"Now bid me run..."

	"Now bid me run, And I will strive with things impossible, Yea, get the better of them." - William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

The past six months have been a train wreck for our family (note the lack of posts to this blog, for example.) But through it all, I've kept running, and therefore I'm running right on out of the mess. As a runner, I've kept on keeping on, tried my best to strive with things impossible and now, I hope, have got the better of them. I share this with the blogosphere not to circulate misery but as a case study in the power of running.

Here's the soap-opera style back story. In the past six months (warning: just reading this list is exhausting):

My father died; we buried his ashes the day before Thanksgiving; three weeks later, my aunt died; four weeks later another aunt died; my mother became ill with what was feared to be cancer--insurance refused to pay for the necessary tests (BTW, she's fine, thank goodness); I developed severe GI problems, undergoing abdominal CT scans (I'm fine, thank goodness); my childhood best friend & best man at our wedding was diagnosed with cancer and began a very difficult treatment regimen; the campus where my husband in a Professor (NIU) experienced a massacre; yet another aunt became seriously ill; I underwent biopsy surgery after an abnormal mammogram (it was benign, thank goodness).

All this unfolded while I managed to maintain a full-time job, several part-time volunteer positions, full-time parenting, home and family. And I'll add (somewhat crankily) that during it all, my friends and associates were all so consumed with their own considerable responsibilities that I received not so much as a phone call asking me out for a cup of coffee in that six months time. (In all fairness to them, when you appear to be superwoman, folks start believing that you are invincible.)

Not surprisingly, I started to have some GI problems and feel kinda depressed. It became harder and harder to keep up my running mileage (add to this the worst Chicago winter in twenty years). I got a tad careless with watching my diet. (Go figure...in the midst of all this, coffee and cake started to sound pretty good.) I've discovered that I can look at this past winter of discontent (sorry, different Shakespeare play!) in two ways.

--The "bad side" of the equation (for which I've heartily and thoroughly berated myself):

* My mileage dropped from 5 miles a day/6 days a week to something like 3 miles a day/4 days a week.
* My weight went from fighting weight (my personal preferred and top performance size) back up to my goal weight (about a 9-10 # gain).

--The "good side" of the equation (In which, in all honesty, I take little satisfaction, being a
perfectionist in all things):

* In the midst of (severe) Chicago winter and all this family chaos, I still ran 3 miles a day (outdoors) 4 or 5 days a week.
* I've maintained my Weight Watchers goal weight for a year, even through all this family turmoil (no mean feat).

In other words, after six months of pretty tough times, its time to give myself a break. Its time to cut my Type A persona some slack and decide that the past six months are a victory rather than a failure. Statistically, I know that--unlike me--most (U.S.) folks don't exercise at all, hit the drive-thru daily, imbibe copious amounts of corn syrup & alcohol, and mainline processed junk food.

Through a really demanding professional and personal life and many family crises, my health and fitness habits were strong enough that I maintained regular exercise, continued eating a healthy diet (if a bit higher in calories than I'd like), ate tons of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and never did anything as idiotic as the drive-thru window. Oh, and I maintained my goal weight through it all.

And now, at long last, summer is upon us in Chicago. And while I'm not in what I consider to be "top fighting form," I'm still standing. With the return of summer in the city, I've kicked it back into gear. My running mileage is climbing once again....and hopefully, those last few pounds between goal weight and personal best are on the chopping block.

And that's the beauty of the running life.
You keep on keeping on.
Its what you do.
And sooner or later, you "get the better" of things impossible.