At Joan Benoit Samuelson‘s talk Tuesday night, she mentioned that there were several P words that were important in order to be a successful runner.  She asked the audience to guess them. And we did except one.

Here are the ones I remember:

• PASSION
• PERSEVERANCE
• PURPOSE

She was surprised that no one said one important one.

What is it???  Can you guess?

If not, it’s:

Yup, PATIENCE!!

As I was running this morning and my running was not good,  I berated myself that almost 3 months ago, I ran 3 miles for the first time and today, I am still struggling to run 3 miles!!!

Shouldn’t I be farther along?  Should I try harder??  If patience is a virtue, I don’t have it!!

Then I found the above quote.

I remember saying while I was injured and not running:  “I just want to run again.  I don’t care how far or how fast, just run!”

So I am going to try to remember that.

And another “P” word.

“Don’t push it. You were injured.  You are still healing!”

Happy Running!  Are you patient?