Yeah…still no baby. He should be here by Wednesday, one way or another, per Kamala’s doctor. He and I are going to have a little talk when he gets here. Grandma could’ve been snuggling with him for over a week already!
I caught a heck of a cold about 3 weeks before I left for Utah. John had it, and even though I tried super hard not to get it, I got it. I tried to deal with it on my own for about a week-and-a-half, but finally went to the doctor for some medical intervention because I did not want to have that nasty cold when this little guy finally comes. I got a shot (the things we do for our grandchildren!), an antibiotic, and a cough medicine, and after 5 days, it still wasn’t better—maybe even worse. I called the doctor, and he added Mucinex to my drug list, and FINALLY, after a few more days—the day before I left for Utah—it was getting better. And I will forever be indebted to NyQuil for making it possible for me to get some sleep during all of this.
Anyway. I stopped running once I got that nasty cold because it’s very hard to run when any form of deep breathing makes you cough. I walked that first week and also went to the gym because I’m kind of stubborn like that. I’ve got goals, after all! But I finally decided to listen to my body and take a break from working out in the hope that it would heal faster, because…grandbaby on the way!
I went running Tuesday morning here in Utah…well, kind of. I knew I’d need to start out slowly since I hadn’t run in a few weeks AND because my ribs are still pretty sore from all of that coughing. I decided to do a 5 minutes run/2 minutes walk thing just to see how I did. The first 5 minutes were awesome! And it’s amazing how much easier it is to run when there are no hills! The second 5 minutes? Not so good. Those ribs started really hurting, and I knew I needed to take it easier, but I didn’t want to either. I was pretty bummed, and I finished out my workout with only walking. It’s so frustrating when you get to a certain level in your progress towards a goal and then something happens—like a nasty cold—and you’re pretty much back to square one. Again. It’s definitely pretty humbling.
So as I was feeling pretty disheartened by it all, and going to that place,”It’ll take me FOREVER to get back to where I was” (I know…a little over-dramatic), a story I’d read several years ago in Runner’s World literally popped into my mind. I know I’ve saved it somewhere, but I’ve searched and searched and can’t find it. Anyway, it was a story about a young man who was in a race who was having a hard time because he wasn’t doing as well as he’d hoped due to recovering from an injury. At one point in the race, he started running with an older gentleman, who, unbeknownst to him, was Dr. George Sheehan—one of my favorite runner/authors—and they started chatting as they ran. The young man told Dr. Sheehan about his frustrations, and Dr. Sheehan shared with him that he was in the midst of fighting cancer. He told the young man that no matter what we’re going through, we do the best we can with what we’ve got for that day. That’s a paraphrase, and not a very good one, but that thought really hit home with me way back when I first read the article and even more on Tuesday. It’s so easy to get frustrated and discouraged when “life” gets in the way of something we really want to accomplish, and it can definitely feel like we’re taking 10 steps backwards for every one step forward. But as long as we’re giving the best we’ve got for that day, we will be one step closer to achieving our goals. And the best we’ve got for that day is way better than doing nothing because we can’t do what we want to do.
While I was walking, and thinking about this, I realized that I was giving the best I had for that day, and that is enough. So my new goals, as I work more slowly than I’d like to to get back to where I was before, are to remember these words of wisdom and do the best I can for that day AND be grateful for whatever that may be. I think that last part may be the hardest.
And these pictures? They’re from my run on Tuesday…in Kamala’s neighborhood. Beautiful, right? Another thing to be grateful for—running in such a beautiful place with NO humidity! I guess that’s two things…
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