It was a dark, cold, and windy morning. 5:45 am found me unhooking from my morning dose of light therapy, strapping on my Ghosts, and heading out to test 3 miles on the neighborhood sidewalks. The glory of being able to still run 3 non stop miles, feeling the definate body fatigue from loss of conditioning, and still move forward one clunky step at a time = great happiness.
I’ve come to accept that my left foot may never be fully without aches and pains. It will not kill me, although it may impede distance and occasionally make me whiney. When it hurts more, as it does at this moment, I remind myself that I am healthy and strong, readjust my stance and walk on. The visual of being brought down by this, becoming weak, living on the sofa in front of the tv, in a green hooded bathrobe, and eating my life away, just doesn’t work for me.
So, yes, stand up straight, readjust my stride, tell the foot to shut up, and run Damn it, because that is living!
What a wonderful, much-needed post about motivation! I firmly believe that the mental aspect of recovering from a running injury is the hardest — learning how to tune out the normal aches and pains and only truly give pause to the serious ones. I read a fabulous interview with Deena Kastor a couple of weeks ago (well, I believe the interview was from quite a while ago), and reading her talk about running through physical pain in a marathon gave me a lot of hope. Happy running!
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Thanks charlotte! I’m going to look for that interview with Deena Kastor… Any idea where you saw it?
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I managed to find it!
http://community.runnersworld.com/topic/go-ahead-ask-me-anything
If that link doesn’t work, try Googling “Deena Kastor ask me anything.”
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Oh my goodness… Thank you so much!
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