Take a deep breath and keep going

I found this in the depths of my purse.

I'm not really one for trite "inspirational" messages. I don't know what an eagle flying against a mountain backdrop has to do with teamwork. But cleaning out my purse yesterday, I found this scribbled on the back of a receipt: "Be worthy of the graces given to you today." I liked it enough the first time to write it down, and for some reason it stuck with me yesterday.

Not long after, I headed out for a run in the brisk sunshine. I ran through a neighborhood and at one point there was a car blocking the sidewalk. I kind of grumbled to myself until I got closer and saw that the reason they were blocking the sidewalk was because the little old lady getting out of the car was using a cane and couldn't get up the curb. Oh man, I felt horrible when I realized that! The person with her even called out a "Sorry!" but I just smiled, waved and told them not to worry.

A mile or two later, I had to pee. Badly. I had just gone before I'd left the house, so it had come out of nowhere. I debated popping into a friend's house, but no one who lived nearby was a runner, so I wasn't sure they'd understand. Finally I had to go badly enough that I headed back home, annoyed. However, I decided to take my lab mix out with me for the last 1.1 miles to make it an even 5, and she had a blast and was tired for the rest of the day. Something that started out as a major annoyance ended up being a good thing.

Today I hit the pool. I knew I was in for it when my swim cap ripped in two pieces while putting it on. Of course, today was the only day I had a different bag, one without an extra cap. I decided to just swim without one. I started off feeling great and swimming decent paces for me. I wanted to do 20 x 100 fast for my main set, and the first half was just blaaaaaaah. I was getting pretty discouraged and not picking up any speed. After a drink break I tried again and noticed that I was going a bit faster for the next two. Something just clicked and my 100s for the second 10 were way faster -- I did the averages and the last 10 were a full 11 seconds faster on average than the first 10. Eleven seconds! I don't know what happened, but had I given up when my swim cap ripped or when the first 10 weren't going so great, I would have never done so well on the second half.

I need to squeeze in a run today while the weather is still gorgeous. Who knows what graces I will encounter.