My planned long run last week was 1 hour and 10 minutes and everything was hurting for 1 hour and 10 mins.

But I kept on running.

Several things have been disturbing me for the past couple of weeks. And I couldn’t figure things out. So despite the work deadlines, I went out and did my planned run. I started the run feeling a spasm in the right side of my back, some pain in my hip flexors, and pressure in both my shins. Getting out and feeling the night air felt good. But I kept on feeling these aches and pains. I started distracting myself by thinking about the things: What was disturbing me? Why did I lose a certain amount of balance? What was being taken away? Why have I thinking about the theme of endurance?

The more I thought, the more I looked for clarity. The more things went around, the more I felt frustrated. And something about this kept me going. I needed to keep on going because I could feel that every step I took tired out the questions. As runners often say, “You can’t run away from your problems but they fall by the wayside when you go long.”

In the quiet and in the midst of the nagging aches and pains, I realized I was still running. I wasn’t running fast. I wasn’t running well. The questions weren’t answered. And things were aching all over. But I was moving forward.

I don’t know if that’s what endurance means but it makes sense to me that in running much like in life, I just need to put one foot in front of the next and keep moving forward.