{"id":4153,"date":"2016-07-19T16:57:04","date_gmt":"2016-07-19T20:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/?p=4153"},"modified":"2016-07-19T20:10:03","modified_gmt":"2016-07-20T00:10:03","slug":"its-not-a-hobsons-choice-its-a-mortons-fork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/?p=4153","title":{"rendered":"It’s Not A Hobson’s Choice… It’s A Morton’s Fork"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I walked 3 miles if only to get out and about. It wasn’t enough. I didn’t run. I was in a foul mood that continues to this moment. My ankle is still bugging me. But I’m left with a dilemma that eventually morphs into a Morton’s Fork.<\/p>\n

It seems to me I’m down to two options:<\/p>\n

1) I skip running again and hope my ankle improves BUT I lose out on endorphins, feel slothful and heavy and psychologically down.<\/p>\n

2) I go for a run and ankle be damned (maybe it’s already better I rationalize and this is then a test!) and I hopefully rise out of the funk… unless my ankle hurts in which case I could be doing more harm than good and wind up needing to take even more time off and spiraling downward into the throes of depression and melancholy.<\/p>\n

I was thinking this was a Sophie’s Choice but that’s not quite right — it MIGHT be a no-win situation but like James T. Kirk of old, I don’t want to believe in the no-win scenario. It’s not a Hobson’s Choice which is really more of a take it or leave it. I *think* it’s a Morton’s Fork wherein there’s two options of equivalent and unfortunately undesirable results.<\/p>\n

If I don’t run, I’m unhappy. If I do run, I could do more harm than good and not be able to run for a lot longer then if I just wait a bit longer to get back out on the road.<\/p>\n

However, it seems to me that Option 1 is a guaranteed unhappiness for potential future happiness if my ankle improves whereas Option 2 has a chance of success and only a potential unhappy downside if my ankle doesn’t rebound as fast as I’d like.<\/p>\n

So what’s the better risk?\u00a0 As I started this post I was 100% sure I was going to go for a run… but as I finish and get ready to click “Publish”… I’m not so sure.<\/p>\n

I suppose there’s no other way to end this post than to quote Yogi Berra:<\/p>\n

\n
“If you come to a fork in the road, take it.”<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n

Updated at 4:51 PM Pacific — After much hemming and hawing, I opted for a compromise run of 3 miles.\u00a0 I was slow and the ankle was a bit shaky, but at least I did SOMETHING.\u00a0 I’m feeling doldrum-y… which if I learned anything from Norman Juster means the only way out may be through my own mind.\u00a0 That and sometimes you need help from a dog who ticks but is named Tock.\u00a0 Oh, and given the current political climate: <\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\u201cEverybody is so terribly sensitive about the things they know best.\u201d <\/em>
\n \u2015 The Phantom Tollbooth <\/span><\/em><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I thought I knew a lot about running.\u00a0 Perhaps I know nothing.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I walked 3 miles if only to get out and about. It wasn’t enough. I didn’t run. I was in a foul mood that continues to this moment. My ankle is still bugging me. But I’m left with a dilemma that eventually morphs into a Morton’s Fork. It seems to me I’m down to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}