I need to learn something in order to write.

Education is the medium through which I write most clearly.

In the past few days, while slowly moving around, I’ve learned a few things.

Sunday’s crash was the finest beating I ever took in a race. I don’t know how long it will take before I return to training regularly.

12.3 miles into 31.9, my training template skidded to a brazen stop. But after that stop, energy was found to march on. 31.9 miles, later I have a story.

There comes a point in training, and the interjection of an injury, wherein the body knows too clearly that it is hurt beyond use. It isn’t the familiar twinge, the cracking joint, or the popping tendon sound. It is a point in time which utterly concedes to mortal demands.

It occurred last November on a 20 miler for Disney. I pinched a lower back muscle so directly, that I couldn’t move one leg forward. Running was inconceivable.

Today is somewhat analogous to that November day. But I know I’m healing. I’m learning to manage the discomfort, the awkwardness, and moving to heal everything I know is beaten, with all the knowledge I have thus attained.

But I’m moving forward. I’m realizing strongly and with great certainty that I was beaten up quite nicely. My body is a primary vehicle for which my internal happiness is ensured. Without which, I know no direction.

In this difficult time, I take great solace in the ability and resolve of others, to conquer their dreams, and to meet their goals. And I pray deeply for those who are less fortunate, and ask He grant them strength to repair and become strong once again.

I was driving home the other day, finding myself leaving the same medical office I was in at about this time last year. And I recalled a great sense of renewal, of hope, and audacity. All of these qualities were simply a result of time.

With prudence as a guide, and temperance as a weapon, I must break the frustration that is this disability. To the discomfort and inability, there will be the healing seconds of time. There will be hope in the momentary helplessness; There will be rest for the weary; And there will be grace and vigor tomorrow.

31.9: Recover and Exceed.