Running through the pain

When I first starting running again, I would often write about various pains I felt. At one point, they seemed to be far and few between. Today, however, it occurred to me that I probably almost always have some pain, somewhere, when I run, but I just push through it and tend not to notice it so much. Hey, if professional athletes can sprain an ankle or injure a knee and get back out there sometimes during that same game, then I can't let a little pain stop me, right?

This morning it was about 55 degrees when I ran. I was kind of cold in my shorts and t-shirt, which was the opposite of how I felt when I ran in long yoga pants Monday afternoon when it was in the mid 70s. I can never seem to dress right. And right after I felt the chill in the air, I noticed my ankle hurt. I was pretty much willing it and myself to keep going, and eventually, the pain lessened. Or maybe I was too busy being chilly.

By the end of the run, I hardly felt my ankle pain, and a leg pain I had felt in the middle of the run also went away. At that point, I was glad I was in shorts and a t-shirt and happy to have run a good distance. I ended up running about 4.8 miles, my longest since 2002, in about 47 minutes.

It is also worth noting that when I ran my "regular" route on Monday afternoon, I finished the first, tough uphill mile in just over 10 minutes, which was my best to date, even if only by a few seconds. I am still searching for that elusive sub-10-minute first mile.

I will get there.