Hard Times Don't Last Forever

I ran three miles today at 28:44 pace -- nothing stupendously fast, but a goal I didn't obtain in all of 2009.

As I was looking at my running logs, I was close to today's time a couple times later in 2008. But things went downhill fast in January 2009--lots of lung pain, asthma, and hard runs. Then in April I came down with hospital pneumonia and was in the hospital for three days. (I almost bit the dust).

I remember coming home from the hospital and finding that I, who had run two half-marathons earlier in the year, couldn't run half a block. I pushed hard to land on my feet, too hard in fact. And I was sick again later in the summer.

On a day of deep discouragement, one of my running friends told me that it would take about a year to recover completely from the pneumonia. Believe it or not, that was encouraging. I knew then that the problem wasn't a lack of effort; what I needed was time to heel. So with lots and lots of encouragement from my running friends, I did manage to keep slogging along in 2009. My slogan for 2010, though, has been "back again in 2010". The year didn't start off well with all the deep snow hampering training runs, but then today there was this great run. I am so very encouraged. Although I know not all my runs will be at this pace, the PR reminds me that hard times really don't last forever. They just seem like they will when you're in the middle of them.