How Hard Was It?

Just 1 2 Finish went down this week while running outside the State Department building on a trip to DC when he unexpectedly hit a bulging asphalt repair patch on the sidewalk. (The District is full of those.) He's okay.

Encountering the unexpected while running in new places seems to be where many runners get hurt. Things crop up that they're not used to at home.

The hardest I went down was when once I was running in the dark at 5 am during a trip to Denver (7 am my time) on a broad smooth sidewalk alongside a dimly lit deserted highway. My thoughts had just turned from my ragged breathing due to being unaccustomed to the mile-high altitude to thinking, Hey, when I ran by yesterday afternoon, wasn't there a construction zone around here somewhere? That was the instant I hit at speed a roll of woven orange plastic fencing stretched across the sidewalk between two heavy sawhorses. The sidewalk construction site didn't have any dim blinking marker lights like I usually see in my area.

Because the taut plastic barrier I ran into was only three feet high, my legs stopped instantly while my torso kept moving forward and I went down fast in the dark. Bam! I was suddenly on the ground. Fortunately I was still relaxed from being in an easy running mode when I hit the dirt part where the cement had been removed for repair. I sat there in the dark for awhile carefully feeling myself over but nothing was broken. My knuckles were all abraided though and I had nothing to put on them to stop the bleeding until I got back to my sister's house. Is there a lesson here?

Aside from sprains and strains, what's the worst you were hurt while running? What happened?