I got to go running on Saturday.\u00a0 After my first treatment with Dr. Brian on Friday, I had orders to go run.\u00a0 I woke up on Saturday morning to a gorgeous blue sky and perfect running weather.\u00a0 I strapped on my Garmin, threw on my visor and set off out the door for 2 glorious miles!<\/p>\n
Dr. Brian had said, \u201cNo more than 2 miles and definitely not PR pace.\u201d\u00a0 Such a tease, but at least it was something.\u00a0 I was ecstatic.\u00a0 A little nervous about how it would go, but so excited and hopeful.<\/p>\n
I ran my usual route from my front door, around the lake and out to the entrance of the neighborhood.\u00a0 I got all the way to Schnuck\u2019s before I hit the mile mark and had to turn around.\u00a0 Usually at that point of the course I cross the overpass and run west along the Wildwood path.\u00a0 Usually that is where my run is just getting started.<\/p>\n
At the same time I was out for my run, several of my friends were getting ready to run a race over at Castlewood.\u00a0 I had handed my bib off to my friend Jen since I knew it was out for me.\u00a0 I\u2019d rather have someone run in my place and enjoy the experience than have the bib go to waste.\u00a0 You might remember last February I had to bail on a race I really wanted to run.\u00a0 Strangely, this was the exact same race, a year later. Last year there had been permit issues so they had changed the date of the race to a day that didn\u2019t work for me.\u00a0 I took the refund for my race entry fee and I pouted like it was going out of style.\u00a0 Remember that?<\/p>\n
This year was totally different scenario.\u00a0 Being injured for the last month meant there was no way this was a good idea.\u00a0 This race has eluded me yet again.\u00a0 And yet, somehow, this year, I was totally and completely at peace with it.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s that I know that it could be detrimental to my health.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s that I have a long term goal that has priority in my race calendar.\u00a0 Or maybe, it\u2019s that I\u2019m just in a completely different place than I was a year ago.<\/p>\n
The other night while I was at work, I had some down time and I was doing research.\u00a0 By that I mean I was flipping through the new Triathlete magazine.\u00a0 I found an article about Nicole Gross, marathon coach and Ironwoman.\u00a0 Nicole had been situated near the finish line of the Boston Marathon last year waiting for her mom to cross when the first bomb went off.\u00a0 Along with her husband and sister, she sustained some major injuries.\u00a0 She has been working hard over the past year in physical therapy to undo the damage that was done.\u00a0 But what struck me was this quote, \u201cI have been forced to have a new perspective on life, but also have a sense of grounding where there is more to life than identifying myself as an athlete.\u00a0 I am learning to enjoy things a lot more and not having to put that added pressure on myself.\u201d\u00a0 As it should be.<\/p>\n
So, on my run back home on Saturday, I just appreciated being outside, under that blue sky, the sun shining, my fingers and ears cool from the slight nip that was hanging in the air.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t get to compete on Saturday.\u00a0 And I have another race that I have to give up again in a couple weeks.\u00a0 A race that I was even more excited about.\u00a0 But there will be other races.\u00a0 And as a Cubs fan, I\u2019m already very familiar with the words, \u201cMaybe next year\u2026\u201d\u00a0 I used to live in a way that screamed, \u201cI have to do it all right NOW!\u201d\u00a0 But now my life is so full, that I know I am exactly where I am supposed to be.\u00a0 Everything else that comes along is just gravy.<\/p>\n
As I neared my house, my two miles almost up, I felt great.\u00a0 I felt like I could run forever.\u00a0 Which likely had something to do with the fact that I was running a significantly slower pace than usual.\u00a0 But I followed doctor\u2019s orders and cut it off before I hit 2 miles.\u00a0 As I stepped back onto my driveway, my Garmin read 1.99.\u00a0 Every runner knows that you always run up and down your street 15 times if you have to in order to end on a whole number.\u00a0 But I didn\u2019t feel the need to do that this time.\u00a0 My run was over and that was ok.<\/p>\n
I smiled the whole day because of that run.\u00a0 I told everyone I saw that I got to run.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t have asked for a better \u201cfirst run\u201d back.<\/p>\n
Today I went back in to see Dr. Brian for another treatment.\u00a0 Funny that I could hear Steve in the waiting room when I came out.\u00a0 And when I texted Diana to tell her I had crossed paths with Steve, she informed me that she crossed paths with him on the other side of his visit.<\/p>\n
Why do we do this?\u00a0 Why do we push our bodies so hard that we all end up in the doctor\u2019s office together?\u00a0 I can\u2019t speak for all my friends, but I can tell you the reason that I do.\u00a0 Because I can.\u00a0 And for that, I am grateful.\u00a0 Running helps me find perspective, it keeps me grounded.\u00a0 Sure it has something to do with competition and camaraderie and constant improvement.\u00a0 But more than anything, running reminds me to enjoy life.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s funny to look back at the year behind me and see someone who placed so much emphasis on the races and the added mileage, that\u2019s what I needed to call myself a \u201crunner\u201d.\u00a0 I used to think that for me a run wasn\u2019t a \u201creal\u201d run unless I went at least 3 or 4 miles.\u00a0 I have doctor\u2019s orders to go run another 2 miles tomorrow and again on Wednesday.\u00a0 And I couldn\u2019t be happier.\u00a0 Because I love to run, and that is what makes me a runner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I got to go running on Saturday.\u00a0 After my first treatment with Dr. Brian on Friday, I had orders to go run.\u00a0 I woke up on Saturday morning to a gorgeous blue sky and perfect running weather.\u00a0 I strapped on my Garmin, threw on my visor and set off out the door for 2 glorious […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","hentry","category-randomthoughts","post_format-post-format-aside"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4eO4v-9S","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=612"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":613,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612\/revisions\/613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}