstroTurf when my legs stopped, I stopped and I fell only to stop the fall with my knees.  Both knees.  I look down at the damage, okay not too bad but not good either.  I’m safe!  The ball is hit again, I run out to third.  Now third base is about 3 inches from the wall.  Oh, did I mention you can’t slide on AstroTurf?  I didn’t…well let me tell you, there is no sliding on AstroTurf.  No sir.  What the heck was I thinking?  You guessed it, I wasn’t thinking.  The two small knee burns are now two full blown HOLY MOLY, what the He**, that’s going to hurt in the morning, yes it is.

I’ll survive.  So last week and this week have been semi-regulated to elliptical, treadmill and outside.

Sun ~ Rest

Mon ~ 3.43 miles treadmill run

Tues ~ 2 miles elliptical

Wed ~ Fri ~ Rest

Sat ~ 4.08 miles outside run

Total for the week = 9.51 Miles.  Here’s to laughing at every mile ~ 10,386.19 remaining.