Officially Ridiculous

I hereby crown this the dumbest injury I've ever had. I guess there was the time I stabbed myself opening a package of cheese when I was in the sixth grade, but that wound did not hinder any athletic endeavor of mine. I have read a lot about preventing running injuries. Don't increase your weekly mileage too fast (I violated that). Use your rest days. Buy the right shoes. Eat well. Don't do speed work or hills too often. Check. Check. Check. Check. Last week I went rafting. I need to re-up my yoga practice because my balance sucks. I fell out of the raft on the first rapid. I wasn't the only one, and apparently we went over a large rock. But, I'm balancing that excuse and the fact that falling out by surprise is quite a fun thing to do with the nagging thought that I'm a big klutz with the balance of a seventy-five year old. Anyway, as I was floating further and further away from the raft, I was trying to get my legs out from under me and out in front per the guide's pre-rafting safety instructions. Somewhere in the mayhem I banged my left knee on a rock. The bruise is right on top of the knee cap. This is not a big deal. A bruise is a sign that I did more than lay on the couch all weekend. But, it happens to be in a spot that needs to have a really good range of motion. It's tight when I'm not moving and tight when I'm moving too much (i.e. running). Yesterday during my thirteen mile jaunt, it bothered enough to make me shorten my stride for the last two miles. Today during my short recovery run, it bothered me enough to think about making myself stretch out my gait. I iced last night. I iced tonight. It currently looks disgusting - a giant goose egg protruding as I look down upon it when standing. Large, round, warm and mildly nauseating in it's swollen state. There are a lot of good reasons / excuses to stop running. This is just dumb. And that's what I've been afraid of all along - something dumb to happen to me like laziness or a random rafting bruise that will derail my training and render me a failure. Strong language perhaps. But, I took Yoda to heart when he said "Do, or do not. There is no try."