Is pain truly a four letter word?

Pain...just the thought of it makes me shudder...I have Fibromyalgia, which is chronic pain. I've had it for over 10 years, and it has changed my life. And not for the better. Some days are bad, some are worse...but lately it has been manageable. But pain and I are not friends.

Running causes me pain...and I wonder why I would do something that causes more pain. But during today's run I discovered that I can push myself further than I thought I could. I would pick out a landmark and tell myself I could keep running until I got to that point...then I found another further, and so on. I kept going. Now, I admit, I do have walk breaks. I'm not at a total running level...yet. I may never get there...but, I am running more. And I feel better than I have in years.

Is there a correlation between my running and that pain, and my reduction of Fibro pain? I hope so. I'll endure the occasional pain for 1 hour to have a decent quality of life. It's fun to watch the children play where I run, and see them run and run and run...what happened to that? We used to go from sun up to sun down, playing outside. Now, I strive for one hour of exercise a day. Out of 24 hours. But, that's more than I used to exercise, so I'll take it.

Pain is indeed a four letter word...just as the words "like" and "star" and "hope"...not all four letter words are bad...some evoke bad ideas, but many teach us to believe, to dream, to strive. Pain will no longer be a bad thing in my day, merely something I have to get through.

The half-marathon is 7 weeks from tomorrow. 49 days. Of Pain.

Maybe I should change the name of this blog to "I CAN run a half marathon, can't I?" Because I can and I will. Pain will not stop me.