Recovery

After 10 days of being sick with a sinus infection, I ran 6 grueling miles on Saturday outside. We were on a new route because the school we usually go to was having some function. So we had to go to an elementary school and run through some neighborhoods to get to the bike trail. It was great getting started - it was all downhill. But going through my head, on mile two, was how difficult it would be to come back - all uphill. I did it, but I know as soon as I started the uphill "climb" (hills don't look like hills until you have to run them!) I began to psych myself out.

Running is both physical and mental, and you can't underestimate the power of the mental. I know I psyched myself out heading back uphill. It took forever, and I stopped and walked some of the way. Two people who I am sure were running more than 6 miles had already hit the turnaround point for their run and passed me on the way back. They gave me words of encouragement - "slow and steady - you'll make it!" I finally did.

Since then, I've run had two more runs, both five miles each on the treadmill at the gym. During the first five miler, I had shin pain at around a level 1 or 2 out of 10 (yeah!) and didn't feel too bad. Today, despite a head cold, I had the best run I've had in a while. ZERO shin pain. That's right. I said ZERO! I'll probably have some tightness tomorrow, but I can live with tightness. A little stretching and ice and I'm good to go. Woohoo!

I think much of my motivation for these last two runs has been for my niece Emma and my brother and his family. We had a terrible fright this weekend. My four month old niece recently had heart surgery and was beginning her recovery. My brother called around midnight Saturday and said he was told Emma was doing very badly and might not make it through the night. Since then, everyone's thoughts and prayers have been for little Emma, and she's hanging tough. She's running her own little marathon and we won't let her hit the wall. She will make it. You can read her story on my brother's blog (be prepared to cry and laugh and just have your heart tugged every which way), and a very poignant dedication my husband made with his last 20 mile run. (yes I've hooked him into blogging now!)

One realization I had during all of this was the amazing power of the Internet. My brother's blog has gained a lot of followers, and even people he barely knows or doesn't know at all. He does a great job of giving detailed updates as soon as he can. We don't have to sit by the phone wondering what is going on, and exchanging voice mail messages, or waiting for emails.

And now there's "microblogging". My brother is using Twitter to provide up to the minute updates from his cell phone on Emma's status. I monitor it constantly. I worry when I don't see an update; I've realized that the doctors' rounds appear to occur every hour, and I have to remember that my brother does have to sleep sometime. I'm not sure how useful microblogging is in general; I've signed up and posted some silly stuff that I'm sure people will want to know that I'm doing or thinking. But for Emma updates, it's da bomb! (did I just type that?)