A friend and I ran along in the brisk dark this morning, chatting about whatever came to mind when a slow-moving, suspicious-looking van that turned around inspired the conversation to turn to the hazards of running alone and why it's good to run with a friend -- not just for safety from weirdos in weird vans, but in case you ended up getting injured and needed help.

"Yeah, you know Dave was just telling me about the time he was running and he stepped in a pothole and twisted...."

Bam...speak of the devil... I fell off the edge of the road, turned an ankle and skidded down the pavement on my right side. God. That. Hurt.

My running partner managed to avoid trampling me as I went down -- and probably injured himself in the process. He helped me up and we walked (limped) the last 1/2 mile home. I thought my ankle was the worst of the injuries and that I'd be down a day with some swelling -- no biggie.

But, then I peeled off the layers of clothes to shower and realized I ripped up my right palm pretty good and even had some road rash on my right knee.

Wait? If I've got blood on my knee, what happened to my tights. Sure enough, there's a hole. A hole in my $50 winter running tights.

Damn.

Of all the injuries from this morning's little spill, the hole in my tights hurts the most. I can handle bloody palms, bruises to my ego, gravel in my kneecaps, but...ruining a brand new pair of winter tights on the morning of the first real frost....that will be hard to recover from.