I can! I can! I can!

My 5-yo came home from kindergarten last week with his very first ever "spelling words" written by his own sweet little hand.  They simply said "I can!"  They were written about 15 times, over and over and over again.  "I can!" "I can!" "I can!"

Today, I went running for the 3rd time since having my 4th baby via c-section.  My plan was to keep my friend company who was running 18 miles in preparation for the NY Marathon.  It was hard.  It was hot.  My legs felt really, really heavy.  As I huffed and puffed alongside Fran, I tried not to complain too much. After all, here she was starting mile 6 of 18 and I was starting mile 2 of 2??  Didn't seem right for me to say how hard it felt.  I wanted to stop.  I wanted water.  I wanted it to not be hard.  It was actually pretty easy not to complain out loud, because I could barely talk anyway.  I looked at my distance and saw I was at 2.5.  I was a quarter of a mile further than my Monday run and had at least another half mile back home.  I heaved and gasped out that I probably would have to stop at the next light and tried to give her directions back to her next leg.  That was fine.  Sure, 3 miles felt like nothing just 5 months ago.  But, I had already made it further than my last run.  It was fine.  Really.  Fine. And I wanted to STOP.  I was now hotter.  My legs were heavier.  I was more tired.  Then, I pictured my sweet little kindergartner's spelling words.  This was ridiculous.  3 miles was nothing.  I CAN make it!  I ran through the stop light and started repeating those words in my head.  My legs tried to tell me to stop but the spelling words of my kindergartner kept me going.  All the way to my driveway.  I checked the distance.  Not 3.  3.25.  This may not seem like a big difference to you (or to the 2010 me), but to me, today, it was. 

I ran in, showered quickly, threw on some clothes and grabbed the babe (who had been sleeping peacefully under the watchful eye of my parents - no need to call cps) to head to my 6-week post partum visit.  I sat in the waiting room, thinking about how 4 weeks earlier, I could barely walk from the car to the office and now, here I sat, endorphins flowing, still hot and sweaty despite the shower, hair soaking wet, obviously looking super put together (HA!) having just finished not a 3 mile run, but a 3.25 mile run.  I smiled a big ole smile when the nurse asked me how I was feeling.  My answer?  Great.  Because "I can".