Gratefully Running

I took over a year off from running during the pregnancy. Right before I got pregnant my knee had been acting up again and in exasperation I decided I would stop altogether until after I had a baby (planning-at that point to get pregnant w/in the next month or so). When it was all said and done I hadn't run a step for over a year. I missed it desperately. I'd see people out for their morning runs while driving and I'd be so jealous. I hoped that once I had the baby, taking a year off would allow me to be able to run again-pain free.

For those of you just tuning in, I injured my knee training for the '04 Chicago Marathon. It's never quite healed and has basically held me back from any sort of running for almost 5 years now. Running has been an amazing stress relief and joy for me so not being able to do it consistently has been a struggle.

Fast forward now-for the past 5 months I've been working my way back ever so slowly into running. So far the baby steps and precautions are paying off. I am covering over 4 miles in 45-50 minutes now and 3 miles of that is running-the rest is walking. The past few weeks it has been amazing. I come back from my runs so energized, stress-free, and grateful. I am crossing my fingers that this can keep up. I pray that in the next few months I'll be able to lengthen the time I am running and eventually be able to run 30 minutes straight-most importantly-without pain in my knee. So far it is looking really well and again, I am supremely grateful. If you think of it, please pray that it keeps up, that I can keep it up, and I can continue to be blessed through this. Thank you God for this blessing! I am thankful!