My body's resilience always amazes me. Last training season, I couldn't believe how I could push myself in races, make time for my training, and run 16 miles less than a week after a tumble made my knees look like this:

What I'm not sure of is why I'm underestimating it now. After running MCM I was so excited about maintaining my fitness, I'd put in so much hard work I didn't want to lose it. That was fine and dandy until two weeks after the race I was cutting a bagel and cut my finger so badly I was out of running for three months, had lots of PT and have permanent nerve damage (if I do anything, I do it all the way, apparently). Chris, my boyfriend, told me the other day that Baghdad is safer than my kitchen... he survived Baghdad with only a scar on his shoulder while I have permanent nerve damage! About three weeks after being cleared to run post- accidental self-knifing, I was sidelined again with pneumonia. Three weeks of not breathing and not running sucked. By this time about 4 1/2 months had passed since the marathon and I was completely bummed that I was going to need to start from scratch. Or did I?

If you read my blog you will notice a theme: hills. Pittsburgh has LOTS of hills. You can't avoid them. Long hills that are deceptive in that over a mile their elevation will creep up a few hundred feet. Short hills that are so steep you can't run down them, you need to walk down them. And lots of hills in between! So today when I set out for my 4 miles, there was one of those long deceptive hills that I had to conquer. To give you perspective on this hill, Chris is a fit guy, a natural athlete. He ran a marathon with ONE "long" run of 8 miles and no other training. Just winged the sucker. Last Fall we went running together and I told him we'd just do four miles and I'd pick a pretty easy route... just so happened it included this hill. Half way up the hill, Chris was panting, and if he wasn't such a gentleman to me, he would have been cursing (he still reminds me of this run). The hill put him in his place- he made it because he's a tough guy and a great athlete, but it reminded me that "easy" routes in Pittsburgh aren't always so easy.

So I haven't run that particular hill since probably October 2007 and today I was a little nervous about it. I gave myself a pep talk. Reminded myself that in the past I've found it hard, Chris found it hard, and whenever I run it, I always see people walking it.  Then I went out to conquer the sucker. To my surprise and delight, no problems, I coasted up the hill, finished my run and felt good the whole way. No panting, no cussing, no walking. I think getting back into my training, this was a really awesome reminder of how resilient my body is. After depriving it of running for about 5 months it (I) can still tackle running in Pittsburgh