We all have a history.\u00a0 We all have those certain places where from the moment we arrive we are hit with a wave of nostalgia that washes over us and drenches us in memories of the past.<\/p>\n
Having moved around a fair amount as a kid, I actually have several of those places.\u00a0 While I didn\u2019t grow up in New Buffalo, MI, I did spend at least a week of every summer of my life here.\u00a0 So, it\u2019s sort of the thread that runs through all the various parts of my life.\u00a0 It has always been a safe haven, an escape from reality, a breath of fresh air.<\/p>\n
This week we had a few days in the middle of the week when I didn\u2019t have to work and the kids didn\u2019t have camp or any other activities, so we decided that this week our \u201cWednesday Adventure Day\u201d would be a multiple day adventure to visit Grandma.\u00a0 As soon as we hit Exit 1 from 94 and headed into town, the boys started yelling, \u201cI can see the water!\u201d\u00a0 \u201cHey, look the train tracks!\u201d and \u201cI remember that place!\u201d\u00a0 Of course they remember, they\u2019ve been here literally hundreds of times.\u00a0 But this is the first trip back since last summer so it comes flooding over us with shouts of excitement.<\/p>\n
Yesterday was rainy, so we didn\u2019t get to do all the things we had so enthusiastically chattered about in the car on the way up 55.\u00a0 We did manage to sneak in a quick walk on the beach between rain showers and a burger at Redamak\u2019s (If you’ve ever been there, I know you are jealous right now).\u00a0 I also kicked off the trip down memory lane by looking through some old family photo albums.\u00a0 I was in search of a newspaper article from 4th<\/sup> grade to clear up a conversation I had recently been having with Stephanie and Inga at one of our monthly lunch dates.\u00a0 But instead I came across some pictures from our 6th<\/sup> grade production of Dear Abby (It may have been 5th grade, which year did we do Tom Sawyer?).\u00a0 And there in our family album sat a picture of my very own handsome beau, Brian at age 11, as Thomas Jefferson.\u00a0 Funny that he\u2019s been sitting in that album for almost 30 years.<\/p>\n Fortunately, today we awoke to a shining sun.\u00a0 So, Grandma took the kids over to the beach and I set out on a run down memory lane.\u00a0 I was planning on 21ish miles, but as we all know, nothing ever really goes according to plan.\u00a0 I ran the same route that I always run when I\u2019m here.\u00a0 Over the bridge, past the beach and out the lake road.\u00a0 The big differentiator is always where I turn around.\u00a0 Rarely is it ever before Gintara\u2019s Resort where I spent so many summers of my youth.\u00a0 It\u2019s really the perfect picture of what you\u2019d consider memory lane, tree lined with cross streets like Breezy Lane, Shady Lane and Apple Ave.<\/p>\n It\u2019s funny how the past and the present can come crashing together in a place like that.\u00a0 All the new construction which has taken the place of some of the older homes that once stood on that lake mixed in with familiar landmarks like Camp Sokol and ladies in the rocking chairs on the porch at the Lakeside Inn.<\/p>\n I ran along just fine all the way to the end of Lakeshore Road, where it ends at Red Arrow Highway.\u00a0 The out and back would put me at 15 miles, so I\u2019d still have to do a loop through town.\u00a0 I turned around and started back towards where I had been.\u00a0 I saw the little Dutch woman on her bike again and she smiled.\u00a0 I also ran past the cutie-patootie with the backwards baseball hat again and he waved.\u00a0 (Hey, I might be in a relationship but I\u2019m not blind.\u00a0 And we all know I love a visor or a backwards baseball hat.\u00a0 Don\u2019t judge me.)\u00a0 Shortly after that, my lower back started bothering me.\u00a0 What is this?!\u00a0 My legs feel good. \u00a0I\u2019m not the least bit tired. Why is my back hurting?<\/p>\n As athletes we have conditioned ourselves to press on through the pain.\u00a0 We overlook the ache of fatigued muscles and we occasionally ignore the twinges of pain in our (Achilles, calf, knee, Fill in the blank).\u00a0 We take more than the recommended dosage of Ibuprofen in order to get through a particularly difficult workout.\u00a0 But stop before we\u2019ve completed what we have set out to do?\u00a0 Not a chance.\u00a0\u00a0 So, of course, I continued running.<\/p>\n That is, until I hit mile 12 where the tweak in my back grew increasingly worse.\u00a0 It was time for me to take an energy gel, so I slowed to walk and pulled one from the pocket of my shorts.\u00a0 I contemplated what to do.\u00a0 I deemed that 21 miles were probably out of the question today, but I wondered if I should call my mom and have her and the kids come pick me up.\u00a0 I decided to walk for a mile or so and see if that helped.\u00a0 And so I walked, back past Apple Ave and many other familiar sights.\u00a0 The thing you need to understand here is, I don\u2019t walk.\u00a0 I don\u2019t like walking.\u00a0 And I felt otherwise fantastic so walking was especially painful at this venture.\u00a0 It\u2019s a pride thing.\u00a0 It feels incomplete.\u00a0 Beyond that, I can\u2019t really explain it.<\/p>\n At Mile 13, I picked it up again.\u00a0 My back still hurt.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t as bad, but it was still there and quite prevalent.\u00a0 I decided I could make it back to Mom\u2019s, which would put me just over 15 on the day and I\u2019d probably have to call it there.<\/p>\n Once I got back, I took some ibuprofen to help with the inflammation that I\u2019m sure was causing my back troubles.\u00a0 I still had so much energy that it was a disappointing end to my run.\u00a0 I debated what to do?\u00a0 Do I think I could have pushed myself those last 6 miles?\u00a0 Absolutely.\u00a0 Do I think that would have been the best move?\u00a0 Not likely.\u00a0 Think long term goal here\u2026<\/p>\n But cutting my run short today doesn\u2019t mean that\u2019s the anti-climactic end to the story, it means there is more of the story to be written.<\/p>\n Our bodies, and our hearts, are designed to feel pain.\u00a0 And while it is sometimes ok to test our limits with some types of pain, we have to consider what happens when we ignore pain for too long.\u00a0 Ignoring it doesn\u2019t make it go away.\u00a0 Even when we mask it, it\u2019s still there. But not dealing with it has the potential to cause long term damage, sometimes irreparable damage.\u00a0 Pain is a sucky, albeit necessary, part of life.\u00a0 And we have to be able to discern when to persevere through the pain and when to listen, hearing its instructions to\u00a0change directions.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what I know.\u00a0 I ignored a lot of pain for a lot of years. \u00a0I masked it however I could.\u00a0 But it didn\u2019t go away.\u00a0 Once I finally acknowledged it and altered the route I was on, I put an end to the ailments it caused for so long because I allowed it to heal adequately.\u00a0 And ultimately I have been rewarded for that.\u00a0 More than I ever could have imagined.<\/p>\n My past and my present combine to make me who I am.\u00a0 And this is exactly where I want to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We all have a history.\u00a0 We all have those certain places where from the moment we arrive we are hit with a wave of nostalgia that washes over us and drenches us in memories of the past. Having moved around a fair amount as a kid, I actually have several of those places.\u00a0 While I […]<\/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-637","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-ah","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637","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=637"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":640,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637\/revisions\/640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}