Pain Is Weakness Leaving the Body

Some days, walking long distances hurts. A lot. I don't say this to complain, but just so you know that I'm really taking my training seriously. Some days, I feel as if I'm pushing myself almost to the breaking point. I guess for me, all of this walking is not merely preparation for the 3-Day, but it's a journey in and of itself.

A lot of times, when I'm walking, especially toward the end of these long days of training, I think about people who have suffered with breast cancer. I think of how any pain I'm feeling is minimal in comparison to what they have experienced. I think that even though my feet are burning and my hips feel as if they are about to pop out of their sockets and my midsection is bruised from my stupid, yet essential, fanny pack, I can make it another step or another mile, because doing so brings us that much closer to a cure for breast cancer.

I mention this because on my walk today, when I was trekking up a particularly steep hill, a man passed by on his bicycle. Because the hill was steep, he passed me slowly enough that I was able to read the back of his t-shirt, which said, "Pain is weakness leaving the body."

That struck a chord in me. Maybe I wouldn't have thought about it if I wasn't feeling pain as I read the shirt. But this seemed a message that was delivered to me at just the right time.

For the rest of my walk, whenever I felt a twinge, I thought, "Pain is weakness leaving the body." For every painful episode you survive, you are left that much stronger as a result. Somehow, remembering this today made it easier to walk than it might have been otherwise. So, when I got home from my 21.2 miles, feeling more than a little pain, I smiled as I remembered the t-shirt and its message.