9.1.16 My New PR

My son ran track and threw shot put in grade school.  He started in 4th grade and continued on through 8th grade.  I’m not sure what he will do in high school but I enjoyed being a “track mom.” The coach used to email the parents with a list of times and distances for the previous meet.  He would highlight all PRs for the kids.  I learned that PR meant, “Personal Record.”  I thought about this fact this past weekend after I went to Barwis on Thursday.

I got to Barwis a bit early and watched Deeds, Mike Morfitt, and Landis stretch out their clients enviously.  I can’t really remember my body moving normally anymore… Nick came over and after he wiped the table down, helped me to stand up.  I felt sturdy and stood for a little while.  Mike Morfitt helped adjust my feet so I could stand longer.  I sat on the table to rest and Nick told me that we would work on that today.  After I rested awhile, I stood again.  Nick asked Megan to put the timer on but there was some miscommunication so I stood without it.

As I was standing, I looked over to the squat machine where I used to work with Phil and remembered, “Standing for days!”  I sat and rested again and then stood two more times.  Once for 1:11 and lastly for 1:13.   After my last stand, Nick couldn’t find the rolling stick so he used a softball to press on my calves.  It did the trick, it felt extremely similar to the rolling stick on both of my calves.

Then he found the stick, rolled my legs out a bit, and stretched my legs out.  It was like the stretching I saw, I’ve seen, but it’s just a little modified because my body doesn’t move normally.  It felt good and it relaxed me.  I thought about my previous stands – I know I wrote about these stands before and thought about re-reading them.  I didn’t.  If I remember correctly, they were longer than my most recent 1:11 and 1:13 and I’m choosing to embrace and celebrate my new PR instead of lamenting over what I used to be able to do.

I thought about what I used to be able to do.  When I was first diagnosed,  I remember playing basketball in my son’s dad’s yard and I noticed it was a little difficult.  I thought about the fact that my memories of being able-bodied have changed over the years, from being on the elliptical machine up to an hour daily to now I think of just being able to dust my furniture on my own.  My physical abilities have diminished over the years and it seems my memories of my physical abilities have gotten smaller over the years as well.  I used to be able to walk and I used to be able to stand effortlessly 15 1/2 years ago and I KNOW that I have stood longer at Barwis even but for now, I am choosing to celebrate my new PR even though I look forward to it getting longer.