Saturday, September 05, 2015

Battered but not broken

Back in March my sister Rebecca (who runs all the time and has run a few marathons) asked me if I wanted to do a half marathon with her in September. That sounded like a good motivation to run again and plus it was so far away...so I agreed. I didn't get into training for it as early as I should, and I've ran into a few health hiccups along the way. Today I did a 9.5 mile run (with a fair bit of walking) and I'm feeling ready for next week. Or at least ready enough. There were a lot of runners on the trail today, and a lot of cute, really fit runners. They are kind of intimidating to me, but oh well. With my very fair skin, any exertion at all turns me rather tomato-red, which is annoying. But I did my run and it felt good and I didn't feel like dying at the end. After I got home I was thinking back over the past three years and I remembered the very end of the pregnancy with the twins when I literally couldn't walk around the block. I got about 1/4 the way around and the discomfort was so bad I had tears in my eyes. I remember feeling like my body was broken and wondering if I'd ever feel "normal" again. Post twins, my body will never be the same as it was before. That has been hard to accept. The squishy extra stuff around my middle isn't going anywhere. But I'm not broken. Just battered. But strong, nonetheless.