97 Suburban 5.7 - possible fuel pump issue?

I have a 97 Suburban with 187000 on original engine.

The last couple of months, the thing has been hard to start. It would usually take 3-4 attempts to finally crank, and sometimes in the process would backfire and literally have smoke come from under hood and also through the HVAC vents. I searched this board for answers and started thinking I was having a fuel pump failure issue. So the night before last, I wanted to check and make sure that it was not something simple like blown fuse. Well, I could not find a fuse labelled fuel pump, but did find the relay. I took the relay out, looked for corrosion, and then reseated it. Yesterday, the truck started on first time everytime. I will keep an eye on it the next few days to see if it actrs up again, but did I just get lucky.

I would say you just got lucky. My 97 Suburban had a similar issue in that sometimes (not always) it was hard to start (sometimes 6 or 7 min.) Once you got it started it was fine. Checked the pressure at the fuel rail with a gauge and it was 53-54 lbs after 3 seconds with key on not running. Specs are 55-61 lbs. Replaced the pump in June 06, new pump pressure is 59-60 lbs. and have not had one problem since. I couldn't bleieve that 1-2 lbs. low would cause it not to start, but I'm a believer now.
Btw, mine had 125K on the original fuel pump.