Moving Forward

"If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward." Martin Luther King, Jr.


This hasn't been my best week ever.  It also hasn't been the worst, but it has been kind of rotten.  I re-injured my bad ankle on Tuesday morning while running.  I was doing speedwork and distracted by a new song on my ipod while running through a grassy/tree filled area.  My foot must have slipped on a root and I rolled my ankle and ended up on the ground.  I didn't even realize what had happened until I was on the ground it happened so fast.  My poor Dixie was terrified, she just crawled up to me and licked my face.  She looked so concerned.

Pretty quickly I realized I had rolled my ankle.  My right hand and knee were also hurting but not terribly.  I got up, dusted the mud off of me and started to try to walk it off.  I walked a few painful feet then the pain disappeared.  I was elated. Maybe it wasn't so bad?  I walked about another half mile and decided to jog just a little bit to see how I would do.  Yeah, too early for that.  Pain shot through my arch.

The sad part is that this was just my 3rd run without my brace.  So I guess the brace will be part of my running for alot longer than I anticipated.

I had an incredibly grumpy day on Thursday.  It was one of those days that I was already a bit bummed, had a weigh in for the Biggest Loser Challenge and was back up to 200.8 (likely due to not running).  So my brief visit to One-derland was over.  Usually, when I lose weight, I teeter a little bit for a week or so until I'm solidly at the new weight.  I realize that but would be teetering a lot less if I had been able to do my regular workouts this week.  So, my grumpy day really came from starting off without a run and then posting a gain on the BL challenge message board - which I'm leading my team this time by the way. What a loser, gaining weight when I'm the leader!

Yeah, doesn't sound like me, does it?  Because its not me.  I was in a funk.

Then Friday morning I gained the perspective I so desperately needed.

It's an early day for me to go to work, and luckly its also jeans day.  :)  I put on my brace and some capris and headed off to work. Not long after I arrived, I started talking to one of our housekeepers who thought I was wearing cute socks at first when she saw the brace. Then she started telling me about a fall she had when she was 12 years old. When she fell, she pinned her leg behind her back slipping in some water and crashed down onto some concrete. She wore a cast for two years and has never been able to run or jump most of her life.  My friend also walks with a limp that I had not noticed until that day.

That conversation rocked me - I realized that my sore ankle would heal soon and I would be back to running. But my friend at work will never run much less walk several miles at a time.

It's all about perspective.

So take today and be thankful for what you CAN do. I will be thanking God for the blessings I have as I head out for a 4-5 mile walk in a little while. Yeah, I'd rather run, but I'm so thankful that for now, I can walk.

It's all about moving forward folks.  And that's what I plan to do.  What about you?

~Clara