Is it really December?

Goodness! Is it really December?
I started this blog back in June and here it is the end of the year.
I know I have written a lot about running and gardening -- oh, and that brief affair with Leo Tolstoy!
But running and gardening have taken up a lot of this year.
Just today I have been online searching for probable 5K races I'm going to do in 2012. I've even been looking at various Komen Race for the Cure 5K races in other states to continue my effort to run or walk a 5K in all 50 states.
And I've even pulled up the Web site for the Gate River Run 15K in Jacksonville, Fla.
A little explanation...
I started becoming a "serious" runner while I lived in Jacksonville, about 10 to 12 years ago, and the Gate River Run is THE race in Jacksonville. It's 9.3 miles on a relatively flat course.
Flat, except for the two bridges on the course. The Main Street bridge (which is not its real name, but for the life of me I can't remember it's real name at the moment) and the Hart Bridge.
It was on the Main Street bridge, or the "blue" bridge if you have ever been to Jacksonville, that I had one of the worst running injuries EVER.

My nemesis, the Main Street bridge

The Main Street bridge is a lift span bridge and at one point there is no road. It is simply metal grating. That's the part that lifts at various times to let boats traverse the St. Johns River under the bridge.
Well, one year, I managed to catch my foot on something on that bridge and fell straight into the metal grating. As one friend said, "You fell into a cheese grater."
Yep. That's exactly what I did. I have never been so bloodied by a fall in my life. The orthopedist I saw AFTER the fall said he was surprised I didn't break both my wrists.
I actually had scrape marks on my left shoulder from where I rolled after I fell.
Yikes. It gives me the willies remembering that race!
I've been back in subsequent years to run that race, and I always am conscious as I run over that bridge to shuffle my feet so I don't trip again.
I haven't been back in a couple of years. But I find myself thinking about that race again.
It may be December, but it is time to start planning for the year ahead, and what races I want to cross off the bucket list, or simply conquer again.