The Most Amazing of Days

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall." -Confucius


-The first journey of learning how to run again 

Today was not really a special day. Not by many people's standards of "special". But to me it was nothing short of the most amazing of days.
Nothing extraordinary or unusual happened. This is surprising considering the amount of extraordinary, usual and strange things which tend to happen to me on a regular basis.
I woke up at 7:00a.m. Just like millions of other Americans at 7 this morning I'm particularly unmotivated to drive the hour to work. And by drive I mean get held up in traffic. Have intense road rage. Speed the rest of the way to get there on time.
Slow Down Katie
I get to work and again nothing funny or unusual or exciting develops. I spend an hour cleaning. I spend some more time dusting the fake ficus tree. Finally I file all the reports on all of the patients we've had this past week. To everyone but me it seems like an ordinary day. But to me it's anything but that.

So. Now to the big part. I drive home and for the first time in 3 weeks I pull on my running shoes.

Easy. Easy does it. It's been so long and I barely remember how to do this. After 3 weeks of swimming my legs barely remember what it's like...
Slow down, Katie
It's super super hot out today. Like record hot. We're talking 100 degrees out people! I haven't run in 3 weeks. I'm not used to this. My body hurts. I'm sweating. I'm stiff. I'm scared.
Slow down, Katie
I wait for the pain. Gasping every time I step wrong with my knee. Waiting on eggshells for my PF pain to come back. 5 minutes in it hasn't hurt. 10 minutes in it hasn't hurt. Has it? Everything else is hurting, like my body doesn't know what's going on anymore. My stride is off. It's hard to find it after all these weeks. Maybe I've forgotten how to run?
Slow down, Katie. Deep breaths
I get back to where I parked my car after 2 miles or so. I've had enough. I head over to a soccer field. I pull of my shoes. I pull off my socks. I run barefoot around the field for the last few minutes. There is no pain. There is no pressure, no racing, no track, no fans, no competition. There is only a girl and her love of running, there is only me and a field of grass. There is only running and freedom.
Run faster, Katie.