First (s)mile in a while

This morning I did something that I have not done this year.  This morning I did something that I have not done since Thanksgiving of 2012.  This morning, I put on my running shoes and I went for a run. 

Every journey begins with a single step.  Today, I began my journey again as I ran my first mile since I had surgery on my foot on May 15.  It's been close to 10 weeks now, and the realization has hit me that while my foot still has some pain, we believe that this is the level of pain that I'll just have to endure until medical science figures out a better solution.   I was so excited, and even though I knew that I was only going to go one mile, I still couldn't wait to hear the beep on my Garmin Forerunner signaling that it had connected to a satellite and was ready to track my run.  And once it beeped, it was like the starting gun went off - and off I went.

As I started running, I got to thinking about how a couple of years ago I would have thought it to be silly to go out on a hot, humid July morning and only run 1 mile.  I would have thought, What's the point in that much sweat for just one mile?  However, in light of not running any miles, I was thrilled to feel the sweat.  I was trying to pay close attention to my stride and my foot strikes - and I never would have given that much consideration to either of those before.  Yet I know that if I begin to favor that foot too much it will impact other parts of my body, so I wanted to make sure that I ran with a balanced, even, smooth stride.  I focused on making sure that each stride was as close to equal length.  I focused on my arms and making sure not to swing them too far across my chest.  I focused on keeping my shoulders square and keeping my head from bobbling around.  And I focused on my breath.  Though I've been intentional to try to build up my cardio, I've not been the most faithful to all of that since the last time I posted.  But in the midst of all of the things that I was focusing on, I was able to have a great first run.  The energy I felt when I was done was amazing - it was just a reminder of how much I love to run. 

In the end, I ran 1.1 mile with a 9:24 pace.  I anticipated that it was going to be more like a 10:30 pace, but I think I was just a little too excited.  I'm not going to run every day - tomorrow morning I'll be in the gym.  I don't want to go crazy overboard with all of this, but I'm very excited to at least be back on the pavement.  And so far no ill-effects from the run - my foot feels as it has for much of the past couple of months.  That's not to say that it feels great, but it's manageable.