Gratitude Day 7

 This gets harder and harder as the week goes on. I don't want to just do trite stuff, I'm grateful for my family and my job, blah, blah, blah. I want it to be meaningful at least to me. So today I'm grateful for pain. Yes, pain. Let me explain. As I posted yesterday, I am starting to run again. I went out yesterday for my first day of couch to 5K. The only reason I'm using that is because it's a super easy way to start. I don't have any desire to get to 5K but if I do all the better. Anyway, I went out for my run and it was as hard as I anticipated it would be. I was barely picking up my feet on the run, but I was technically 'running'. After the running intervals were over, I still had to walk to get back home. As I was walking I got a pain in my left knee area. Initially it felt like the attachment point for my IT band and I figured it was just my IT band acting up. But now this morning it is actually at the back of my knee. Either way, it's not super painful per se, but it is definitely making itself known. So why am I grateful for it? Well, there are a lot of people my age, a lot of people, who can't run. For whatever reason, they no longer have the ability to run. Also, many of them live in constant pain and it's something they can't escape. This pain tells me that I did something a lot of people can't do and I don't live in pain constantly so when it happens it's a surprise. So will this pain stop me from running? No, not one bit. But it may slow my progress down slightly. I need to let this get better before I run again and I need to be more careful when I do run to make sure my form is good and I'm not running weird. So yes, for today I'm grateful for pain.