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Road rash #TheRunningWriter


Road rash

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When I was in undergrad, I didn’t have a car, so I rollerbladed or biked everywhere. I loved rollerblading, and I rarely fell.

Until one hot summer day.

It must have been pushing 95 degrees on a mid-summer, Minnesota day. Me and a friend were out in a parking lot goofing around because the asphalt was fairly new. So that meant smooth skating.

It was a blast. We got going so fast, which was what I loved since I’m a bit of a speed junky.

Well, my wheels slid right out from under me and bam…I was down, sliding across the steaming hot asphalt.

And yep, I was wearing shorts.

Needless to say, I left a lot of skin on that new asphalt. And being two dumb kids, away from home, we didn’t really know what to do. So my buddy says, “Just put some rubbing alcohol on it so it doesn’t get infected.”

Yeah. You read right. Rubbing alcohol.

I still have nightmares about the pain of that, and I figured out it was the wrong stuff to use before I covered the entire wound with it.

I ended up in the ER a few days later because it got so infected….it was a big scary mess.

It sure taught me a lot, though. And since I’m still pretty active and a little on the crazy side, that knowledge has come in handy quite a few times.

It’s like that with everything in life. We go through it, we survive. It might have been an ugly process, super painful and really scary, but we grew. We gained strength and knowledge because of it.

So take those road rash incidents and wear the scars proudly, because you survived them. You are strong. You are brave. You are capable.

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NYT & USA Today Bestseller & ultra-runner known as #TheRunningWriter. Agents: Joyce Sweeney & Nicole Resciniti of The Seymour Agency.