Martin's Marathon

All over and not yet begun

2005-12-31T20:57:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are. New Year’s Eve, 2005 and I promised myself that I would write the last entry of my blog before the end of the year. I thought long and hard about what I would write in this final entry. Something profound about that one thing I learned throughout my training? Some life-changing pieces of advise for you all? You know, I don’t have much of that. The truth is, I don’t feel like this is the end and so I don’t really have very many concluding thoughts. This was merely the start.

You know that corny saying “today is the first day of the rest of your life”? Well, that’s how I feel tonight. That’s how I’ve felt ever since I finished that marathon. I guess that is what I’ve gotten from this whole experience. I do have a few parting thoughts I guess. First, I’ll start with a few thank you.

Thank YOU, my faithful readers. You were my cheering section. You spanned the globe and made me feel like a rock star. This has been the period of my life that I have felt the most supported. That support spurred me on, on a daily basis and helped me in ways I could never describe.

Thanks to all the professionals who fixed me up every time I fell. Thanks to my massage therapist, Laurie. Thanks to Mark at the sports medical institute. Thanks to my podiatrist, Bill Hopkins, fellow marathoner who managed to get me custom orthotic and have my insurance pay every cent! Thanks to Dr. Rasi, the orthopedic surgeon who shot my knee with cortisone… the miracle drug.

Thanks to the Team in Training coaches and mentors. Our head coach Ed who did not, for one second, have ANY doubt that I would cross that finish line, my main mentor Jake and all of the other mentors, Joe (who is doing great and is recovering well), Joy, Sarah, Nicole and last but not least Cristina. Cristina is one of those people who are absolutely dependable in a way that you hope to be like them as much as you can. An inspiration. Thanks also to Martha and all of the rest of the TNT staff. You were all fantastic!

Thanks to the honorees. You guys had the hardest job of all. You’ve either gone or are going through blood cancer treatments that make all of this pale in comparison. You were my inspiration during the training and you will continue to be for the rest of my life. It was an honor knowing you.

Thanks to my Team. You are the first bunch of athletes I’ve ever known that did not look down on losers like me. Now, I don’t actually think of myself as a loser any more, but that’s because I’ve never been made feel like one by my teammates. You have all been NOTHING BUT supportive. That support made a huge difference. You all made me part of YOUR team and made me feel like it was OUR team.

Special thanks to Luis. My brother in arms. We went through hell and back together, starting from pretty much the same place and ending EXACTLY at the same place, with arms raised, at the finish line of the 2005 Honolulu Marathon. You have inspired me to be a better person in all aspects of my life.

EXTRA special thanks to Stacy. The love of my life and my best friend. Don’t worry, I won’t get all soppy on you (or is it too late?). Stacy has sacrificed a LOT over the past few months as I’ve been running or at track or stretching or reading about running or doing my core exercises or… I really appreciate the fact that, although you didn’t understand WHY I was doing all of this, you never complained about it and you did your best to participate by going out and volunteering at water stops or whatever else you needed to do to show your support. I know that you finally GOT what all of this was about while we were in Hawaii. For that, I love you all the more. Okay soppy stuff over now.

Will I ever do this again? Simple answer. Yes. I have a long term plan to participate in a triathlon in about two years time. Why two years? Well, a triathlon consists of a swim, a bike ride and a run. I don’t know how to swim. But I do know that I am capable of doing things I am currently unable to do. So, I’ll learn to swim. And I’ll practice until I can swim for a mile or more. And I’ll eventually be good enough for a triathlon. Will I run again? Yes. I’ve already signed up for a 10K run in February. Will I run another marathon? Good question. I actually WANT to. I WANT to run one, and I mean RUN one. Get a finish time of five or six hours. BUT, based on the experiences of the past few months and the professional advise of many, I need to assess whether I’ll mess my legs up by doing so. They whole idea is that I’ll be fit enough to keep up with Ronan as he grows up. If I wreck my knees that is not going to happen.

In closing, all of this reminds me of the time I won my very first medal and how I felt upon receiving it. I was a late bloomer and while most of the other kids in my class had medals from sprints or long distance or some egg-and-spoon race or three-legged race they did with their friend, a medal seemed to pass me by. Probably had a lot to do with that lack of participation thing. Anyway, the date that I did receive that first medal will ALWAYS stay with me. It was December 11th, 2005.

Thanks for your money.
Thanks for your readership.
Thanks for your support.

It was a privileged to have you on this journey with me and have a great 2006!

Martin

Marathon Photos

2005-12-20T20:53:00.000-08:00

I know I said that there would be just one more blog entry. I lied. This is the penultimate entry. I’m nor ready to compose my final text entry but I do have a few photos I took during the marathon that I’d like to show you.

Here I am at the very start of the race with fireworks going on above me

Soon into the race we see the freaky runners emerge. Here are two people dress up as Lilo and Stitch

A bunny and a dolphin!

A sign on the obligatory Irish pub that says “ Finish Line… for Guinness drinkers, all others 24.5 miles to go”

We ran through downtown Honolulu which was decorated for the holiday season. That was a great distraction!

Stacy met me as the Sun rose on mile five.

Why not dress up as an Alien before running 26.2 miles!

Better still, dress up as Robocop!

At the top of the Diamond Head hill.

… and on the way down.

A very old man making his way in flip flops!!!

A typical waterstop

Luis, enjoying his Hawaiian run.

I’m having some fun myself

This lady played Jingle Bells on her accordion as we trudged along the road.

Believe it or not, this was around mile 20!

Some people sat in their front garden screaming encouragement and playing Christmas music. How come those snowmen aren’t melting?

Happy me, at the finish (believe it or not, I don't have any good photos of my actually CROSSING the line.

Brothers in Arms

One of my blisters…

Finally, I can say I finished what I started!

… and enjoy my reward …

… in beautiful Hawaii

Mission Accomplished!

2005-12-12T18:25:00.000-08:00

I did it! As promised, I didn't break any land speed records in the process, but I DID it. Actually I should say WE did it as Luis and I stuck together for the whole thing, step by step, hour by hour ... and we were still talking to each other by the end.
Before I start this, my final blog entry, I'd like to thank all of my supporters and well wishers. The collective crossing of all of your fingers made a big difference on the day and I can't thank you enough for your faithful readership of this blog.
So, the first question you probably have is how (or why) I am writing this blog entry when I'm supposed to be in Hawaii. Well, the hotel room has this really cool 42" Plasma TV that also allows internet access. Stacy is sleeping and I am too exited to tell you all how everything went to wait until I get back to California. I won't be able to publish any photos (and I have some good ones) until I return, so don't forget to check for that update next week some time.
We arrived on Friday. The hotel was really nice and we settled down quite nicely. It was great to finally arrive in Honolulu after all this time. We went out with some of my teammates that evening for dinner. I went to bed quite early as I had set my watch three hours earlier than local time in order to make getting up at 3am on Sunday morning a bit more feasible.
The team in Training pasta party tool place on Saturday night. I had been complaining earlier in the day about the fact that it was on the night before we were supposed to be up at 3am and it was a PASTA party and our coach had told us that eating pasta the night before would do nothing except sit in our stomachs the day of the race. The pasta part was actually excellent and a very important part of the experience. Yes, the provided pasta was crap. But the speakers that night were both educational, funny and emotional. All of it was very motivational. The first speaker was from an esteemed running magazine (the same one I appeared on a few months back, remember?) he was VERY funny and very inspiring at the same time. I learned much from his experience of running 48 previous marathons. The other main speaker was the father of a four year old little girl named Hannah who had lost her battle with cancer earlier this year. He explained to us how much the leukemia and Lymphoma society had help him and his family deal with her disease and brought home the enormity of losing someone so precious. I couldn't but help think about Ronan and how I would cope in a similar situation. Would I be brave enough to speak on his behalf in a similar manner. He asked her once what she wanted to be when she grew up and she answered "a cancer survivor. When he asked her what she wanted to say to people if she didn't make it she said she wanted people to know that she tried her best to be a cancer survivor. He then explained the bumper sticker many Hawaiians display on their cars. It simply says "Eddie Would Go". Eddie Aikau was a surfer, riding some of the biggest waves in the world; as a lifeguard, he saved hundreds of lives from the North Shore's treacherous waters; and as a a proud Hawaiian, he sacrificed his life to save his fellow sailors aboard the voyaging canoe Hokule'a. He has become a symbol of courage throughout the islands. Hannah's father ended his talk with tears in his eyes simply saying "Hannah would go". We then sat and watched a slide show that showed what a beautiful and courageous little girl she was while she was alive. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house at the end. I saw a lot of people who were very emotional and guessed that their lives were touched in some way with Leukemia. I thanked God that mine has not. I knew that I would finish the next day because some cannot give up, even when their fate is inevitable. The speaker then asked for a moment of silence so that we can contemplate who we are running our race for. I knew immediately that I was running for my friend Stephanie who died earlier this ear and was my biggest inspiration to get up and start living my life. Steph died at the age of 40. At her memorial service one of her friends said that she had actually lived to a ripe old age because she crammed so much into the time she had on earth, many times more than the average lifetime. She spent 90% of her energy thinking about and doing good for others. Steph would go.
After dinner we got together for a couple of quick team photos and quickly dispersed. I had a small moment of panic as Mark, my sports medicine guy was nowhere to be found and had told me that he would tape my legs for me. Knowing that he must have had a pretty serious reason for not making it to Hawaii, I taped my right leg up myself in my room. I did it over until I got it just right. It was time to go to bed as I'd need to be up again in five hours time. Amazingly, I slept.
The alarms went off at 3am. I had set four separate alarms. I had taken coach's advice and prepared all my gear the previous day. I had breakfast and was out the door in a few minutes. Predicting that the elevators would be full of like-minded marathoners, I decided to walk down six flights of stairs that were beside our room. I opened the door making sure to close it behind me, as it was a fire door. When I reach the bottom I realized that the exit had a warning in big bold letters that said "warning, alarm will sound if door is opened." So, I had gone down an emergency exit. Back up I go to the first floor. The door was locked from my side. Same for the second floor. TYPICAL. This was TYPICAL of me. I would miss the marathon because I got stuck in the emergency stairwell! I was just about to go ahead and set off those alarms when I saw that the third floor exit was left ajar and I managed to escape. I went over to the elevator and, of course, there were no crowds and getting down was a piece of cake. We all met up in the hotel lobby and took a few photos. Then it was off to the marathon!
believe it or not, we had to walk about two miles to the starting point. We managed to pee three times before the starting blast, as planned. I say starting blast because the race was actually started with a spectacular fireworks display. It was very exciting and I was smiling from ear to ear. I had accomplished my primary goal. I had endured the rigorours training schedule and made it to the starting line! Luis looked at me and smiled. He said "how far away from the couch is this?". How far, indeed. We had set ourselves at the 6 hours or more starting point and it took us a full half hour before we made it to the starting line. Plan A was to race walk for the first ten miles or so and to start running based on how we felt at that point. What's race walking? Well, it more or less like when you are really late for a bus and have to walk really fast but don't want to run... except you do that for several hours! Luis and I took off like bats out of hell and were passing people left, right and center. We even past a few slower runners using our race walking techniques. We felt great and had a good laugh at all the weirdos and their fancy costumes.
Stacy was waiting for us at around mile four. It was great to see her. She had tears in her eyes as she told me how much she loved me and how proud she was of me. On we went to see our team of mentors and our coach. They all went BEZERK when they saw us. It was great! On we went. We were met by the seven hour Team in Training pacer. His job was to walk at exactly the right pace to get people finished in seven hours. It was great to see him as his presence implied that if we just keep our current pace we could finish in seven hours or under. As we got stalking to him he wanted to talk about work and crap like that. We needed to lose him as he was ruining our fun! We did, eventually. On we went up Diamond Head, a famously steep hill that many who have run the race speak of. As we were going up the hill, we saw the race leaders going the OTHER direction. It was two hours into the marathon and these guys were already finishing. Apparently, the guy who won did so with an average pace of four and a half minute miles!!! My heart sank as I realized that I would not come in first place this year. :-)
One and one we went. We saw our team mentors once again and that lifted our spirits out of the stratosphere. I was REALLY happy. We were doing this and I was feeling great. The next several miles were actually run on the highway. I was realizing that Luis was not going to be ready to run when we originally planned. I didn't give a damn! I was so happy to be there running with him and I was feeling GOOD.
The marathon actually had two lanes on the highway so we were able to see the faster runners return on the other side. Every time we saw a fellow Team in Training participant (TNT'er from now on) we would wave at them, shout encouragement, high five them. They would all reciprocate. There were more TNT'ers out there than we were used to on our Santa Cruz team. In and around three thousand more! It felt great to be part of that team and to get continuous encouragement from the sidelines and from TNT alumni and TNT participants from all over the united states. On and on we went. We felt good but it was getting hotter and hotter and a lot more humid. That made things a lot more challenging. However, our training had though us how to say properly hydrated and how to manage our energy drink supplies. Dehydration would not be our problem. Luis was having a few aches and pains from the halfway point and I was setting the pace. In my excitement, I would perhaps go a bit too fast for him and we would need to slow down. Despite his aches and pains he had a huge smile on his face. In our own little world, we were kicking some ass!
On and on we went. We eventually met up with our team mates Len and Jen. They were doing good but the heat had also forced them to walk a lot and to take it easy. They were in great spirits. We tried carrying on together as a foursome but soon realized that our paces were incompatible. They went on a head and we caught up with them in a mile or so and they would then pass us and we would again pass them. Luis managed to be over his previous injuries and we picked up the pace we were going like bats out of hell (still race walking) until about mile twenty when Luis started to have some more serious problems with one of his feet. He said it felt like it was broken. Just after that, we saw our coach, Ed, and Luis through out an expletive I won't repeat here for the sake of my more sensitive readers. Luis really wanted Ed to have seen us during our bat out of hell stage, not when he was limping around the place. It was here that I realized that we wouldn't be running any of the race. I didn't care one little bit. This run would be about finishing together. As we continued,Luis' pain grew more and more and I really had to talk him through every agonizing step. At this stage of the race, we were surrounded by 'bodies' of the fallen. Luis could see them and know that he could be worse. As the miles went on, Luis' pain increased. At one stage he filled the top of his sock with ice. That helped. Our mentors were waiting for us at the top of Diamond head again. Mile 22. I could see that Luis was in pretty bad shape and our conversation had turned exclusively to making sure Luis would get to that finish line and pick up that finisher's medal and T shirt. We were literally taking him there one step at a time. Luis was wincing on every step. I was impressed with Luis' strength. Despite the pain, he kept the correct form and went as fast as he possibly could. We were still at a good striding pace. Stacy was waiting at mile 26. It was GREAT to see her. She had been waiting there (rather optimistically) for the past three hours. She managed to see pretty much all of our teammates finish their race. She hugged and kissed but we still had 0.2 miles to go and I was afraid to stop. We walked to the end raised our hands together and FINISHED. Our time was unimportant at this stage. We had made it off our respective couches, gone through hell and back during our training and actually MISSED the later half of the training, but we did all that together. We would wonder if we could carry on together and it was really great to finish together. Despite the pain, Luis had made it all the way. Luis would go.
Later that day Stacy told me that she cried her eyes our with pride as she heard those fireworks go off at 5am. Everything we had gone through that weekend helped her understand my REAL motivation behind what this is all about. She saw what Team inTraining is about. She realized how it REALLY helps people. She saw the bond I had made with a bunch of complete strangers and the support we had for each other. Stacy definitely looks at me with ride in her eyes now. When she supported what I was doing before this weekend, she now UNDERSTANDS why I did it. I'm so glad that she was able to come and watch me go through it all, from start to finish.
So I'm sitting here now in my fancy hotel room and have a lot to reflect on. I have a lot to be thankful for. I have a lot of peoplewho helped me get here. Physically, I have a few aches and pains but that sort of thing doesn't bother the new Martin. He's used to that. What he's not used to is finishing something physical that he started. I am very proud of myself. I am officially off the coach and through that finish line. I have more to say, but I also need to go snorkeling and lying on the beach and getting a massage, so I think I 'll finish those thoughts when I get home.

Mahalo

Martin

On my way

2005-12-08T23:24:00.000-08:00

Well here it is, my very last blog entry before the big day. I can’t believe I’ve made it. I can’t believe that I’m flying to Honolulu tomorrow morning. Actually, I’m supposed to be up and at ‘em in just a few short hours so I’d better be getting on with it.

I’m feeling pretty good. I have NO IDEA how my ITBS (side knee pain) is doing because it only occurs when I run and I haven’t run since last Saturday. I went for a last massage earlier on and it felt really good (for a change). My knee is a bit sore but I think I’ll be in fairly good shape on Sunday morning. Since we have to get up so early on Sunday I’ve decided to set my watch ahead three hours relative to Hawaii time. That’s actually only an hour ahead of California time. In short, I’m going to image that I’ll be flying EAST one hour tomorrow. That way, I’ll think I’m getting up at 5:30 instead to 2:30 on Sunday morning. Of course, the fact that I will KNOW that its not REALLY 5:30 won’t help matters.

You can all track my progress on Sunday in REAL TIME by going to

http://www.honolulumarathon.org/

and entering in my name. I’m not sure how (or if) it will work but you can apparently see my progress during the race this way. The run starts at 5am which in 7am in California and 3pm in Ireland. Send good vibes my way.

I had a bit of a fright this morning. Luis told me that he may not be able to make it as his son was pretty sick. Luis is a single parent and his son needs him so I understood his situation but felt really bad that his marathon bid was in jeopardy. Fortunately, his son is getting better and it looks like Luis will make it after all. I was starting to dread running / walking / crawling this thing on my own.

Looking back on the past few months I can only see positive things. I’m fitter than I’ve ever been, I’ve lost 20 lbs in weight, with your help I’ve raise a LOAD of money to help those kids and adults suffering from blood cancers and we’ve all helped getting closer to that cure. I’ve met some great people. The honorees like Greg stay with me and will stay with me throughout the pain of Sunday’s run. I get to rest on Monday. Many don’t have such a luxury. I’ve made new friends like Luis and Carrie and Lora and Len and Jen and James and … I really could go on and on. When I started this endeavor they told me that training for this marathon would change my life forever. No matter what happens on Sunday that much, I now know, is true. From the bottom of my heart I thanks you all for supporting every step I have taken on this journey, even when those steps became limps. I thank all of you that have donated so generously your hard earned cash.

The phase ‘it’s not the destination but the journey’ could not be more apt at this point in my life. Thank you all for taking the journey with me. Whether you know it or not, you have all managed to lighten my load.

Now, close your eyes and wish me luck. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks with a report of how everything went.

Midweek update

2005-12-06T21:08:00.000-08:00

I just thought I’d check in again. I decided NOT to get that second cortisone shot. I really couldn’t justify it and I’ve read that needless cortisone shots can do some damage to the muscles, long term. I don’t think I’ve ever been as paranoid in my life. I still have very little pain in my knee since last week’s cortisone shot. At one stage I actually had to leave work to run around for a mile or so just to see if my injury would come back. Well, apart for doing something silly, I don’t think there will be anything I could do to get my knee to hurt like it used to. It still hurts a BIT, but not very much. In short, it still hurts enough to make me run very gingerly on Sunday. I have no idea when the pain will start during my BIG run but I really hope that it is as long past the starting line as possible.

I’m starting to dream about my run. Last night I dreamt that Luis and I had a great run. The night before I had one of many ‘exam’ dreams. You know those dreams where you realize the night before a big exam that you haven’t studied at all?

Anyway, I will remain paranoid about every little pain and spasm that takes place in my lower body. I have tape on my foot to help stabilize it. I have tape below my knee to deal with that Peronial nerve. I have a PatStrap wrapped around my knee to help with my ITBS. Sometimes I feel like I’m being held together with string. I cannot WAIT until Monday. I make be in a world of pain, but I will know how I did. I will have DONE whatever I’m about to do and I can rest. I can finally REST. Of course, I am grateful that I CAN rest. I must keep our honorees and all of those suffering from blood cancers in my mind and APPRECIATE the fact that I can stop and rest for a few days, or weeks. I can choose to stop the pain. Thank god for that.

Fingers continue to be crossed!

2005-12-04T21:04:00.000-08:00

I have a fair bit of catching up to do since Thursday night’s entry. It’s pretty much all good news, even though I HATE to say stuff like that. I’ve had three days pain free and I’ve run twice in those three days. I have a tiny bit of residual pain but I’m going to try to go back and get one more shot to make that go away.

Friday morning, I went out to the Skypark neighbourhood – the one with the one-mile running track around it. I ran a full mile with lots of trepidation. I ran a bit and stretched and ran another bit and stretched but I didn’t feel my usual pain one single time! At one stage a let out a huge whoop of joy. It was GREAT to not feel my usual crippling pain after a couple of minutes! I stopped after a mile mainly because I didn’t want to ruin my good mood with a sudden reoccurrence of my injury. I spent the rest of the day smiling… a little paranoid, but still smiling.

The last buddy run of the season was on Saturday morning. I had already written it off last week but I changed my mind on Friday night. I would make the final Team in Training run. The run started at the bottom of a hill, a hill I didn’t want to climb on my first real run in weeks so I drove past the starting point so that I could start my run past that hill. I saw a couple of teammates looking at me as I drove by. I’m not sure if the surprise one their faces was because I was driving past the starting point of simply because I was there at all. I started out my race walking for about a mile. Race walking is walking with a technique that allows you to move ALMOST as fast as you might run (but you also look like you have a stick up your bum). I then started jogging and continued to run/walk/run/walk for another couple of miles. As I ran back I came across Cristina, one of my favorite mentors. Cristina is a true mentor for slower runners like myself. She is not a particularly fast runner herself, but has a huge heart and I don’t even think she does the mentoring because she likes to run. She likes to encourage others to achieve what they know is inside themselves. She’s great. I couldn’t have chosen a better mentor to run my last couple of miles training with. I didn’t meet up with the others because I had actually run farther than they had and so didn’t meet them on my way back, as I had expected to. When we got to my car I didn’t want to stop running! Half because I was just enjoying myself with Cristina and half because I wanted to REALLY challenge my knee before getting any way confident about next weekend. Se we ran a mile DOWN that hill I avoided at the start and Cristina drove me back UP to my car. It felt GLORIOUS to run again. I was surprised by how good it made me feel.

Today, my knee is starting to feel a bit sore again. Sore enough for me to want to go back to Dr. Rasi and get one more shot before next Sunday. Yes, SUNDAY is race day! I can’t believe how fast it is coming up. Ram, my friend in work who has been taking part in his own marathon training ran his race today in Sacramento. He was joined by four of my teammates. I think they all did very well and I very happy for them all. Keep me in your thoughts over the next week and please keep those thoughts positive… focusing on the outside of my right knee!

Tired, getting a cold, getting nervous

2005-12-01T22:46:00.000-08:00

Just a quick entry tonight as I’ve had a VERY busy day (week) and I’m tired. First of all, my knee is no longer hurting when I don’t run. Now, I don’t know if that means that my leg is not going to hurt after a couple of minutes of running but this is still a big improvement. I couldn’t test my new legs out today as it was raining cats and dogs ALL day.
We had out final send off meeting tonight. It really made me realize just what I’ve gotten myself into, both for the good reasons and for the scary reasons. Did I tell you that the run starts at 5AM? We have to be assembled in the hotel lobby by 3:30am, which means that I’ll have to get UP at around 2:30am!!! We were also told not to count on getting ANY sleep that night. Just what you need before a 26 mile run! Ah well, it’s all good at this stage of the game. I’ll do it all, I’ll soak it in and I’ll have something to remember for the rest of my life.
Finally, I want you all to send good vibes my way. I’m getting a sore throat or a cough or something coming on and it’s not very welcome right now. So send anti-cold vibes my way and help me fight it off. I’ll do my part by loading myself up with vitamin C and zinc lozenges. If I get it, I’ll try my best not to let it get me down. Better to get it now than this time next week!
I’m going to try a quick run in the morning if the rain has stopped by then. Wish me luck!

Officially Broken (but not bad news)

2005-11-29T21:52:00.000-08:00

I went to the appointment with the orthopedic surgeon today. They x-rayed my knee from every angle and his comments upon reviewing the x-rays was NOT what I wanted to hear. He said that he saw significantly more ‘degeneration’ in the structure of my knee than he would expect for someone my age. He told me, point blank, to stop running. In his opinion arthritis is almost a certainty in my future. The more I run, the sooner the future will be. I told him that being able to keep up with Ronan as he grows was a big factor in why I started to run. He basically told me that my continuing to run would just mean that I would be able to hold my breath longer than Ronan, but it wouldn’t necessarily help me pick him up. He suggested I try cycling or swimming next. Seeing as how I can’t swim, cycling is the only thing that’s left. However, this Marathon has thought me that I am capable of things I did not think were previously possible so I may just go back and learn to swim (without giving up mid lessons, as is the historical pattern). So be it. I will have to reconsider that vow I made to run another marathon. I’ll set new long-term goals in the New Year. Perhaps I’ll learn to swim and do a triathlon. Perhaps I’ll do a 100 mile cycle. Either way, whatever I do, I’ll do it better as a result of this experience.
The doctor examined my knee and felt confident that I did, indeed, suffer from ITBS. Now, it usually takes up to six months to fully recover from this condition, but sometime the cortisone shot can work miracles. He showed me exactly where the band of muscle was rubbing on my knee. He thought that a cortisone shot would probably do some good in helping me get over my injury and finish the marathon in one piece. The cortisone shot was actually very easy. It felt like the flu shot with a little more shot. He also gave me a prescription for course of anti-inflammatory pills that would kill a horse.
I looked back at the events that have covered my blog over the past few months and I’m SO glad I did this thing DESPITE the pain. Pain can sometimes make you feel like you’re doing something, like you are ALIVE. There is a form of good pain and all of my pain has been good pain. I hope to keep this blog around as a constant reminder to myself that the payback for getting out of shape can be very significant indeed. I hope it will inspire me to keep fit after the race and beyond.
Stay tuned to see if the shot did me any good (or any harm). I’ll try running again on Thursday and I’ll see what happens. The doc told me that I could go back again next week if I need to try another shot before the marathon.

Getting in the 'zone' - Cortizone!

2005-11-28T21:21:00.000-08:00

First and formost, thanks to all of you for your words of encouragement. They were very much appreciated and made a big impact on my mental state.

I went to my podiatrist this morning. He was SURE I have a thing called IT band syndrome. He thinks there is one more thing I can try and it should provide good results. He even called in a favor with a colleague and got me an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon tomorrow at lunchtime. I’m going to get a shot of cortisone into my knee area. I have no idea what that means but I do know that it’s main function is to drastically reduce the inflammation so that my IT band no longer rubs off my knee and has a chance to heal. I’ve read about this stuff on the internet and people claim anything from ‘this will mess you up for the rest of your life” to “ this will fix your IT band problems overnight”. I’m hoping that the latter statement is more applicable in my case! I choose to ignore the former because if you look up a head cold (for example) on the Internet you’ll probably find someone with a story of how you will DIE within a week. Anyway, I’ll let you know what happens tomorrow.

New Leaf

2005-11-27T21:41:00.000-08:00

I don’t know if anyone is checking my blog anymore. It’s been an entire week since I did an update and I honestly don’t know if anyone is going to read this entry. Not that it matters. I’m writing this one for myself.
I’ve been in a really bad mood over the second half of today. My Mam has been visiting for the past week and Ronan had a great time with her. It was great to see him interact with his ‘nanny’ for over a week. She left earlier today and I had been thinking that it was the leaving of a loved one that goes back ‘home’ that put me in my ‘mood’. Not so (of course, I’m sad to see my mother go back). If I look down deep inside, I know that I’m angry with myself. Why? Because I gave up on myself. After a quick run on Wednesday morning I was in pain and gave up hope of running the Marathon in a couple of weeks. I used Thanksgiving and my mother’s visit as excuses, but I did not roll, I did none of my prescribed exercises and I did not run. I didn’t have a master plan behind any of this but I know that I gave up. It really is looking like I’ll be LUCKY to finish this race in two weeks time. My leg still hurts. My knee hurts when I run and it even hurts when I walk. It hurts when I just swing my leg back and forth for a while. I can’t find any cause and neither can any of the experts I’ve been seeing over the past few months… other than to tell me that my problems stem from strangely shaped legs and feet. I’ve done butt exercises, taped my leg, gotten custom orthodics, endured deep tissue massages that went to the core of every muscle of my lower body and endured hours of pain… and I’m STILL not likely to be able to run this marathon. That is NOT why I’ve been in a bad mood. That is NOT why I haven’t been sleeping well lately. I’m in a bad mood because I LET all of this things get to me. I finally gave in to the weight of all this crap that seems to have been in vain. I gave up.
The main purpose of this blog entry is to try to turn myself around. Now, I realize that turning my attitude around will not cure my knee issues. Continuing with my training regiment probably won’t help me to run an extra step at this stage. But it can help me finish (walking or crawling) with a smile upon my face. Ever since I was a kid I pretty much gave up doing anything when I started to be at the back of the pack. I was always the kid to be picked last for football teams. I used to ‘play hooky’ at sporting events in school because I was so bad at them I used to get shouted at for letting the ball fall between my legs, or whatever. This marathon would be the first difficult thing I ever did without giving up. When things were going well, I felt like this was going to be the first sporting achievement I would ever do and I wouldn’t give up! I realize that I need to keep trying in order to say that I didn’t give up. So I will.
I will probably finish this marathon in a dismally bad time. I will probably be in a lot of pain and lots of people in Santa suits will sail past me on a continuous basis. But I’ll know that DESPITE all of this, I won’t have given up.
I will vow two things tonight. The first is that, starting tonight; I will do everything I can to be in the best shape possible for the start of the Honolulu marathon. I will continue to do my strengthening exercises. I will continue to run short distances. I will continue to see all of my ‘specialists’, starting with my podiatrist in the morning. If none of this helps me physically at this point, so be it. I will know I tried.
What’s my second vow? I vow that I WILL run (and I mean RUN) a marathon within the next couple of years. Looking back, I see that I WAS crazy to assume that I could run this thing with zero running experience. Hey, I didn’t have any sporting experience at all! Taking care of Ronan was probably the most physical activity I ever did until the one-mile time trial a few months back. I will start training for the NEXT marathon soon after I return. I will rest my knees in an attempt to fix my problem (whatever it is) and I’ll ramp up my training at a much slower rate. But I will do all of it to prove something to myself and to fulfill a promise to the many of people like you who have donated to my cause and placed to much faith in me. This is not bullshit. It’s not an excuse with a feeble ‘I’ll try better next time’. I don’t honestly think I can try better than I did this time around, but I do know that I can try slower and fitter and more informed.
Thanks to all of you still reading my blog. Thanks for staying with me all this time. Thanks for believing in me. I’ll be writing more often as we get closer to the ‘event’.

Sorry it's been so long.

2005-11-20T22:00:00.000-08:00

Well, I just realized that it’s been a very long time since my last entry. I’ve had a very busy weekend and I’m tired and I want to go to bed. But I owe you guys an update. I withheld an update because I really didn’t want to tell you bad news. Well, the bad news just keeps on coming.

I missed track on Thursday night because traffic was hellish on the way back from picking up my mother at SFO. Mark retaped my ankle and my knee as I went up to collect her. I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t get a chance to try his new taping out. I also had to get stacy to remove the original tape on Thursday morning. Ahhhhh! Pain! Anyway, I was too late to run track by the time we got back from SFO and watched Ronan and my mother get along with each other. Friday, I really took it fairly easy as I didn’t want to do too much before the big one. 20 miles. Our official dress rehersal for marathon day.

Stacy, Ronan and Mam came with me on Saturday. The run itself was about an hour away and I wanted Stacy to drive me home in case things didn’t go too well. My bad knee is my driving knee (if you get my meaning). The three of them took charge of a water station… seven and a half miles into the run.

I felt good. I was thinking that I should try my best to listen to Mark’s advice and only run 16 of the 20 miles. That should be enough to get my confidence back fo the final race, now that we had worked out the problems with my knee. We started and my the outside of my knee started hurting within the first few minutes. I tried walking for a while. Not too back. Tried running again. Nope, my knee pain was increasing. Walked again. I had started by attempting the run-eight-minutes, walk-two-minutes technique. I was BARELY able to RUN for two minutes. I ‘race walked’ for the first seven and a half miles. Did it in two hours. That’s fairly fast walking. I turned around at the seven and a half mile point. I really wanted to make it to the seven and a half mile point as that was where Stacy, Ronan and Mam were and it would have killed me not to see them on the run. With the walk back, I had walked a total of fifteen miles. In short, I ran as badly as I ever have over the past few weeks. I really felt like it was my IT band, but I also felt that my feet may also have had something to do with it. Severe pain on the outside of my knee that would get worse with every step. I was barely able to bend my leg for a few hours after the run and when I did it REALLY hurt. I sat in an ice bath, things improved significantly. I still had a bit of pain for the rest of the day, but my recovery was much faster than usual.

Today was Ronan’s baptism and I spent many many hours on my feet, often holding him. Not too good for my legs but I guess that’s what I signed up for. It was bad, but not THAT bad. I think all of this training has at least made my recovery period a bit shorter.

I’ve GOT to go to bed now. I was up at 5:30am on Saturday morning for the run and 7:00 am this morning.

I’ll write more tomorrow night.

My bones are getting on my nerves!

2005-11-15T22:37:00.000-08:00

So much to write about… so little time. I have half an hour to write about the past 48 (or more) hours.

Sunday, Ronan and I went for a walk with Luis and his son Santiago. It was maybe a couple of miles. Between that and some odd jobs I was doing around the house in preparation for a visit from my mother, my knees were pretty sore by Sunday night. Monday, as I wrote last night I had an appointment with Mark Fadil. I learned several things during this time.

1. I was, indeed ALWAYS doing my core strengthen exercises incorrectly. I have no idea how to control my abdominal muscles and controlling them is at the essence of strengthening my core. I still don’t really understand what or where they are. Now I know what the person who wakes up in a hospital bed feels like when they scream “I can’t feel my legs, I can’t feel my legs”, except I was lying there screaming “I can feel my abs, I can’t feel my abs!”. I still have no idea. Yet another thing to work out along this journey.

2. I was also doing my butt strengthening exercises incorrectly. See above.

3. I have set a new bar for the amount of pain I have experienced in my life. As part of the diagnostic process, Mark thought it would be a good idea to bore holes into my back with his fingers. The deepest deep tissue massage I ever experienced. Of course, in reality this really means that my back muscles were REALLY tight and needed to be tenderized, as one would tenderize a big lump of mutton in an attempt to pass it off as lamb.

4. I have a new probable offender for my knee pain. Turns out, I may have had a compressed Peronean nerve in my knee that may have been caused by bad knee joints that may have been as a result of a snowboarding accident I had about five years ago (sounds glamorous, but it wasn’t, believe me!). Mark taped up my leg in various places and my pain subsided considerably!

5. I have very hairy legs. Mark was not happy with his first attempt at taping my legs and had to rip the tape back off. Now, this tape is pretty much the same as duct tape, as far as its adhesive properties are concerned. After he ripped the tape off, the tape was very hairy and the leg was not… any more. How on earth do people do that bikini wax thing? Nut jobs!

Mark suggested that I try a short run today and I did just that this very morning. I finished that three mile run with mixed results. The run went fine. I still had soreness in the area Mark taped yesterday but it registered at about a 4/10 (compared to an 8/10 before). I also noticed that the soreness would subside if I stopped and stretched my I.T. band... getting worse as I ran again. I also noticed that the soreness was associated with the action of bending knee as I lifted my foot off the ground. I stopped after 3 miles feeling like I could have run four or five... but with increased soreness and maybe even some pain.

Two hours later, I still had pain behind my knee, especially when I bend the leg - perhaps even sorer than when I was running. The tape around my ankle came loose in the shower and I'm not sure if I reapplied it correctly. Already I started second guessing everything. The miracle cure was not as miraculous as I first imagined it might be.

I still have pains in the back of my knee when going up or down stairs or when I bend my knee upwards. Reading some stuff about the Peroneal nerve, many of the symptoms resonated with me and I really think that this is were most of my problems lie. I just don’t understand why I felt so good just after my appointment and have reverted back to such a degree now. I honestly give up trying to figure it all out at this stage. But I will keep trying to improve and I absolutely REFUSE to give up. As the old prayer goes…

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can;and wisdom to know the difference.

A New Hope

2005-11-14T22:27:00.000-08:00

So it turns out that all of my pain over the last few weeks may have been due to an injured nerve. My fibula to tibia joint was found to be a bit wobbly, probably cause by a snowboarding accident about FIVE years ago. This was putting pressure on my peroneal nerve. Mark at SMI taped my knee together again to secure the joint and lighten the pressure from the nerve. The results were nothing short of miraculous! I’m going to try running again tomorrow to see if I’m REALLY fixed this time so I’ll write tomorrow with a full report (and a better explanation). I want you all to cross your fingers…

Life's up and downs

2005-11-11T20:59:00.000-08:00

Wow! I just keep getting thrown one way and then the other. I’m not going to write too much tonight as I’m not in a very good mood and I have a new carpet cleaner to assemble and a kitchen table to take apart. I tried running this morning and I lasted a whole 200ft or so before my knee started to give me problems. I’ve gone from the longest I’ve even run four weeks ago to the shortest I’ve run in memory today.
After a day of limping around feeling sorry for myself I may have Stacy to thank for saving me, once again. I showed her the exercises I’ve been doing all week and she was shocked that I had not actually broken my knees doing them. She tried one of them herself and actually hurt her own knee! I’m going to try some of the butt strengthening exercises Stacy showed me tonight from now on. They make a whole lot more sense and don’t put any stress on my knees. I’m taking a break tonight to give the pain in my knees a bit of a rest. I have a busy day ahead tomorrow to get the house ready for my Mam’s visit on Thursday. She’s coming over for Ronan’s baptism.
And in other news, Luis messed up his knee once again last night at track. In short, we are still as lame as each other right now.

One step forward...

2005-11-10T20:46:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning at 5am to pee and I had a bit of pain down in the region around my knee. Oh, oooh! To cut a long story short, my running-related pains are transforming into bum exercise-related pains. Not THAT, I don’t mind at all, as soreness is a sign that I’m actually working some muscles. I decided to cycle into work and cycle home again at lunchtime. I’ve been using reasons why I absolutely, positively have to use my car as excuses not to ride my bike to work for far too long. Of course, the knee injury hasn’t helped that endeavor either! It’s been so long since I cycled last that I actually had to put some air in the tires (tyres) once again. I also did all of my exercises – took me about an hour and a half in total. I need to do the same think every single day for the next month. I looked at the calendar this morning and realized that I HAVE LESS THAN ONE MONTH LEFT!!! After a brief heart attack, I resolved to do everything I can (within reason) to get back on my feet (and my bike) and get my confidence level back up. To do that, I need to work on that knee pain. To do that, I need to work on those muscles of mine.
I was supposed to have track tonight but I didn’t go. I know in my heart that it would have set me back a couple of steps. I want to go one step forward for a change! I’m going to try running a few miles on Saturday and MAYBE a couple of miles tomorrow morning… just as a test to see how bad a shape I’m still in.
As ever (and ever)… wish me luck!

On the mend

2005-11-09T22:07:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update to let you all know that I finally feel like I’m on the mend. The butt-strengthening exercises Mark ahs me doing are very tough but I know, from experience at this stage, that that’s the reason I NEED to do them and that it will get easier in time. I still don’t feel like I could run very far just yet, but the general pain has definitely subsided. Most of my soreness is coming from those exercises!
Still not sure what to do about track tomorrow night. I may go but take things at my own pace. No more bounding up those hills!

Hope

2005-11-08T22:17:00.000-08:00

I’ve got a bit of good news for a change. It feels good to feel a little more optimistic. I’ll explain why in a minute.

Last night I went to Len and Jen’s talk about running together and Len’s blindness and all of that sort of thing. It was very entertaining. I learned a lot about how they run together. God, that must be hard… being tied to the same person for several hours at a time running to close to the point of exhaustion. I learned a lot about blindness and how, for Len, this is not really a disability. There is very little Len is unable to do as a result of his blindness. I was in awe of both Len and Jen because what they do is an example of true humanity and teamwork. I couldn’t run a marathon tied to someone else… unless I was being dragged, that it!

I went over to Palo Alto to see sports medical expert Mark Fadil. What can I say? The man is a generous! He managed to pinpoint the two places that caused my injuries every time I run. By applying PRESSURE to two places around my hips he was able to cause the same pain in my legs as occurs when I run. He was then able to do deep massage to those places and finally ease my pain. He also accessed that my real problem is that I have very weak bum muscles and I’ve been put on an intensive butt workout. My success or failure on my Marathon bid depends on my bum. Talk about putting your ass on the line! All in all, I know what the problem is, I know how to fix it and I feel like I can recover.

I met Luis for lunch yesterday and we made a bit of a pact. We will run with each other throughout the Marathon in December. If one of us is tired or injured the other will stay back to help get us BOTH across that finish line. I think it helps both of us to try our very best to be in the best shape possible on the day because we don’t want to let our partner in crime down. Whatever happens with our injuries, I know that I will have a lot more fun running with Luis than I would running alone.

Wish me and my weak bottom luck over the next few weeks.

Run, walk or crawl

2005-11-06T22:55:00.000-08:00

Well, I’m guessing that your checking in to see how I did with my eighteen mile run. I’m afraid the answer is … I didn’t do all that well. I walked ten of those eighteen miles with Luis (also still very much injured). I was almost crippled by the end of it so I’m actually GLAD that I didn’t run. I would have been TOTALLY crippled had I run. I’m also glad because I would have missed out on a dozen laughs with Luis. I wouldn’t have received a great pep talk from Luis when I was bitching and moaning and generally being full of regret. He said a few things that put things into perspective for me. He reminded me that, no matter what happens at the end of all of this, I would never regret the experience. After our long, fast walk, it was suggested that we go knee deep into the Pacific Ocean. Now, the Pacific Ocean is cold, REALLY cold! I screamed like a little girl as the waves crept further up my knees and thighs. I think it did me some good.
As the day progressed, my legs started to cramp up all over again and I once again had problems bending them. One of my feet really hurt. It almost feels like a sprain on the side of my right foot. I’m really falling apart lately. I tried something I haven’t done in a while. I did some pretty deep quad stretching. That actually helped with my inability to bend my leg, which is kind of strange, since the quad stretch requires me to bend my leg as much as it will go. I think my main problem since the walk yesterday has been my foot problem. It really is quite sore. Fortunately, I had an appointment with my podiatrist tomorrow to fit and pick up my custom orthotics. I’ll ask him to check out my foot while he’s at it. Once again, I’m going in to test the comfort and fit of a pair of insoles while I have sore knees and a sore foot. How will I know how they feel? “Other than the cramping pains in my foot and knees, these feel so much more comfortable than my own shoes”.
Tomorrow night, I’m going to a fundraiser arranged by Jen and Len - two people I will be running with in Honolulu. They are both faster than me and consistently beat me both in time and in distance. They run together, just like Luis and I do. They are good friends and have a developed a very strong bond. Len runs with a handicap that I used to suffer from. He has asthma. His asthma was bothering him a lot recently but some changes in the dose of his inhaler has made running much easier for him. Len and Jen were recently featured in the local paper for their inspirational teamwork. They run with each other on every run. Step for step. They will run the marathon with each other step for step. Oh, and by the way, Len hasn’t had use of his eyes since he was a baby. If you want to know more about Len and Jen I recommend that you can go to the newspaper article by clicking the following link. I’m my opinion; the headline has a small typo. If you saw him running every week like we do you’d agree… that Len’s blindness is NOT a handicap.

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2005/November/05/style/stories/01style.htm

Since I have raised my fundraising minimum, I’d also like to suggest that you offer any donation you were going to offer me (not presuming that you would or should) to either Len or Jen as they both have yet to make their fundraising minimum and all the money we raise as a Team goes directly to exactly the same place, helping exactly the same people. Len or Jen just wouldn’t have to worry as much about their fundraising.

Len’s donation page is

http://www.active.com/donate/tntsvmb/tntsvmbLBurns

And Jen’s is

http://www.active.com/donations/fundraise_public.cfm?key=tntsvmbJSussma

These are two amazing people who will inspire me for years to come. They are just one of the reasons that I will have no regrets with regard to my experience training for this marathon, whether I end up running, walking or crawling to that finish line.

Dori Galster (Part 2)

2005-11-03T15:24:00.000-08:00

You may remember I had a Q&A with Dori Galster a few weeks back. Doris is amazing because she is a Team Honoree (and cancer survivor) AND a team member. Dori recently completed her event, the Nike Women's Half Marathon in San Francisco. She passed on her reflections of the whole experience to us and has given me permission to pass them on to you. In short, Dori is saying thank you to all of you who have contributed to the cause.

This journey has been a very powerful experience for me. San Francisco played a key part in my own cure. It was here that they harvested my own healthy bone marrow to put in storage for 5 years in case I should relapse. Thank goodness I didn't need it, but I think a part of me has always held onto that fear. With generous support from my friends and family and the magic of TNT I was able to let that go.
It was surreal running down the streets of SF. The first few miles went slowly but we were able to take in the beautiful skyline, the welcomed fog, and remind ourselves what we were all there for. It was amazing how quickly the miles added up. I surrendered myself to the experience and my heart was touched more ways than I could express.
As we rounded the corner to enter golden gate park just after mile 10, I saw my family cheering me on. I nearly lost it. This was the most emotional part of the run, the feeling like my life had come full circle. Just 14 years earlier I sat on the other side of the park, overlooking the trees, contemplating my future, fearing what might happen if I ever needed to come back here again. As we approached miles 11 and 12 I tried to remind myself what I was here for. My friend Abel and Javier along with all the countless other honorees who had lost their battle. My boys, Elijah and Jake, who are miracles and everyday blessings to remind me what a gift life is. I remembered a scared 16 year old who wasn't sure what her future held. I looked around me and took in all the people, my running partners Nicole and Amie, as well as complete strangers running with the same mission. Would they ever know the lives they have touched? Could they ever know how my heart was touched? Heading into mile 13 I felt an incredible release. Not only was I on my way to successfully running my first half marathon, I left a 14 year fear somewhere in the trees.
I am healthy and I am lucky to be alive. I have been blessed with a cure thanks to generous people like you who believed. Just remember as you continue to run/walk those countless miles you are making a difference and you are touching the hearts of many. Thank you for sharing this journey with me. GO TEAM!

Let's take a moment to applaud Dori's accomplishments, both in San Francisco and in life. Her strength is the compass that points in to the finish line.

Tight Ass!

2005-11-01T22:16:00.000-08:00

I’m starting to get my injuries under control. It seems as though the source of my knee problems lies in ... how should I put this? … my bum. Specifically, I had a very tight gluteus minimus and tensor fascia lata which ‘referred’ pain down the side of my legs to my knees. Know, I don’t expect you to know what on earth I’m talking about, I’m really just showing off about my newly acquired knowledge of my butt muscles. So, believe it or not, I need to sit on a tennis ball in order to reduce the pain in my knees. And it works!!! So that’s what I’ve been doing today. I’m not ‘cured’ by any stretch of the imagination BUT I am improving!
I heard some scary news today. I hadn’t looked at my training calendar but our eighteen-mile run is on Saturday. I thought I had two weeks between these runs! I’m in a total dilemma with regard to whether or not to skip it. If I do skip it, I have to run 20 the week after. That’ll be going from 15 to 20 miles! On the other hand, I don’t want to do the one step forward, two steps back thing I did last weekend. I’m going to buy new running shoes and will make a decision on Friday night. In the meantime, I’ll do my level best to improve my physical state. Once again, wish me luck!

I can't remember what 'no pain' feels like.

2005-10-31T23:15:00.000-08:00

A quick update on my injury status. While I was in a lot of pain yesterday, I’m a little better today. My feet are still very sore but I feel like they will recover (probably time for new shoes). I saw my deep tissue massage therapist today and she found a few knots they MAY be the root cause of my knee pain (it sure FELT like the root cause of some kind of pain). As I lay down tonight, I still hurt in my knees and my feet feel like they have trekked the length of the great wall of China. I will get better. I will return! I will run again... for eight minutes… then walk for two.. then run for eight…

Weekend Catch Up - Part 1

2005-10-31T22:15:00.000-08:00

So I’ll start my block report with news of Saturday’s run or lack there of. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had decided to try a run 8 minutes, walk 2 minutes strategy and it was working well… for the first four miles. Here’s why I liked the run-8, walk-2. It provided short-term goals. I was not focused on “fifteen of sixteen miles to go”, I was simply thinking in 7 minutes and I can walk again, in six minutes and I can walk again…
Things fell apart when we stopped at about mile three or four to stretch. As I started to run again, I started to feel pain in my knee. This got worse and worse and was soon acute. At one stage I even lay to stretch my ‘glutes’ on a patch of grass outside someone’s house. As I hobbled on, I started to feel pain in my right foot too, along the ridge that connects my little toe to my heel. I eventually caught up to my injured buddy Luis who own knee had given up the ghost about a mile after me. We limped back to the first water stop and finally caught a lift back to the starting line with Joe. That’s Joe of the thyroid cancer surgery. Joe’s recovery from his surgery has been an inspiration in of itself. He already back up and running and talking photos of the Team. He even walked a half marathon last weekend! He amazes me. What made my injuries worse was the fact that Stacy and Ronan were waiting to cheer me on at the finish line.
On Sunday, I could not bend my right knee without excruciating pain. On top of that, I kept getting jabbing pains in my feet… both of them! I think yesterday was an all time low for my injuries. I was worried about how I would stand up to MC’ing Sunday night’s TNT Spooky Silent Auction. Little did I know that standing would be the least of my worries that night.

Weekend Update Part 2 - Is This Thing On?

2005-10-31T22:09:00.000-08:00

On Sunday Luis and I were on for MC’ing the Spooky Silent Auction. Basically this auction was set up as a fundraiser where team members would get items donated (vouchers for local businesses, etc) or might have hand made some jewelry or whatever and the winning bid amount would be added to their fundraising. I was lucky enough to have some very generous friends and family and I didn’t have to go from business to business looking for donations. Instead, my contribution was to help make the event go as smoothly as possible. The event was publicized in the local papers and all was set for a great evening. The event itself was to be staged at a place called the Ideal Bar and Grill. It had a round bar with an adjoining restaurant. The auction would take place in the restaurant section. Unfortunately, Luis was not able to make it because he son was sick and I was on my own. I racked my brains thinking of funny things I could do or say. The first thing to do was to have a couple of costume changes. I’d start by addressing the crowd as seventies dude and then go off and have a costume change, coming back as Austin Powers. I can do a mean Austin impersonation, baby! Another pla I had was to come out with a Darth Vadar mask on. Get the mic and breath like the dark lord himself. Then I would get an Asthma inhaler, take a shot and say “ah, that feels much better” in my own voice. I had also found out that someone had donated five puppies. I decided to use them as my main catch. My first ‘guilt trip’ would be to tell the audience that, much as I didn’t like it, the puppies would be sent to the dog pound if they were not bid on and that they would be euthanized unless one of two things happened. They could be saved if one of two things happens. The first is that we could get a call from the Governator who could grant them all a pardon. This was highly unlikely. The other option was that people could bid obscene amounts of money to save the puppy’s lives. I had a few other bits and pieces prepared. Some of them, I thought, were at least a BIT funny. I had one other task for the night. I had to read out the winning bidders and what they one. The auction had two stages so I had to do this twice. I decided to read the first list as Austin Powers and the second list using my Sean Connery impersonation.
Then the reality hit. The auction and most of the people attending the auction event were in the restaurant section of the bar. The PA system, where the bands play and most of the casual drinkers were in the bar section. In other words, when we were getting up to address the crowd, we were addressing the wrong crowd. All this crowd wanted to do was drink their beer in peace and not be harassed by the hosts (dressed as Dr. Suess characters, Thing 1, Thing 2 and Thing 3. Neither did they care for my seventies guy persona. My bit about the puppies went down like a led balloon, as did most everything else I had to say. I definitely had that thing happen to me where I lost the crowd (or never found then in the first place) and thereby lost any momentum. Instead of getting energy from the crowd, I had all the energy sucked out of me. They didn’t even seem to acknowledge the fact that I had stopped talking when I did. I went back into the room where my ‘people’ were actually sitting and asked how I did. How did the thing about the puppies go down, was it too much? I had two types of replies.

Couldn’t tell you. Didn’t even know that you were up there.

Couldn’t tell you. All I could hear from here was “waw, waw, waw, waw”. The PA system was NO EQ’ed for my fine Irish lilt.

Next time I was due to get up, I was to read the auction winners. I went into the bathroom and turned from Seventies Dude to Austin Powers. On stage I went and gave a big “Hey Baby!” No reaction from the bar crowd. This sure was a tough crowd. I lost my Mojo in seconds and started to read out the list of winners and the items they won. Unfortunately, all of the winners were actually in the restaurant and none of the winners (or bidders) were in the bar. I was told to stop shouting by some and to better annunciate by others. I ended up reading off the list of auction items like a bingo announcer… for 80 auction items. I actually started to feel sorry for the people at the bar, until they got bored by item number 40 or so and started to chatter on... louder and louder. I couldn’t wait to get off that stage! I gave up on all the lines I had thought about, as they would be wasted on this bunch. I went back to my people, my Team. They appreciated my Austin, even if everyone in the bar thought I was a gobshite. By the time the second round of the audition was over I had decided to just read out the list and go home. I was not going to waste my Sean Connery on these barflies! And that’s what I did. I finished up, announced my availability for children’s parties and Bar Mitzvah’s and left. When I got home and told Stacy about it all, she laughed so hard that I could only see the funny side of it all myself. All in all, it was a fun night, for a great cause, with some great company. Today, several of my Team mates assured my that I did not bomb as badly as I think I did (or, they would probably maintain, as badly as I have described here tonight. BUT they were in the restaurant area. They didn’t see the blank faces in the bar. They didn’t hear the pins drop between sentences. And you know what? I’m glad.

I. O. U. two REAL blog entries

2005-10-30T23:13:00.000-08:00

Sorry folks, I’m just back from BOMBING as the M.C. of the TNT silent auction and I’m tired and I want to go to sleep. Unfortunately, my 16-mile run went terrible on Saturday. I’ll give you all the details tomorrow night, I promise. In the meantime, here are some Halloween photos of Ronan.

Lost in the Pumpkins

Fancy Dress (and no, not his actual hair!)

You filled my glass half full

2005-10-27T23:31:00.000-07:00

First and foremost, I would like to thank you all for your kind words of encouragement today. It meant a lot to know I still have all of your support. It’s all led me to work out a new strategy for this marathon thing. I realized that it’s the TRAINING that’s killing me. So, if I don’t run between now and the 11th of December, I will probably be injury free between now and then. Why hadn’t I thought of this before now? It’s so simple. I’m going to write a book about this non-running marathon training technique I’ve discovered. I’ll call it “Getting to the Marathon Starting Line Injury Free in twenty weeks or less”. God, sometimes my marketing savvy amazes even myself. But seriously folks, all of your works help me reframe my outlook on this whole thing. I WILL walk, crawl or maybe even run this Marathon in December.
The good new for people like me is that I’ve discovered that serious athletes trying to break personal records and the like do not favor this Marathon in Honolulu. Is it because of the heat? No. Is it because of the hills? No. It’s because of the huge party atmosphere that surrounds the race every year. Around 22,000 actually run… many of them in business suits, many in full costumes. Many of them will be smoking! I’m very serious! So, with all of these non-serious people in my way I can ONLY take it easy myself, right? I can now blame my ten-hour finish time on that freakin’ chain-smoking clown that would not get out of my way the whole race. Don’t believe me? Here are some photos taken from last year’s race.

So, despite the fact that I am still injured, I need to remember a few things.

I still have a good few weeks left.

I don’t have to wear a costume.

I have the support of my friends and family, no matter what happens from this point on.

I was injured before and I got better. I’ll get better again.

I am not, nor have I ever claimed to be, a runner.

I RAN 15 MILES A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO!

Wild Mood Swings

2005-10-26T21:50:00.000-07:00

They said when we started this training that we would have our highs and our lows. I’m definitely in the middle of a low right now. I tried to run this morning. I had to quit after a couple of miles with … guess what? … knee pain. This time, the source of the pain was towards the back of the knee. This means that I had either mis-diagnosed the IT band thing or I’ve moved on to another injury entirely. Sadly, my run started out pretty well. There was a dull pain in my knee, but nothing to write home about (although, I guess that is exactly what I’m doing). Then, at the two mile point I decided to stretch out a little bit when BAM a sharp pain in the back of my knee. This officially pissed me off. I am sick of having injuries. I really, really want to train for this marathon, put in the miles, but every time I try, I seem to go two steps back these days. I’m getting really nervous that I may miss Saturday’s long 16 mile run. This would be catastrophic for my confidence, basically obliterating the high from my 15 mile run as the lesson learned is that if I run 15 miles or more I will mess myself up. Sorry for the downer. I’m just SO annoyed today. I’ll get back into an icing, painkiller and stretching routine between now and Saturday and we’ll see what happens. Let’s just say my glass is looking half empty right now. Maybe it’ll be half full by the morning.
Here’s my plan for Saturday’s run, assuming I’m up for it. I’ll run for eight minutes and walk for two, run for eight, walk for two, until I reach the end. Assuming that I walk at half the speed I run, I will still finish at 90% efficiency (I think). So I’ll only be a bit slower than I would if I ran the whole thing but MAYBE I’ll save my legs at the same time. You see, my glass is changing direction as I type!
A quick note of congratulations to Elizabeth, Dori, Mimi, Christina, Sara, Leslie, Maria, Dayna, Nicole, Layne, Joy, Jake and Joe for successfully running the women’s Nike half marathon in San Francisco last weekend. The whole team is proud of you. You all did great (or so I hear).
The team is holding a charity event over the weekend and I’m being asked to co-host the event. I said yes, but thinking about being up there really makes me nervous. Even though I’m very much a messer by nature, I always get stage fright when asked to perform on the spot. We’ll see how things go. I won’t be going to track tomorrow night. I mean, doing all that RUNNING would be just asking for trouble, wouldn’t it? Man, am I in trouble!

Warning! This entry is very boring!

2005-10-24T20:09:00.000-07:00

Well, not much to report again tonight. I went and got my good old deep tissue massage today. God, it felt good to get all of those nooks and crannies ironed out. I’m now sore as a result of the massage and won’t really know how much good it did me until a day or so. Stacy suggested that I just rest for a day. No rolling, no stretching, no core strength, no nothing, except some ibuprofen and some ice for my knees. THAT sounds like an excellent idea. So my plan for this week is to rest up until Wednesday when I try a six-miler to see how well I’m repairing. I may skip track practice on Thursday night as a result. Ultimately, I need to be focused on getting myself in ship shape for Saturday’s sixteen miles. I know that if I can accomplish a good run on Saturday, this will refocus me mentally and I can get back to the business of training for the marathon. No looking back, and all that.
So, with that, I bid you all success, good health and wealth until we meet again in my next boring blog entry tomorrow night. I swear, if something interesting doesn’t happen to me soon I will be force to make it happen, or make it up.

Road to Recovery

2005-10-23T20:23:00.000-07:00

What can I say? I’m still injured. I have an appointment for a deep tissue massage tomorrow. I honestly can’t wait. Right now, I don’t know what is wrong with me, specifically. I’m achy in the knee region and I also have sore ankles. I honestly think that the root cause will lie with my bow leggedness and how it affects the way my foot falls and then, how that affects my legs in general. I’m wondering how much things will improve when I get my custom orthodics in a couple of weeks.
Luis was out at SMI in Palo Alto. Mark, as usual, diagnosed the root cause of his problem. He was back on Saturday and ran eight miles without any pain, whatsoever! Congratulations Luis!
I’m a bit down tonight. It’s amazing how fast things can swing, both up and down, in a single week. This time last week I was on cloud nine! I hope to be back this time next week! I need to replace running next week with cycling for the equivalent amount of time (about an hour per day) in order to make sure my cardio doesn’t go to hell in a hand basket. Cycling is pretty low impact - especially if I ‘spin’ on lower gears. I’m going to continue to do everything I’m supposed to do to get better. As I write this, I have an ice pack on each knee, I need to keep stretching and rolling and strength training. Keep the faith and I’ll be back with stories of danger, adventure and daring stunts before you know it!

Last week up, this week down!

2005-10-21T21:03:00.000-07:00

I am officially injured. My IT bands are a tight as a drum. ( This is probably MORE painful than any of the other injuries. At least, it’s the most painful to treat. I WON’T be running tomorrow. I probably won’t be running until our sixteen mile run next weekend. Instead, I’ll be doing my best to get myself in some kind of non-injured state. I’m disappointed. I thought I was doing a good job of preventing injuries at this stage. Running may be the LAST thing I do at the end of all of this training. Last week’s great progress seems like a lifetime ago already!

If you are interested in learning more about my condition (or what it may become) you can check it out here.

http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/sportsmedicine/a/itbs.htm

I notice that being bow legged increased the likelihood of having IT band problems. They really meant it when they told me that my body is really not built to run. Not that that’s going to stop me running this marathon!

Well I’d better try to stretch out my leg muscles once again.

Once again, wish me luck!

A Brand New Injury!

2005-10-20T22:07:00.000-07:00

Guess what? I have a new injury! This time, my right knee is killing me as a result of an over-tight IT band. This is the SAME problem Luis has been suffering with. The good news is that Luis paid a visit to the evil massage overlord called Mark at the Sports Medical Institute in Palo Alto. He’s the guy who sent me to a new reference point of pain when I had my first knee injury. Looks like Luis had similar punishment. At least when doctors say ‘how bad is the pain on a scale of one to ten, ten being the most pain you’ve ever had’ I’ll know what a ten is. Anyone who complains to us about childbirth will get a look of indignation from anyone who has paid a visit to SMI. Luis’ prognosis looks good.
So after training I am in a fair amount of pain. I skipped pizza tonight because I felt it was a higher priority to stretch out my IT band (a notoriously difficult muscle to stretch). I still need to give myself a good old deep tissue massage using the foam roller. I’m REALLY not looking forward to that as I anticipate it’ll be just a bit less painful than a hot poker in the eye.
Tonight’s training focused on hill repeats. This means running up the same hill several times in a row. Builds strength… or helps pull something in your IT band that yields a lot of knee pain. Anyway, I’d run and stretch and run and stretch. I really wanted to quit but coach helped me get through the night. At this stage of the training, easy quitting is not an option. I know that it’s VERY LIKELY that I will be in pain for the last few miles of my marathon run and I need to get used to working out how to finish, knowing the right thing to do to get me to the finish. Don’t worry. I won’t be stupid.

Blogoger

2005-10-20T12:24:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd let you all read a funny email I receieved from my good friend Erik...

So I am thinking about starting a blog conveying my experiences reading other people's blogs. This, of course, making me a blog bloger, or blogoger. Here is a sample of the first few entries:

Day 1:
Read Martin's blog today. Boy, that guy works hard. Its also sometimes pretty long and I am somewhat winded after reading it.

Day 2:
Read Martin's blog again today. I am starting to wonder if he really is running that much. If they can fake the moon landings, I bet they have the technology to fake reports of excercise.

Day 3:
Again, I read about Martin and his running. I wonder if there is something to running that I am missing out on. It sounds like he may be having a good time.

Day 4:
Hmmm....again, Martin and the running. Perhaps I should do some running. Someday.

Day 5:
Read his rotten blog again today and decided I would give it a try. Running is a horrible experience! I almost died this morning jogging for about 10 minutes. Martin's blog is in serious need of warning labels and possibly something to prevent children from reading it and trying those things at home.

Day 6:
The campaign to fight Martin's blog is underway. Anheuser Busch was thrilled to sign on as our sponser. Apparently they are sick and tired of only sponsoring athletic events and have been waiting for something like this for a long time.

Erik

Work is not an excuse!!!

2005-10-19T22:33:00.000-07:00

Another short entry, mainly because I have done very little today to warrant an entry. I feel ashamed! I’ve been really busy at work of late and that has left me little or no time to train AND do the other bits and pieces that are involved in having some kind of a life. My knees are still sore and I really have not been doing a good repair job. I should be stretching and doing core training and stuff if I’m not able to run but, alas, I think last Saturday’s fifteen miles have gone to my head. I've been eating and drinking WAY too much and not doing much exercise at all. It’s time to remember that I still have a long road ahead and I still have to be on top of my game EVERY DAY if I’m going to do this without requiring a wheelchair at the end of run. That would kinda ruin the romance of the holiday we have planned for after the race. I promise you all that I'll get back on track starting tomorrow. I will at least do some injury prevention exercises before going to bed tonight. To do that, I need to stop typing. Therefore, I bid you adieu.

Please be kind to the knees!

2005-10-18T21:42:00.000-07:00

I’ll write a quick new entry tonight, if only to start a new comment thread. That other one was getting out of hand! Well, I tried to do my six-mile run this morning and after about a half a mile my right knee went “ah, come on! You’ve got to be freakin’ kiddin’ me!” and that was the end of that. I had gotten all dressed up and driven to my regular Tuesday running spot for nothing. I have not recovered from my 15 mile run. Not that that really surprises me, considering the amount of effort it took. In fact, the way my right knee felt today, I’m very glad that I listened to my knees and stopped. I call that a close call. My new main goal is to get myself together before Thursday night’s track training and continue with the short runs. The injuries stay with me… just like they said it would be. We don’t have a long run for a couple of weeks. It’s funny. When I say short, I mean eight miles. It wasn’t long ago that I was struggling with even the concept of running eight miles in a row. The next big long run is a week from Saturday. Sixteen miles. After that I have an eighteen miler, followed by a twenty miler, followed by a 26.2 miler a few weeks after that. Scary stuff! But THEN I have the holiday of a lifetime.
Anyway, I spent my time tonight rolling my leg muscles and stretching my calves and my hamstrings. I know that’s the right thing to do because my knees always feel better after a good stretch. I still need to stretch my quads but I need to by lying down to do that sufficiently. My balance exercises are going well. I can now stand on one leg for about thirty seconds with my eyes closed while brushing my teeth. Clean teeth are very important when running a marathon, … as is balance. Try the closing your eyes, cleaning your teeth thing tonight. It’s harder than it sounds!
I’m finally starting to notice a little bit of weight loss too. My spare tire has become somewhat deflated. I’m hoping it will disappear completely by the end of this training lark.
To answer Mark’s question about my bladder ‘issues’, I think I worked out the solution. I don’t drink anything the morning of my run. To compensate for this, I drink about six pints of water on the days before my run to get myself super-hydrated. In that way, my body doesn’t need ‘topping up’ the morning of a big run. I learned that from a guy who had the same problem. He was commenting on an Internet forum. I applied it over the past two longer runs and have not had a big compulsion to pee during either run! Excellent!
Okay, I’m off to bed. Keep up the comments. I’m enjoying reading them.

My Finest Hour

2005-10-15T21:23:00.000-07:00

Well. What can I say? I’ve had the best run of my life. Not that that’s saying a whole lot considering I’ve only been running for about twelve weeks now and that, before that, the farthest I ever ran was about a mile… and that was probably because I was being chased. Where am I going with this? Well, today I ran fifteen miles and I really ran it. Other than the water stops, I ran the entire distance. I did not walk a single step of it. I felt good for most of the run and just kept going, and going, and going. Now, I’m not saying it wasn’t hard (it was) or that I was very fast (I wasn’t) or that I’m not in pain (I am), but there was something in my today that kept me going. Best of all, instead of coming in last (like last week) I was actually the first to finish out of the marathon trainers. We do start in waves so I’m not actually saying that I was the fastest of there but I was not passed at any stage by anyone… unlike my experience of every single run up to this date. Needless to say, I’m feeling fairly proud of myself today. I finished in three hours and twenty minutes that, while it may not break any records is (obviously) my personal best for fifteen miles. Oh, and my pedometer said 32,000 steps taken. It’s no wonder my knees are killing me!

I ran most of the run with Lora. Remember, Lora, as in “I will never forget Lora”? Anyway, Lora is very cool and I had fun running with her for the first eleven miles of our run. We are at about the same level of running experience and I think we helped each other keep running as well as we did. Meanwhile, she got to hear the story of how I met Stacy and I got to hear all about her family. I’m AMAZED that I am now one of those people that can have a full-blown conversation while running. The run itself took us through some of the best scenery Santa Cruz has to offer. I say hawks and rabbits and all kinds of sea birds. The air was fresh and clean and I really couldn’t possibly think of a better way to run fifteen miles. You’d keep running if you were with me too. Lora’s leg was giving her a bit a problem and I left her behind as I really wanted to try to finish without walking (just once!) and I hobbled along all the way to the finish line. The last few miles required the help of others. I thought about you lot. All of my blog readers mean a lot to me. You keep me going. And knowing how proud of me you’d all be if I kept running, well, kept me running! Stephanie showed up for a while to push me along and to remind me that she’s still around and in my thoughts.

Greg was out to help out today. He was at our first water stop, freezing his butt off. He looked great and is doing well. [Scroll down to read Greg’s ‘interview’ if you haven’t done so already].

Poor Luis had to back off his run a little after a couple of miles and had to stop completely after about six. I think the team managers are getting worried about him at this stage. He’s doing everything he should to improve his injuries but they get him over and over again. He’s going to go to Stanford to get an MRI and to see if there is another reason for his pain. I really, really hope he finds some way to get back on his feet. I mean, I consider him my running partner at this stage, and I hate to think of finishing the marathon without him. It would also be really hard for him to have to hang up his running shoes after all of the sacrifices he’s made to get this far. Well, I’ve had a couple of beers and a MASSIVE dinner of spare ribs and potatoes and coleslaw. The best thing about running fifteen miles is that I can celebrate by stuffing my face and absolutely get away with it. Anyway. It’s time to crack open another beer, sit back and smile. Maybe this will be my finest hour. If that’s the case, it’s been a damn good hour!

Anticipation

2005-10-14T20:56:00.000-07:00

Training went pretty well last night. Hill training. We had to run up a very steep hill five or six times in a row to help build our leg muscles. It was hard but I felt good. We then had to do an aerobic run for the rest of the track session. We all went out for pizza afterwards, which was a good time of eating and drinking. I had a good chat with our coach Ed. A few of you were wondering about Ed’s ethnicity. He is not from Hawaii. He was born and bred in San Francisco and his family originates from the Philippines. So, there you go. I think it was the grass skirt that threw you all off.

I have my fifteen-mile run tomorrow morning at 7:30am. I’m both looking forward to it and dreading it at the same time. My chesty-ness has not quite cleared up yet (I get into two or three coughing fits a day) but I’m still going to run as much as I can… even if that means leaving Luis in the dirt (for saying that, he’ll probably leave ME in the dirt). The rest of the team gave Luis and me a bit of a hard time at last nights track after reading my blog… all in good jest, of course.

Anyway, that’s all I really have to report. I’m sure I’ll have lots of fun stories to report after tomorrow run.

Luis' take

2005-10-12T21:13:00.000-07:00

Actually, I just read my previous post and it really was pathetic. To try and make up for wasting your time, I’m copying and pasting Luis’ take on last Saturdays’ “run” from his journal…

Well, now that Marty has spilled the beans I guess that I should come clean with you all, I was genuinely trying to run the 14 miles but in reality I took pity on my poor ailing buddy and decided to act as his caddy. Yep, I think Joe got a picture of me carrying his kleenex box on Saturday. I just couldn't stand the thought of leaving his wheezy butt out there for some mountain lion to snack on. You know the thought that came to mind was that most predatory animals in the wild will hunt down the weakest or sickest member of any pack. Yeah, no kidding, if a polar bear is going to take down a caribou, it goes for the one that's hacking up a lung. So taking care of Marty just appealed to my altruistic side, and besides his wife slipped me twenty bucks to keep an eye on him.... a little extra gas money never hurts.... And now finally to the "NO BUT REALLY" part of this entry: It was actually a team decision, we can walk the miles and make it to the next training session or run the miles and "maybe" make it to the next training session. The operative word is "maybe", and in this context, perhaps the most suspect as well. At any rate, I have to say it was the most fun I've had "running", ever. I suppose next week we'll have to try having fun while actually running.

Boring Update

2005-10-12T21:08:00.000-07:00

Not much to report today. I stretched a little, I rolled a little and I did a little bit of core strength. Actually, I still need to do a bit more stretching. I’ve learned the hard way that flexibility is the secret to an injury-free life. I feel ready for track tomorrow night and that feels good for a change. A short and uneventful entry tonight. I’ll try to do something more interesting tomorrow.

5-miles, and a shout out to Joe

2005-10-11T22:39:00.000-07:00

I ran five of my targeted six miles this morning. I was running around the Skypark neighbourhood – the one with the one-mile trail circumnavigating it. I planned on running three miles in one direction and three in the other. My right hip started to irk me between mile four and mile five and I decided that running on a painful hip was … well… stupid, really. I did the halfway turnaround because of something Nicole, one of our mentors, told me. I was talking to her about the longer distances we were running every week and how they seemed more and more insurmountable. She told me of a trick she taught herself the season before. You focus on running half the distance. After that, you are just heading back to your car. It made sense. I’m going to use it on Saturday’s 15-miler. The good news is that my cold didn’t really bother me while I was running. I coughed up a lung after the run, but during the run, I was fine. Weird.
I worked late tonight and I was feeling tight in my right leg and my knee was pretty sore. I stretched for about a half an hour when I got home. I’m in fairly good shape now as I lie in bed writing this.
Finally, I want to give a shout out to Joe, one of the team’s mentors. Joe was instrumental in getting me started on the team. He told me during the introductory meeting in July that he ran for the very first time when he joined Team in Training last year. He did well and finished the Anchorage Midnight Marathon. He’s about my age. Joe told us all that he has been diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer earlier today. He’ll be in surgery tomorrow to get his Thyroid removed. He deserves all of our support because he has helped so many others. In short it seems very unfair, considering all he has done for others. It just shows how the big C never discriminates.
So, when you read this, send a few good thoughts in his direction. Here’s to a speedy recovery, Joe! And with these good thoughts for Joe, I’ll leave you for tonight.

Magic Pill

2005-10-10T21:29:00.000-07:00

I did some core strength exercises tonight. Every time I do some, I think to myself “man, this is hard, I should do my exercises more often”. I do see a small improvement in my inner strength, but I want MORE!!! I want to be ripped!!! Okay. Not really, but I do wish I could take a magic pill and just suddenly be fit. I guess that’s why the health supplement industry makes so much money. Not much else done today. My cold is 95% gone. I haven’t had a coughing fit in over eight hours!
I’m going to try doing a mid-week run tomorrow morning. Six miles. It’ll be the best test of my health. I got a flu shot at work today and was a tiny bit nervous that I might have some kind of adverse side effect but I feel fine. I really hope my run goes well. I won’t push it… unless I feel like I should. That’s about all I have tonight. Oh, I forgot. I went back to the podiatrist on Friday and my insurance will cover custom made orthotics. This means I will, by proxy, also have custom made shoes to run in. They cast the feet molds on Friday and I get the orthodics in about a month’s time.

We ran, we walked, we laughed, we cried

2005-10-09T21:37:00.000-07:00

14 miles. I covered 14 miles yesterday. Notice how I didn’t say that I RAN sixteen miles? Well, that’s because I ran, but mostly walked, 14 miles. My good buddy, Luis, and me made a pact. Luis had some bad knees as a result of some tight IT bands (IT band – very long muscle that goes along the outside of the legs). I had my chest cold. Between us, we had very little doubt that we would not be running very far. So me made a pact. We would run or walk the 14 miles together. We would also use each other as the excuse for why we didn’t run the distance. I could complain about Luis and his crappy knees and he could complain about his wheezy running partner. I guess I blew my end of the bargain already… but I really could have run if it wasn’t for Luis’ crappy knees!
We ended up running the first mile or so and power walking the next five miles we just plain old walked the next mile or so, power walked the next few miles (after coach gave us a bit of a lecture about the fact that we were having a bit too much fun). Truth was, we were actually having a good laugh. I can’t actually repeat very much of what we were talking about (runner-runner confidentiality) but we did a lot of talking and a lot of laughing. I guess coach decided that if we were messing around so much we were not working hard enough. As far as I was concerned, I was working pretty hard. I was walking FAST with a chest cold. I was getting ready to run my 15 miles next week. It sure was better than sitting at home coughing and feeling sorry for myself. I walked or ran more than 28,000 steps… half of them up steep hills! My legs sure felt it for the rest of the day. Yes, most of my teammates, who finished ahead of us, did much more than we did. I mean they RAN most of the distance while we WALKED most of it. Three of them fell during their run. On woman actually landed on her face and cut it up a fair bit. But, I’m still proud of Luis and me. I still have pains that tell me I worked hard and I did enough to stress my system. My hamstrings are tight as a drum! I’ve been stretching all I can every couple of hours! Honest! The amount of pain I’m in, I’m actually glad that I walked (fast) the majority of the distance. I think I will be much more ready for the 15-mile run in five days time. I would be limping through those 15 miles if I ran. Seriously. Do I sound like I’m making excuses?
The icing on the cake was when we decided to run the last couple of miles. Why did we decide to run the last couple of miles? Did we want to finish as we started? Did we want to prove to ourselves that we could run DESPITE our injuries / illness? Nope. Ed pulled up as he was driving back to the finishers and told us that the sixty-something year old leader of the WALK team was catching up to us and we had BETTER not let him finish before us. He had that look on his face that showed that he didn’t actually care about OUR pride… but HIS. So, we ran. We ran to the finish. Everyone (who had finished before us) was cheering us on and we got a huge load of high fives from everyone. It was as if everyone thought of us as the true survivors of the team. And pulling up the rear, here comes the gimp and his friend with the iron lung. As we arrived Ed buried his head in his hands, shaking that head… but smiling. Only he knew the suffering we were going through out there, laughing our heads off at each other’s jokes. He knew that we had not been suffering out there as much as the team were assuming. Hey, we didn’t become heroes on purpose you know!
So, now I’m sitting here and I’m sore all over. And my cold is not quite gone (I’ve been told that it’ll take up to four weeks to totally clear up). But I do feel that I’m back on track. I do feel like my mission is not impossible. I ran for a while with one of our mentors, Nicole. Nicole was telling me that this time during her training her knee seized up so badly that she couldn’t even BEND it. She hobbled to the finish line of the 16 mile training run by basically throwing her non-bendable leg in front of her. She continued to suffer throughout her training but she made it to the final race and FINISHED. Despite all of her trails and tribulations, despite the fact that she has active asthma! Sometimes I get caught up feeling sorry for myself and forget that others have experienced the same fate as me (or worse) and have made it through to the end. Real mentors are ones that made it though to the finish with lots of obstacles and are back to prove to people like me that it is possible.

Why Does Our Coach Look Like This?

2005-10-09T20:35:00.000-07:00

Okay. I think I’ll try two blog entries tonight so as to not overwhelm you, the reader. So, where was I? Ah yes, why did Ed end up looking like this picture during track practice on Thursday night? The answer is a bit anti-climactic after all this time. It was Ed’s birthday and we all got together to see how much we could humiliate him during practice. We actually got him to run a full loop of the track looking like this! How? Well, we had a bit of a whip around and told him that the money would go to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society if he would cooperate. What else could he do? Turn the money down? Actually, Ed was a really good sport about it and stayed in ‘character’ for the whole practice. Practice was easy enough. We did 200m sprint relays. After track we went out for pizza and beer and spent the rest of the night in rowdy revelry. It was a great laugh, actually! Got to spend a lot of down time with the team and get to know people outside of the practice and the training and all of that.

Big Blog tommorrow. I Promise!

2005-10-08T22:31:00.000-07:00

Okay, I lied. It’s taken me much longer to tell you about the feather boa. Tomorrow. I promise. Tomorrow. I’m just home from a nice meal and a little too much wine and I don’t really feel like blogging right now.

Feather Boa

2005-10-06T22:50:00.000-07:00

You won’t believe this! I hurt my ARM at track tonight and I have no idea how. All I know is that my arm is killing me right now. I am a mess! Coach had us doing sprint relays tonight. Track was actually pretty easy tonight. I think Coach Ed felt like he may not be able to command our usual respect. Why? Well, maybe it had something to do with the fact that he was wearing a hula skirt, a selection of Mardi Gras beads, a big mullet wig, a white cape and a very nice feather boa. Why? I’ll tell you tomorrow!

My Reward

2005-10-05T21:48:00.000-07:00

Cough medicine tastes as bad today as I remember it tasted as a kid. I honestly don’t think I’ve had cough medicine since I was ten years old or so. I still have my chesty cough and I’m still wheezing a bit when I breathe. In short, I’m still out of training and so don’t have any interesting stories in that regard. I did go for another deep tissue massage. The good news there is that she didn’t find many muscular problems in my legs and spent most of her time trying to increase the recovery rate of my cold. I honestly think it help me a lot. I will attend track tomorrow night and even if I don’t run around like the rest of them, I won’t look back until December 12th.
Trying to keep things positive, I’ll tell you a bit about my post marathon reward. Stacy and I have decided to leave Ronan at home with his grandparents. That’s right, we’re going to be away from our little boy for a whole week. While I think this bothers me much less than it does Stacy we both agree that we REALLY need a holiday to remember who we were before Ronan came along to turn us into the ‘parents’ we now are. Wouldn’t change a single thing and all that but boy, oh, boy will it feel good to do shag all for an entire couple of days. So after I COMPLETE my 26.2 miles, we fly to the small island of Lana’i for for or five nights (still not sure). I am SO grateful to Bonnie and Norm for babysitting Ronan for an entire week.
We’ll, I’m getting sleepy already (that cough medicine has a knock out punch) and I need to try to get as much sleep as possible these days (I slept restlessly last night). I should have some stories to tell you when I get back from track tomorrow night.

Blog Cancelled

2005-10-04T21:20:00.000-07:00

We regret to tell you that tonight's blog entry has been cancelled due to the ailing health of Mr. Walsh. Anyway, he's feeling sorry for himself and we did not want to inflict that self pity on you, his faithful readers. Rest assured, Mr. Walsh will be back tomorrow to complain about something or other. But, for tonight at least, you have been spared.

Drink!

2005-10-03T21:57:00.000-07:00

I don’t want to write tonight’s blog entry. I want to write the one about my great weekend at Yosemite where I ran 12 miles along the valley floor feeling the clean air in my lungs and feeling free as a bird. I just finished reading one of my team’s journal entries and it more or less said all of that, except she was in Tahoe. Unfortunately, that is not the story I’ll be telling tonight.

The weekend was going just fine. I decided to put off my weekend run until Sunday. Saturday night, I started to feel tightness in my chest. I put it down to one of two things. First, Ronan had been suffering from a chest cold for the previous few days and I was probably being paranoid that I caught the same thing from him. Second, the fact that we were staying at 4,000 ft probably made it a bit hard to breath. I planned my Sunday morning run. It involved a fairly steep one-mile run out to the main road and I thought I’d run another few miles (up a hill) and turn around. I was hoping to run seven or eight miles but knew that I’d probably end up running five or six. Hey, I just know myself!

So, Sunday morning I got up at 7am and started my pre-run routine. An energy bar and Gatorade for breakfast, filled my fuel belt (a belt in which you can put up to six small bottles of water or energy drinks), warmed my muscles with my roller, attached my pedometer and started my stopwatch. Off I ran. I started pretty well but about half a mile up that first hill, I felt as though my lungs were going to explode. My mouth and throat were dry as a bone and drinking did not seem to quench them. Now, I used to feeling bad for the first couple of miles of my runs but this seemed different. Then I started coughing. A dry, hem, hem, ahem, hem kind of cough. You know the kind that sounds like you are just pretending to cough. I assumed this was as a result of the higher altitude and that I’d get used to it. By the time I reach the main road, I felt like my lungs were like defated balloons with no air left in them at all. I was wheezing so much that it made me remember my asthmatic days of childhood. This was NOT going to get better. I was going to have to quit. I was sick. I had probably caught Ronan’s cold after all. I went into a store that was at the top of that hill and both some cold and allergy medicine (hedging my bets) that I could take later that evening. It was the drowsy kind and I didn’t want to knock myself out before our day of sightseeing. As I was walking into the store one of a bunch of old men standing around drinking coffee points at me and exclaims ‘watch it boys, it’s a suicide bomber’. This gave all his friends a great laugh. [To understand why he said this, I’ve included a photo of what I look like with all of my gear on]

Anyway, I arrived back thoroughly dejected. I eventually found solace in the fact that I would probably walk as much as I wanted to run later that day. Stacy’s parents, Bonnie and Norm, were with us on this trip, as were our two dogs, Luka and Sammy. It was Bonnie’s birthday and Stacy and I were going to treat her to brunch at The Ahwahnee, a really swanky hotel at the valley floor. I opted out of joining them as I still felt really bad and I though my time would be better spent walking the dogs rather than coughing and spluttering over the posh nosh everyone would be enjoying. So I went for a 90 minute hike with the dogs. Since it hurt to swallow at this stage, I didn’t really drink as much as I should over the course of our walk. I found out that everyone enjoyed their brunch when we all met up again. Even Ronan minded his manners! So on we walked around the park. Now, in fairness to all of the others who went on this trip I was by no means SICK during this time. I just had a sore throat and a very occasional cough. The final trek of the day involved a mile hike though a small Sequoia grove (Sequoia are VERY TALL trees). We went down, down, down the trail path. I was pushing Ronan in his stroller (buggy) and he was having a grand old time waving a big stick I’d given him around the place. As we kept going downwards, the trail got rougher and rougher. We eventually decided to turn around and I then pushed Ronan back UP that hill. It was tough, but it was helping my endurance training. Okay, that was a bit overdramatic, but I FELT like I had run about ten miles. More than once, Stacy had offered to take charge of Ronan’s stroller for a while but, to be honest, when I get sick I turn into a bit of a martyr and “I’m fine” turn out to be one of my favorite phrases. I was not feeling fine.

By the time we got back to the RV, I was feeling very cold. Actually, I was shivering, and really just wanted to climb into be and sleep. That is pretty much what I did. I crawled back to our trailer, put the heat on full blast and climbed into bed. I was really shivering. I never had chills like this before. I suddenly realized that I drank very little that day. Between my run, my walk with the dogs and my hike up and down the Sequoia grove I drank about 20 oz of fluids. I was sick as a dog and dehydrating myself did not help matters whatsoever. I was annoyed with myself, as I had just lectured Ram, a friend of mine who is also training for a marathon, on the importance of hydrating when in training. [See rkalsoruns.blogspot.com to see Ram’s blog.] I slept from about 6pm last night to 6am this morning on and off in between drinking a litter and a half of water and FREQUENT trips to the bathroom.

So now, back home, I’m feeling ‘hazy’. You know that brain-fog that you feel when you have a cold. My throat is still on fire and my lungs feel compressed. At the half-way point of my training I feel very glass-is-half-empty right now. I can barely breath and I’m supposed to be running a marathon in ten weeks. I won’t be running my scheduled six-miler tomorrow. Just thinking about it makes me dizzy right now. I can’t wait to feel better. I can’t wait for my training to get back on track. I’m running fourteen miles this weekend. I need to get myself better before then. It’s funny, before now, a cold was just a cold. Now its something that is preventing me from training. Of course, before I start feeling too sorry for myself, I have to compare my days of discomfort to months and years of Chemo, spinal injections and medicine that will make my sick for most of my day. When I think of that, my cold shrinks and I thank god that’s all I have.

Stacy has just COMMANDED me to go to bed. So I’m off now. No spell checking or anything so apologies to those first readers who have to read through my unedited scribbles. She’s got thins killer cough medicine that will knock me out in minutes. Until tomorrow, I bid you goodnight.

Y'all come back now!

2005-09-29T21:30:00.000-07:00

I’m feeling very guilty. I missed training tonight. We are going away for the weekend and were sufficiently unprepared to warrant my staying at home packing and stuff while Stacy went shopping. But, I still feel guilty. I’m sure I’ll get over it.
As I mentioned before, we are going to Yosemite tomorrow with Stacy’s parents, Ronan (obviously) and the two dogs. Ronan, the two dogs, Stacy and I will be staying in a trailer. Stacy parents, Bonnie and Norm, actually sleep where they drive. Actually, they live where they drive. They live in a huge RV which they bought after they retired. They travel between family members throughout the year. We are fortunate enough to have them close by until the New Year when they move back to the rest of their family in Florida. The Yosemite break is well timed as it marks the halfway point in my training. My signed recommitment forms were submitted last Monday. These forms bind me to make the minimum required fundraising whether I run the race or not. I will, of course run the race. If I don’t make the minimum fundraising amount, however, the difference comes out of my wallet… not that I think that would ever be necessary. We’re starting to plan our trip to Hawaii and that is making the marathon seem a lot more real (like the training doesn’t) and much closer. The reward after the run will be very welcome.
The high probability of zero Internet access means that the blog will very likely be silent over the next few days. And, anyway, I’m supposed to be on holiday! Don’t forget to come back to me next week!

Stress Test

2005-09-28T22:00:00.000-07:00

I did my heart stress test today. It all went as smooth as butter. I officially have nothing to worry about, as far as my heart is concerned. They strapped me up, monitored me at rest, and did a sonogram of my heart. It’s really weird to watch your own heart as it beats. I was told to start walking on the treadmill. They made me go faster and faster until I was running. They got me to reach my limit – which was the point at which I could no longer catch my breath. All that time, I had about ten electrodes monitoring my every heartbeat. My heart rate went from 60 beats per minute at rest to about 180 beats per minute just before I had to stop. The great news is that they could find no problems with my heart under any circumstances. This does put my mind at rest because I had been a bit worried every time my heart rate increased during a run. Now I don’t have to worry.

After my heart checkup I headed over to the pharmacy (chemist) to get the night splints that were prescribed by my foot doctor last week. When I saw what they looked like I changed my mind. Night splints are like ski boots without the front part. They are huge, rock hard and stiff as a rock. I think I’d do MORE damage to myself wearing them in bed. I’d probably injuring Stacy while I’m at it! So I politely declined. The fact that they were going to cost $130 also helped me make that decision! If I get REALLY bad Achilles problems I may change my mind.

Tonight, I spent about 40 minutes doing 15 minutes worth of core strengthening exercises. It took me so long because I was following a number of exercises on a list I downloaded from the Sports Medical Institute in Palo Alto (the place that originally fixed my knees). I took a while to ‘decode’ the instructions regarding where to put what part of my body and when… and for how long. It was good, though. Worth doing.
Injury-wise, I’m still pretty much injury free. My muscles are still a tiny bit stiff, but nothing a bit of regular stretching can’t fix. We are going to Yosemite this weekend with Stacy’s parents. I’m hoping to run while we’re away. This will be a test of my self-discipline.

Well, I think I’ve run out of things to tell you tonight. We have track tomorrow night. I’ll let you know how that went for my next entry. By the way, a special thanks to Michelle. The kindness of strangers really is truly amazing sometimes.

Keep it up!

2005-09-27T21:21:00.000-07:00

I’m feeling good tonight. I had a 12-mile run on Saturday and only suffered minor aches and pains. I did a six-mile run this morning and, again, only minor aches and pains. My knees actually feel fine. My shins were the pain givers of choice during this morning’s run. I have not been doing my shin-split exercises these days and I pay for that when I’m running. Overall, however, I’m feeling great. I ran this mornings distance in just over an hour. I’m very happy with that pace. Very happy indeed. As I ran around the one-mile circuit I kept running by this old man whith each lap. Every time he sees me he looks directly at me and says, “keep it up!” He really helps me keep going. He’s hobbling around on his morning walk and I can see that he is envious of my mobility. I take his words to heart with every lap. He did the same for me last week and I’m sure he’ll do the same again next week. I lok forward to being coached by him in the future as his voice resonates within me with every step.

I’m off to the cardiologist tomorrow. I have to do a stress test. Before I started this exercising lark, I went to my doctor for a physical – the first I ever had. I told her about the occasional heart palpitations I have at night if I’ve had a couple (literally) of drinks. She gave me an ECG and was worried by the results. I kinda forgot to follow upo with her on that and the next time she saw me I was telling her that I was in training for a Marathon. This worried her enough to send me to a cardiologist. So I have to do a stress test echo something or other. Basically, they are going to have me run on a treadmill for a while and put electrodes all over my chest to see if my heart does something unexpected. I’ll let you know the results in tomorrow’s blog. Until then, I continue to remind those who have yet to donate to consider doing so today. Any amount will help, especially as I need to know I have reached my fundraising minimum. It’ll help settle that dodgy ticker of mine!

"Thank You For My Wife"

2005-09-26T21:07:00.000-07:00

A short blog entry tonight. I’m tired and have plans to retire a bit early. Sure, wasn’t last night’s massive? I’m just back from a special event for the TEAM. During the course of the evening, we heard a number of speakers. We heard from a research doctor who explained why the money we raise makes such a difference. We also heard from individual cancer survivors whose lives were actually saved by research funded by activities like Team in Training. At the very end a man got up and introduced himself as the husband of one of the women who were in attendance that night. She was give three years to live and her outlook was very grim as she was too old to undergo a lot of common treatments such as bone marrow transplants. But her life was saved because of the introduction of a new drug that actually resulted in her being cancer free within three months! His last words very, very moving. He said, “ I just want to say to you all. Thank you for my wife.” Very powerful words and it really brought home why we we’re all doing this training. So that we may help save someone else’s husband or wife or, god forbid, help save someone close to our own hearts.
I’m not doing my core strength exercises tonight. I’ll stretch for a while and try to roll all of the tightness out of my muscles, but I don’t have the energy to do the core strength tonight. I’ll try again on Wednesday. I’m feeling relatively pain free as I write this and that feels great. I did have a weird pinched nerve kind of a feeling down my right arm at the end of Saturday’s run but that went away after I stopped running. I’ll really put my pain-free body to the test tomorrow morning as I go for my midweek six mile run.

Twelve Miles

2005-09-25T20:46:00.000-07:00

I ran twelve miles yesterday. I definitely didn’t break any land speed records in the process, but I did do all 22,456 step of my twelve-mile course.

The day started off badly. Stacy had volunteered to help out at one of the water stops so we had to get up EXTRA early – around 6am. Friday night, I set the alarm clock and off to sleep we went. Trouble was, whatever I did, the clock was not actually set AND Ronan, our natural alarm clock, let us down too. Fortunately, I work up by myself at 6:45am, giving Stacy fifteen minutes to get dressed, get Ronan’s food ready, checking him, and drive him to her parent’s place before driving to the designated meeting point. This obviously was not going to happen so Stacy drove off to meet the water stop people leaving me to do the rest. I had to be at the starting point by 7:30am. After running around, I got there at 7:40, missing a chance to really get something to eat (I stuffed an energy bar down my throat as I rushed to get there) or do any kind of pre-run stretch. I started the run off in a stressed out mood!

Fortunately, I started the run with my good friend Luis and we were soon having a good old laugh. The course was great. For those of you that don’t know, Santa Cruz is a beach town with some fantastic coastline. The run went along that coastline so we had some sun on our faces, the smell of the ocean in our noses, and the sights of surfers and surf all throughout our run. It was very conducive to running a long way for a long time. This was great, as it seemed to justify my choice of Honolulu as my marathon destination. I think it will be much harder to get demotivated during the run while I’m running on a Hawaiian island! Anyway, back to the run. Unfortunately my run time with Luis was short as his knee was giving out on him and he had to fall back. I caught up with Britt, another team member and ran with her for the majority of the rest of the race. Stacy was at the 6-mile water stop and it was great to see her. I ran up to her and gave her a big kiss on the lips. I think I scared the bejeesus out of the women volunteer that was with her. I could see her thinking “please don’t do that to me, it’s only water and pretzels!” She relaxed when I explained that I was actually Stacy’s husband. I ran with Britt until we had just a couple of miles to go and I ran the final two miles on my own. I have a personal ambition to finish the Marathon strong and I find myself practicing a strong finish over every one of our longer runs. Stacy was waiting for me at the finish and that really felt great. It really encouraged me to finish strong, if even just to look good for her!

We all went to an injury prevention clinic after the race. Actually, I should say that we all limped and hobbled into the injury prevention clinic, wondering what injuries were left for us to prevent. Actually, it was very useful. The guy who fixed my knees that very first time with the massage from hell gave us all a great talk.

I spent the rest of the day on cloud nine. Not just because I ran my twelve miles, but from my training experiences and from what I have learned from our honorees, I’m starting to realize and appreciate all the great things in my life right now. I have the cutest son in the world. I have a sexy supportive wife whose has gone from thinking I’m crazy to being very proud. I am training for the Honolulu marathon in Santa Cruz, California. One of the most scenic places you can be. And I’m feeling better about myself and within myself. I feel like I have the support of lots and lots of people from all over the world… some of whom I have never even met! I’m raising money for cancer research so that others can benefit from all of this experience. Most impotently, I have my health. Thank you all so much for all of your support in all forms. It makes a very big difference. I know a lot of you have contacted me one-on-one and are due a reply. I’ll try to do better as far as that’s concerned!

Today, I took it fairly easy. I have soreness, but no pain! Really, I’m feeling sore and tight after yesterday’s run but I’m really not in that much pain. Long may that last. Tomorrow night I’ll write about my upcoming trip to the cardiologist. I think I written enough for now. Goodnight.

Bladder Contol and other Stories

2005-09-23T22:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm officially bored. I've been waiting at the podiatrist's office for nearly an hour now. Then I realized that I could start writing today's blog entry on my Palm. No, I'm not writing on my hand, I mean my Palm Pilot, my handheld computer.
So, I know you've all been waiting with baited breath to know what this big weight on my mind is (and no, Derek, is not my hair - although I could do with a haircut.) The problem is actually my bladder. It's tiny! On an average day, I have to go about once an hour - especially since my training requires me to drink about 96oz (6 pints) of water daily. During my long runs I’ve been obsessed about needing to go to the toilet. I know I’ve never really written about this before, but I do need to write about it. There WILL be portable toilets along the marathon track with (from what I’ve been told) about a fifteen-minute wait for each. I can’t wait fifteen minutes every hour to go to the toilet! Surely, I hear you cry, it can’t really be that bad! It is, my friend. It really is. For example, during last weeks run, I pee’d before I left the house. I then pee’d in the public toilets at the start of my run and I also pee’d in the same public bathroom when I got back a couple of hours later. So what the big deal? I also had to pee in the middle of the woods DURING the run. Now when I say DURING, I don’t actually mean DURING. I did stop. It’s a good job Nisene Marks State Park has some of the biggest trees in the world! Good for hiding behind, if you get my drift. I need to research the topic of suppressing the desire to pee all the time. Great reading, I know… but I did warn you that my blog would be at all times honest.
I’m back out of the doctor’s office and in my bed as I type this sentence. The podiatrist had a lot to say about my feet. In short, he also agrees that I do NOT have the body to be a runner – mainly due to my tibia vara – or, in layman’s terms, bow leggedness or bandy legs. I have it pretty bad, according to the doc. Anyway, when people run or walk they will generally put their weight on the inside of their feet (pronate) or the outside of their feet (supinate) or right in the middle (flat feet). Generally, people will buy shoes most suited to one of these behaviors. Because I’m so bow-legged, I supinate first and THEN I pronate. In other words, my injured ankles and shins can actually be attributed to the pivoting motion my feet constantly make as I run. He also mentioned that he could feel some damage in my knees. There is no ‘proper’ shoe type for people like me. The doc suggested I get a custom orthotic that is basically a custom inner sole that is designed based on a mold of my feet. The problem is that it will cost me $350 so I’m waiting to see how much, if any, my insurance will pay. The doc did give me a next best solution in the meantime that works on a similar principal. He also told me that he admired what I was doing and would not suggest, for one minute, that I reconsider. It helps that he is a running nut himself. His wall was adorned with photos of him finishing all sorts or endurance events. It was nice to have someone like THAT actually admire ME!
So there you have it. I’m pretty much doomed to a life of sore limbs between now and my marathon. I’ll do everything I can to prevent serious injury but it looks like I’ll never feel in great shape (as I was hoping). To be honest, this marathon thing has become a bit of an obsession at this stage. You could cut both of my feet off and I’d still finish the damn thing. This time, it’s personal!

I will never forget Lora

2005-09-22T21:45:00.000-07:00

Okay. I’m writing for thirty minutes and that’s all your getting. This will show you just how slow I am when I compile these blog reports.
Training went okay tonight. It was much easier than usual… physically, anyway! Coach had us all lie down and form a big circle. Then we each had to name EVERYONE on the team one by one. If we got a name wrong or we couldn’t remember the name the person who made the mistake had to run around the circle and jump over each person while they went around. They were followed by the person beside them and they were followed, in turn, by the person beside them until everyone had jumped over everyone else and we returned to the circle. This was actually a lot more straightforward than I just made it sound! When it came to my turn, I tried to explain to everyone about my short-term memory condition, but I don’t think anyone bought it. I did make a mistake when I came to Lora. Yes, Lora, I will not forget your name in a hurry as it resulted in the entire team having to jump over each other… all because I had to do one of those things I am famously bad at… remember people’s names.
Some drills that involved some dainty footwork around a rope ladder followed the name game. Of course, I tripped! Didn’t do my sore knees much good. One the subject of soreness, Coach told me that sore is good and I should expect soreness for the rest of the training season. PAIN, on the other hand, is not so good and I have to learn to differentiate between the two. I’m pretty sure I’m just sore right now. I can run, but I run with sore knees. I think I can live with that. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. That’s what I get for not exercising my whole life! I knew what I was getting myself into when I started. Training finished with a mile run which started badly (I limped) but got better toward the end.
There’s something that’s been constantly bothering me since I started this crazy stunt of mine. Not my knees, not my weight, not even my ability to run. Unfortunately, I was talking to Stacy for the past ten or fifteen minutes so I guess you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out that that something that’s been weighing heavily on my mind actually is. Before I go tonight I do have one request. If you think you know of anyone who would enjoy reading my blog please forward the address on to them. I really don’t care if they help with my fundraising. I just feel that I need to know that people are actually reading this thing!

Tuesday Morning Run

2005-09-20T21:37:00.000-07:00

I went for a four and a half mile run this morning. There is a running track near my house that goes around the perimeter of a housing development that’s 0.93 miles long. I did almost five circuits. Stacy brought Ronan and the dogs out for a walk along the same trail to give me some support. With a bit of foresight, we would have realized that this was a bad idea. The dogs wanted to run with me every time I ran by them and almost took Stacy’s arm off. Now, I would run with them if they could keep up with me, but corgis are not known as jogging dogs. I know there’s a first for everything but I have to think about keeping my form!

The run was reasonably difficult. I was sore for pretty much all of the run. The soreness went from my knees to my butt to my ankles. I was very stiff at the end and I never really entered any kind of a ‘zone’. All I could think was ‘how the hell am I going to keep this up for twelve miles on Saturday? ‘. That’s right, I have a twelve-mile run on Saturday and I feel in no condition to run it. However, I WAS very proud of myself for getting out there and running. I’ve missed the past couple of mid-week runs on my training schedule because of my injuries and it’s been a bit of a blow, psychologically (as you know if you’ve been reading). I’m in reasonable shape tonight, truth be told. My knees are stiff when I walk and my ankles are sore… pretty much all the time, but I’m not in anything I would call PAIN. I guess that’s a good thing. I have another DEEP tissue massage scheduled for tomorrow some time (I honestly can’t recall when). I’m actually looking forward to it (kinda-sorta).

Finally, I’m going to start pushing my sponsorship campaign a bit harder over the next couple of weeks. I haven’t gotten any donations in a while and it would do me really good if I got a couple of new donors to get my spirits up before Saturday’s run. In fact, it would do me a WORLD of good if I could make my minimum sooner rather than later as this would allow me to focus on my training and not worrying about my fund raising. So, if you are still observing my progress from afar, please consider participating by donating some of your heard earned cash. A donation of ANY amount would be welcome. Thanks!

All quite on the Western Front

2005-09-19T21:22:00.000-07:00

Not much to report tonight. My knees are okay-ish one of them is more okay than the other. I’m going to do my best to do a five miler tomorrow morning. I did some core strengthening exercises tonight and I definitely felt like I hadn’t done them in a while. Tune in next time and I’ll tell you how I got on with that mid-week run!

Back on (the Outside) Track

2005-09-18T20:56:00.000-07:00

Well, I’m pleased to tell you all that I successfully ran seven and a half miles this morning. This was after a fairly sleepless night. We had a power cut at about 2am. This reset a CD radio we have downstairs which has a serious design flaw in that it plays whatever disc is lying in it at top volume whenever there is a power cut and the power is reestablished. This required me to run downstairs before the music woke Ronan. Then Ronan woke up at 4am, but went back to sleep again by himself (he has a cold) and got up once and for all at 6am, at which time I got up too as my alarm was set for 6:30am anyway.
It was a cold morning at the Nisene Marks State Park and my knee was a bit sore as I started to run. I could feel that I was limping slightly as I ran. I was not enjoying myself and found it very hard to get ‘into’ the run. The GOOD news is that my shin splints didn’t rear their ugly heads AT ALL during the run. It looks like the exercises I’ve been doing may be paying off as far as the shin splints are concerned! Anyway, I started to not feel too much soreness after about mile three and this was just in time for a very steep half-mile assent which I think I ran pretty well, considering. I WALKED back down as I had reached what I thought was the four mile turnaround point. I didn’t want to do any more damage to my knees or my shins. MUCH better to be safe than sorry at this point of my recovery. I stretched at the bottom of the incline, determined to run the final three and a half miles without stopping until I got back to my car.
As I was stretching a runner stopped by and said, “Thank goodness I found someone. I’ve been running for miles on my own and could do with some company. Would you like to run with me?” Here’s what I wanted to say: “No, I’d rather hobble along on my own. Go away!” Here’s what I really said. “Sure!”
So off we ran at about twice my usual pace. She sure was a talker. “Don’t you just love running? I find that whenever I wake up feeling blue, a good run will just shake those blues away”, etc, etc. It’s one thing running at twice your pace but then ALSO being expected to have a full conversation with a complete stranger… I mean, come on! I managed to get away without speaking very much by asking questions that required lengthy answers. When I did speak, it was usually to reiterate my beginner status. It probably came out sounding like that asthmatic wheelchair-bound kid in Malcolm in the Middle. I’VE…ONLY… REALLY… BEEN… RUNNING… FOR… A… MONTH. I don’t think she believed me. Probably had something to do with an earlier statement I made about training for the Honolulu Marathon!
I ran this pace for a couple of miles and was just on the verge of telling the woman (never got her name) that I would have to drop back when she told me that I was running too slow for her and that she wanted to run … get this… at least sixteen miles before returning home. I wished her luck with that.
I’ve come to realize that runners are fairly social creatures- social in a kind of a cult-ish way, but social all the same. They all share the love of the drug that gives them their endorphin high, the religion that puts then in the ‘zone’. Unfortunately, while I understand their faith and devotion, I must admit that I am not yet converted. I guess there is still time to have a running-related religious epiphany. Until then, I’ll secretly think all those out there NOT in training for a marathon are a little bit crazy, and I’m just visiting the nuthouse.
I kept running until I got back to my car and felt a bit wobbly. My ankles started hurting over the last half-mile of the run. I stretched, massaged my muscles and put ice on my knees, got in my car and drove home. By the time I got home my muscles were starting to seize-up and I REALLY hobbled into the house. I decided that drastic measures were in order. I made a cheese and turkey sandwich, rolled my muscles and went up and filled the bath full – full of very COLD water. It took me a couple of minutes of standing in the cold water before I mustered the courage to sit down in the tub. It was DIFFICULT but my muscles thanked me for it and felt better after sitting in that tub of cold water for ten or fifteen minutes. I’ve been keeping my muscles at bay for most of the day and my knee problems are currently at bay. Of course, tomorrow is another day and I’m almost EXPECTING to feel worse by the time I get up tomorrow morning. Perhaps I’ll dodge that bullet however. I really hope I do! I’m very, very tired right now. I’ve been dying to get to bed ALL day. Until next time, please cross your collective fingers that my injuries remain at bay.

Bridget Hurley

2005-09-17T23:04:00.000-07:00

I’m anticipating a long-ish blog entry tomorrow and do not want that entry to overshadow one of our most inspiring honorees. Children can humble us at the best of times with their positive attitudes when faced with adversity. Some children in particular show us how we should live our own lives, with a positive attitude, a smile and whole lot of love. Bridget Hurley is ten of these kids put together. Although I must admit that I have not spent much time with Bridget (due to circumstance, not choice), I do know that she has changed the outlook on life of those who have had the good fortune of doing so. She is a star in the eyes of many of the Team in Training participants. If you have not done so already, perhaps you might consider this a good time to donate to the research that keeps her alive today but clicking on the link to the left hand side of this blog entry.

Can you tell us a little about the day you found out she had cancer?

Bridget was diagnosed with AML (Acute Myelogenous Leukemia) New Year's Eve 1998 after taking her to the doctor because she was unable to walk. She was two and a half years old at the time. Our world changed in many ways that day. Up to that point we knew nothing about Leukemia.

What are the different stages of treatment she has undergone so far?

Bridget went through 6 months of intensive chemotherapy, which left her weak and vulnerable to infection. We had many hospital stays at Lucile Packard. In October 1999, just when we thought we thought the worse was behind us, Bridget was diagnosed with chemotherapy induced congestive heart failure. At that point she would have been put on a transplant list but she had not been in remission long enough. Her future was uncertain. Though she has had several "close calls" through new medicines, cardiac care and the power of prayer Bridget has survived. She remains in remission. She had her first visit to the "Long Term Survivors Clinic" a couple weeks ago (you go there after you have been in remission for 5 years). Her heart condition is stable at the moment. As her cardiologist says "It is a humbling experience treating Bridget."

Tell us some things about Bridget that have no connection to her cancer.

Bridget is the youngest of eight children. She is also a Downs Syndrome child (Down Syndrome has been the least of her challenges). She attends a regular 2nd Grade class at the local elementary school. She is reading and doing math and her speech is developing well. She is active in Brownies, loves to play baseball, basketball and volleyball. She also does ballet and jazz. Her oldest sister Shannon is a pediatric oncology nurse at UCSF, her 21 year old sister Meghan is studying to be a nurse, and her 15 her old sister Erin thinks she may also like to be a nurse. Our hospital experience with Bridget has definitely affected our family. The nurses were our heros.

How did you get involved with Team in Training (TNT)?

In June 2005 Bridget's sister Meghan was a part of the TNT that ran the Rock N Roll Marathon in San Diego. We were all very proud of her accomplishment. Bridget was her Honoree. That is how we got involved with TNT.

How has living with cancer affected Bridget?

Bridget's life has been complicated, but she is a happy, positive, ambitious girl who teaches something valuable to everyone she meets.

A final thanks to Kathy, Bridget’s mother, who took the time to share these insights into her daughter’s life.

I KNEE'd some luck tomorrow!

2005-09-17T22:51:00.000-07:00

Well, once again my knee problems prevented me from running this morning. I was very disappointed because this meant that I lost an opportunity to run with the rest of the team. It also means that I haven’t been able to run for a whole week. How am I supposed to be training for a marathon if I can’t run? I’ll try again tomorrow morning. I’m going to get up early and go out to the same trail I ran last week. This will be a big exercise in self-discipline, as I need to run eight miles by myself. Wish me luck. I need it!!!

The bad knee bone's coonected to the bad shin bone...

2005-09-15T21:31:00.000-07:00

I didn’t go to track tonight. Two reasons. First, my knees are starting to get better. Track usually involves lots of activity that is not conducive to knee strength building with lots of hopping, skipping, jumping and fast laps. I would be crippled right now had I gone. Instead (and here’s the second reason) I went to a massage therapist that actually knew what she is doing. She gave my legs a great work-over, diagnosed my shin splits Muscle imbalance between my posterior and anterior leg muscles and gave me lots of advice on how to get better faster. It’s so good to find someone who knows what they are doing. I have to do this exercise where I tap my toes while keeping my heels on the ground. Try it yourself. Sit down with your feet flat on the floor. Now raise and lower your toes as high as you can, pivoting around your heels. Do it quickly about fifteen times. If you feel a tight pain at the front of your legs, that’s what shin splints feel like… except I just have to run a few steps to make that feeling happen! So despite the fact that I couldn’t make it to track for the first time since I started this running thing, I’m in good spirits. I have found something else that’s wrong with me (but probably still associated with the original diagnosis of Tibia Vara) and I can DO something about it with a few simple exercises. I keep reminding myself that I’m lucky to find all of this out now while I can still fix it. Oh, and the knee pain? It’s subsided a bit after my great massage. I still hope to be able to do the weekend run on Saturday. It’s back down to eight miles. Every week from now on the weekend miles will go 8-12-8-14-8-16, etc. until we get to 20 miles. After that, I’ll never run more than eight miles until Marathon Day.

Heel Achilles, Heel! Good dog.

2005-09-14T22:28:00.000-07:00

My knees are still sore tonight but I do feel like they are improving… just not very quickly. I got a massage today but it didn’t seem to do me much good. I’m still hobbling around even more so than last night. That sounds like a contradiction to my previous statement but I was more referring to how I felt at 6pm when I came home. Very sore, indeed. The good news is that stretching and rolling my legs does my knees some good, as predicted by Mark at SMI the other week. I’m so glad I made that appointment. In other news, my Achilles have been hurting a bit lately too. My feet have been feeling very, very tight since Sunday’s run. I do know it its all psychosomatic as a result of Sunday’s foot clinic, but I made an appointment with a podiatrist in case it gets any worse. I’ll be seeing him Friday the 23rd, so why not remind me about that, as it’s a long ways off and I’m very forgetful.
Anyway, I’ll keep tonight’s entry short and sweet as I had a pretty busy day (not marathon related) and feel like calling it an early night tonight. I’ll leave you with some photos of how Ronan help me roll my leg muscles.

The first photo shows how we both roll our calves. Ronan tells me that his newly aquired walking skills are killer on his Achilles.

When I need deeper pressure on my calves, Ronan is also there to help me out.

And he’s also great at helping me get a good deep roll into my quads.

And on that note, I will bid you all a good night.

Revenge of the Killer Knees!!!

2005-09-13T22:35:00.000-07:00

I’m not very happy with my post-ten-mile progress. My knees hurt after my run. They hurt in the same way they hurt before, so I’m trying to take it easy. It very hard to take it easy when you know you are behind the curve and that time is only getting shorter. Sometimes I get jealous of my healthy team mates who can run ten miles and be fit to run another ten immediately after. Oh well, I guess that’s the price I pay for doing no athletic activity whatsoever up until this point in my life. I may not be a lean, mean, running machine but I am definitely reaping many rewards from this endeavor.
There is nothing like the feeling of checking my email to find that someone has unexpectedly done something really selfless by donating to my cause. I got a few BIG donations over the past week and it humbles me to think that these people have so much faith in me. It really feels good to know that so many people are supporting my training and watching my every ‘step’. Again, a big thanks to all of you! Your donations mean so much more to me than their monitory value. I know the Society I’m running for do care A LOT about that money, but I also take the donations as a token of faith and respect. That gets me out running every week. Of course, I should be out running several times a week… and that still worries me. There is only one thing that can fix that right now… MORE MONEY! No, I’m only joking. I’ll try that again. There is only one thing that can fix that right now… time. Unfortunately, time is not on my side.
So I need every trick in the book. For every day I should be running and can’t because I’m injured as a result of running too long, I’m going to cycle my bike… hard… up hills. I’m also going to work on my core strength… every day.
In case you haven’t guessed already, I did not do any of these things today. Actually, I made a pathetic attempt at strengthening my core strength but I quit too early. Lazy, lazy, lazy. I did ride my bike (hard) to and from work, but it just didn’t actually seem hard enough. I guess that’s probably progress. I have scheduled a massage for tomorrow. Hopefully it will be nice and deep and painful. A deep and painful massage seemed to work for me before. There’s the masochist coming out in me again.
Anyway, I should sign off. I’m sort of rambling tonight. I guess that’s in lieu of telling you all about what a great run I had today. I go to sleep tonight with mixed feelings. On one hand I am filled with pride that so many of you have placed so much faith in me. On the other hand, that faith you have placed in me terrifies me. Can I REALLY do this? I guess the answer is I AM doing this.

Dori Galster

2005-09-12T22:10:00.000-07:00

Tonight, I am forgoing my usual belly aching in honor of another of our team’s honorees, Dori Galster. Dori is actually in training WITH us this season and can be described as a ‘survivor’ in many, many ways. Dori, and all of the honorees that are in remission or post remission give us all a message of hope - especially with the help of organizations such as Team in Training.

Can you tell us a little about the day you found out you had cancer?
I was 15, on spring break with my family in Arizona. Our family doctor called to tell us to come home immediately. I had an appointment with an oncologist and was hospitalized that evening undergoing chemo. That was the first time I saw my dad cry.

What type of cancer do/did you have?
I am 14 years post remission - Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

What are the different stages of treatment you have undergone so far?
All of them. I spent 1 year in and out of the hospital for treatments then 2 years on oral medications. With lots of fun stuff like multiple bone marrow biopsy's and spinals.

What does having cancer mean to you?
Having had cancer and survived I definitely appreciate life more. In the hospital sometimes your not strong enough to hold your head up, you can't go outside, and a shower is a luxury. All these things seem like gifts to me.

How has cancer changed your outlook on life?
I'm a lot stronger than I ever thought I could be.

How has your treatment benefited you?
Having previously experienced a lot of nausea with chemo, my 2 pregnancies were a lot easier to deal with.

Describe a ‘bad’ and a ‘good’ day.
If I can get out of bed...it's a good day.

What has Team in Training (TNT) done for you and your family?
I have been involved with TNT since 1992. I feel it gives me a "voice" and helps me honor my friends who lost their battle along the way. I'm a success story but everyone isn't so lucky.

You have enough going on in your life right now. Why have you volunteered to be one of our team’s honorees?
Just so everyone knows there are success stories and also honor my friends who have lost their battle.

Do you have a message for the people who are currently training with TNT?
Training for an event is much like treatment. You have good and bad days. It's all worth it when you cross the finish line to a cure.

Do you have a message for the person who is currently ‘considering’ donating to someone who is running for this cause?
If it wasn't for people like you who believed in a cure and helped sponsor this cause. I wouldn't be here today. I have 2 beautiful children and a wonderful husband that I never thought was possible 14 years ago. Let me thank them for their donation because they are giving another cancer patient a chance at a success story. If I can beat Leukemia and train myself for TNT you can write a check.

How to run ten miles in just 18,666 simple steps

2005-09-11T21:22:00.000-07:00

I’m very happy. I’ll get to the reasons why in a little bit, but first let me tell you about yesterday. Yesterday, I drove with Ronan to Monterey to watch James, one of my TEAM mates finish a Triathlon. If you don’t already know, a Triathlon involves a 1.5km swim followed by a 40km cycle, followed by a 10km run. If you ask me, that’s just loony, but I had to admire the stamina of James and all the others who finished this race. I was amazed at the range of shapes, sizes and ages of the tri-athletes. I witnessed a 72-year-old man finish the race in three and a half hours. THAT’S impressive. The triathlon had a lot of people participating on behalf of Team in Training and I was most impressed at the level of support those participants received either by the TNT ‘cheerleaders’ or by each other. It made me look forward to giving and receiving that level of support on my big 26.2-mile day.
I was up at 6am for this morning’s ten-mile run. I have been pre-occupied with that ten mile barrier all week. Every time I felt the slightest tweak in one of my legs I would think ‘Oh no, I have to run ten miles on Saturday’. Anyway, I set out at 7:30am and soon paired up with my old running buddy, Luis. Luis had been injured during the previous week and we had to go a little bit easier as a result. That suited me, as I didn’t want to overdo it myself. We had a water stop at three miles. Now, for those uninitiated, a water stop is not some place you can go to the toilet, nor is it a place to stop and have a pint. It’s a chance to rehydrate yourself with some water or electrolyte mixes. Well, the three miles flew by. We could not believe we were at the three-mile marker so quickly. That meant that we were only TWO miles from the five-mile turnaround point! I tend to do that when running longer distances. I focus on shorter objectives and that gets my through the run much better.
As we set out after the water stop I felt an unmerciful pain dart into my left inner thigh and screamed out. I looked down to see a very angry bee leaving his calling card in me. I brushed him off and upon closer inspection, managed to remove a lot of the sting. But it still hurt like mad! Luis looked very worried… until he realized that all that was wrong with me was that I got stung by a bee. He told me that a screamed like a girl… and I probably did. It was tough running on with a bee sting in my leg but I would persevere! (I later discovered that several others received similar stings at the same place on their run so I won’t get all sanctimonious about how I braved through my injury. The others probably didn’t ‘scream like a girl’ either.)
We eventually got to our turnaround point – mile five! Easy, peasy… even easier when I admit that I walked most of the last half mile as it involved a very sharp incline that looked injury inducing. As I reached the bottom of that incline I decided that I would run the rest of the miles as well as I have run any time before. So I picked up my pace and ran on. I felt a bit bad leaving Luis behind me but I know that he’s not the type to mind one bit (and he concurred when we met at the end). So I ran, and ran, and ran. Then I ran some more. There was a group of people from the Team in Training South Bay that were running the same trail that morning so there were well over a hundred of us out there and every on gave me encouragement as I ran past (in the opposite direction). I even got an extra boost by reciprocating those words of encouragement to others.
I stopped briefly at the water stop and kept on running. I started to tire at about mile eight and it here that I asked my friend Stephanie to run alongside me. Stephanie was probably the biggest influencer on my decision to run this race for my family and to do some good for others outside of my immediate circle. Steph has always been a strong moral measuring stick in my life of late. She died in July 2005. I’m reading a great book on how to run a marathon that includes a chapter on the usefulness of visualization to keep you going. The book suggests that you imagine something that would inspire a second wind. I imagined Stephanie running alongside with me, laughing and kinda making fun of my running form (as she would typically do) but also encouraging me and keeping me going. I really felt her presence with me and she helped me not only keep going, but also speed up! It was a great moment that had me smiling until the finish line. I hope she doesn’t mind pushing me again later in our training and in our final run!
I finished in just over two hours, which is exactly the time I wanted to finish. I had bought a couple more gadgets earlier in the week… a running watch with a fancy stopwatch and a pedometer that would measure my distance and the number of steps taken. It read 18,666! That amazed me. I’m sure it doesn’t amaze those of you that have used a pedometer before, but it blew my mind! No WONDER we are so prone to getting all sorts of injuries.
After we cheered the rest of our teammates in, we headed off to a foot clinic where we were shown all kinds of gratuitous photos of foot diseases and injuries while we munched on our post-run food. Mmmmm! Black toe! A great clinic and I learned a lot about the type of injuries I would probably get over the next few weeks… nah! I think I’ll try to be a bit more careful.
In closing, I would like to remind those who either did not have any faith or just wanted to see me run ten miles that today is the day! I RAN TEN MILES! Pay up! The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society are waiting for a check or a credit card donation. Just go here for all the details you need!

http://www.active.com/donations/fundraise_public.cfm?key=martinwalsh

Finally, I’ll be posting another honoree interview tomorrow night. This time, it’s an interview with Dori Galster. Dori is extra special because not only is she an honoree, but she is also a participant with our run team. So don’t forget to check back to read more for Dori.

The other other white meat

2005-09-09T23:29:00.000-07:00

I’ve slacked off a bit as far as my blog is concerned, I know. And I’m not sure tonight is going to be much different, considering the time at which I’m starting to write it. I took tonight off to watch a video. However, I’ve received a few very generous donations this week and I feel that you all deserve and update. I vow to get back on track and update more frequently from now on.

Wednesday was pretty easy. I cycled to and from work as part of my cross training and did about another half an hour of core training at home later that night. I continued to roll my legs and use the marathon stick. Ronan has been participating in my rolling in some funny ways. First, when I’m rolling my legs, I’m face down with the roller directly under my quads. As I’m working on this, I’ve noticed that I need to get a bit deeper. So, I’ve trained Ronan to lie on my back while I role to get some extra body weight on the roller. It does a good job! When I roll my calves, I put the roller under my calves, sit up and roll back and forth with my calves on the roller. Ronan has taken to sit down beside me and put his feet up on the roller too. I PROMISE I’ll get Stacy to take photos next time he does it so you can see what I mean. Needless to say, it’s very funny.

Yesterday night was track and I was very happy with my progress there. I had virtually no residual pain in my knees. My shins hurt a bit at during my first mile run but I quickly stretched them as much as I could and the pain went away. I actually felt GREAT at the end of our training. We ended the track with some horribly painful core training work. It’s usually twilight by the time we are doing our core exercises and last night the mosquitoes were out in force… and they were having me for dinner! I guess they have heard about the virtues of ‘white meat’ and, boy, am I white meat!!! I am now sitting in bed trying my BEST not to scratch any of my seven (yes, seven) bites all around my legs and ankles. I’m terrible when it comes to itching! Aggggghhhhh! I brought a few of my gadgets to track and they were very popular with many of the team… mainly because they work SO well. I think we are all turning into sado masochists at this stage.

Today was a very lazy day. I stretched a couple of times and did a bit of a roll here and there. I did go to the doctor. I had an EKG just before I started training that yielded inconclusive results. When my doctor heard I was training for a marathon she decided that my erratic EKG results earned a recommendation to see a cardiologist. I feel fine during my runs but that sort of stuff is not to be taken lightly and I’ll do what I’m told. I’ll keep you all updated on what happens with that as time goes on.

I don’t have a long run tomorrow. It’s on Sunday instead. I’m not sure why. I’m both nervous, excited and full of dread all at the same time as the run involved TEN miles and encounters a very steep hill around half way through. I’m sure I’ll do JUST fine, however. I probably won’t report back between now and then so WISH ME LUCK!!! I think I’m going to need it.

Glad I Quit Smoking!

2005-09-06T20:51:00.000-07:00

A fairly quick entry tonight, I think. I set my alarm for 6:30am this morning for an early run before I start my day. Ronan woke me up at 5:30am. I had decided to sleep in the room beside Ronan’s so as not to disturb Stacy when getting up so early. Bad idea. I went in to console Ronan. He’s been having some trouble with a developing molar, poor guy. Anyway, the long and the short of it is that I ended up getting him back to sleep for an hour… on my chest. He needed the sleep as we were out late last night and he was already a few hours behind his usual sleeping schedule.
So, I didn’t get to start my 6:30am run until about 7:45am. The good news is that I ran for four miles. I did have to stop and stretch out my calves every mile and it took me way longer to run as I would have liked… but I still ran four miles. This was my longest ‘unsupervised’ run so far. I was constantly on the verge of shin splits during most of my run. I have to work on that. I also did my run up and down a busy street (Scotts Valley Drive), which was also a mistake as there was too much traffic with too many trucks spewing too much black smoke from their exhausts. At times I was convinced that running in this environment was doing me more harm than good. I recovered very well once my run was over. I had that great tingling feeling at the back on my neck. I’m guessing that’s a bit of the runner’s high, or maybe an impending heart attack. I’m also noticing that my largest progress is in my aerobic capacity. I’m recovering with little or no breathlessness. This has a lot to do with my slow pace, but considering I used to smoke twenty cigs a day, I’m feeling very, very pleased with that! I’m glad I quit smoking. It feels good to have big, clean lungs! I’m still very much back on track.

Roberly Bedayan

2005-09-04T19:33:00.000-07:00

Today was a rest day, so not much to report other than I had a nice day with Stacy, Ronan and some old friends. I also did not have any knee pain. A couple of aches and pains here and there, but nothing worth worrying about.

Tonight I am handing my blog over to Roberly Bedayan another one of our TEAM’s honorees. She here to remind us all of what this is all about. I’d like to tell her that we are all very proud to run in her honor, as we are for all of the cancer patients and survivors all over the world.

Can you tell us a little about the day you found out you had cancer?
The day I found out I had cancer was a day of disbelief, shock, and denial. Leading up to that day I knew that I was exhausted and in pain, but figured that I had just been working way to hard. One day as I was sitting in a movie theater with my mom, my left side of my face went numb. I explained to the doctor at the "Doc, in the Box" that I felt that I had a virus running through my body. Blood tests were done, and calls were made. My regular Dr. called and said that I needed to see a blood specialist. Not knowingwhat that meant, I called the number she gave me. After explaining to the receptionist that I needed to make an appointment, she efficiently asked me, "And what kind of CANCER do you have?"
What type of cancer were you diagnosed with?The type of cancer that I was treated for is called, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. This type of blood cancer affects the white blood cells in a person’s blood. Instead of normal white blood cells the cancer causes the blood cells to "blast" apart. Not only is this extremely painful, it also leaves the body susceptible to all kinds of infections.
Why have you volunteered to be one of our team's honorees?I volunteered to be an honoree for the Team in Training because I believe that when people put themselves out for the benefit of others it changes the world in most positive and spiritual way. I want to be a support to all of you who are doing just that.Do you have a message for the person who is currently 'considering' donating to someone who is running for this cause?
Giving money to this cause not only supports research for the patients who are sick and dying of blood cancers, it also supports individuals, like myself, and families to deal day by day with such a devastating and life threatening disease. Currently I am in remission, and being on a study through Sloan Kettering that was carried through by my Stanforddoctor has saved my life. Donated money from the Leukemia and Lymphoma society goes directly to funding research at Sloan Kettering and Stanford.
Describe a 'bad' and a 'good' day.A bad day for me as a cancer patient was being in such torturous pain and fear that knowing that death could be momentarily was a blessing that I was ready for. Agood day is day is knowing that God has a plan for me and if I can relax into this knowingness all is as it should be.

Eight Miles High

2005-09-03T20:01:00.000-07:00

Wow. It’s been a while since my last post. I hope I haven’t lost any readers as a result. I’ll try to provide a quick summary of my training progress (yes, I wrote ‘progress’) over the past few days.

Wednesday was spent resting my legs. I didn’t get around to any running except for a brief run around my work’s car park. My knees hurt after about three minutes of running which really disappointed me. I continued to ice my knees every couple of hours. In the evening I rolled my quads and my calves. The photo is an example of how I do this. Looks funny, doesn’t it? Boy did they hurt. I am staring to feel the creases roll away to some extent, however.

Thursday night was track night. I had previously discussed the possibility that I may not be able to keep up with the team yet again with Coach and he told me to come out regardless and see what I could do. I came out to the track and gingerly attempted to warm up. I didn’t get much of a chance since I arrived late as a result of some bad traffic. We did some drills that involved some hopping, skipping and jumping around and my knees did not give out like they did the previous week. This was progress, I thought. Next, another warm up before we started the more difficult training. I walked around the track a couple of times. My knee was ok-ish. As we started to run, my knee continued to stay okay and I was able to keep up with the rest of my group. Coach has split us up into three sections. The Falcons are the fastest group, followed by the Macos, followed by the Cheetahs. Guess which group I belong to? I actually love our little Cheetah group as there is very little competitiveness. We are all here to finish the marathon and time and speed is of little consequence. I also like the easy-going nature within this group. Anyway, my knee felt pretty good. At once stage, I took off like a bat out of hell. This COULD have been a really stupid thing to do, but I managed to get away with it. I was very tempted to go out for pizza with the rest of the team after training to celebrate the fact that I managed to survive all of the training but my knees started to get REALLY sore on the way so I changed course and headed for home and some ice. I was very happy.

I got a massage on Friday in preparation for my attempt at today’s eight-mile buddy run. It felt good and I really noticed the difference my self-massage was having. Although the massage was deep tissue, it wasn’t as painful as I was expecting. More good news. As I returned to work I did feel like the massage therapist had tweaked my knee in some way and that worried me a little bit. When I got home I saw that my final massage tool had arrived. It is called “The Stick” and it is basically a big stick you take with you to your sports event and you massage yourself before and after. I tried it out and it seemed to do a good job. I was nervous about the next days run. If I didn’t manage to run eight miles, I was afraid of the mental ramifications as NEXT weeks run is the big TEN miles.

So now we are all caught up to today. I got up at 6am. The run was scheduled for 7:30am but I had a lot of preparation to do. I had to eat breakfast, pack my ice packs for my knees, pack my fuel belt (a special running belt that holds six small bottles of liquid and a pouch for snacks), stretch and give myself a quick massage. I got to the meeting place and used the Stick to warm my muscles up a bit. I met up with Luis, a new friend, and we decided to run together. Running with Luis was a lot of fun and we laughed through those first six miles. Good conversation and having a laugh does wonders to help melt away those miles. Luis stopped after the sixth mile with a promise to add a couple of make-up miles later. I ran those last two miles as hard as I could, stopping only to chew a quick snack. I completed those last two miles, making eight in all. I had done it! My knees hurt, but no more than I believe they would have after (mostly) running for eight miles. I didn’t exactly break the sound barrier during this run but I did learn a lot from Luis and I did find out what eight miles feels like. They all felt great. So now it’s Saturday night and I have a few aches and pains but I’m by no means debilitated. I think I’m back on track for next weeks ten mile run. So those who have promised a donation as soon as I hit the ten-mile mark, get ready! I’m back!

Happiness is a Warm Quad

2005-08-30T22:54:00.000-07:00

Captain’s Blog – Stardate Tuesday August 30th 2005. My knee feels much better. My marathon is back on! My quads hurt like hell! Before I begin explaining my miraculous recovery, let me impart with you one very valuable piece of advice. If you are going to get ten to twelve needles stuck in various parts of your body, make sure to scratch you nose beforehand. Yes, I developed an incredibly itchy nose while ‘resting’ with some needles embedded in me.

After that acupuncture appointment I went to see the Mark (The Wizard) at the Sports Medical Institute in Palo Alto. He examined me and concluded that my problem was actually congenital. I have Tibia Vara (I think) and my tibia bends at the top. This condition is most likely the contributor to my sore knees. I also had a problem with my hips being off balance.

So that’s it, I thought. That’s the end of my marathon running dream. Mark reassured me. If I could loosen the muscles in my quads and my calves things would improve dramatically. He proved this by giving one of my quads the deepest, most painful massages I EVER had. I mean, I very nearly teared at several points. After he finished torturing me he asked me to walk around a bit and … and … my knee felt better. MUCH better. MUCH, MUCH better. He then performed the same operation on my other leg and then each calve. I cannot describe how much better my knees felt. I mean, my quads were BURNING but my knees felt FINE. He also gave me the largest stretch I ever got in my life. I felt like a Russian gymnast by the end of it all. Mark told me to make sure that I was wearing cushioning shoes because of my ‘condition’. I went home and looked my Brooks GTS 6. They are designed for stability, not cushioning! I’m currently working with Tim at the Running Revolution to see what we can do. I’ll report on the outcome of this when I get one.

As the day went on, my muscles got a bit tighter and my knees started to hurt a bit more. So I stretched and performed some self-torture with a Styrofoam roller and the pain calmed down a bit.

This morning, I walked, ran, walked, ran and walked two miles. Now, compared to many of the 6 milers several of my teammates are doing on a daily basis, two miles is chickenfeed. But today, I ran a little marathon of my own. My knees were sore, no doubt about it, but my knees felt a lot LESS sore than they did a couple of days ago. Stacy came out for support with Ronan’s jogging stroller. He thought the idea of running after Dad was terribly funny. I came home and stretched and rolled and put ice on my knees and I didn’t have much residual pain. Yes!

So here are the facts. Due to my malformed tibia, I will have to pay extra, extra attention to my leg stretches and I’ll have to roll my muscles at least twice a day to keep them as loose as possible. Rolling is VERY painful; I know that James, for one, will feel my pain on this one. For me, loose muscles mean my knees won’t hurt. Tight muscles mean my knees will hurt. That simple.

All in all, I’m very happy that I had sore knees NOW and that I found out about my Tibia Vara NOW and that I can work on this problem STARTING NOW. It’s not too late for me!

Tomorrow, I will run-walk-run that same two miles and will hopefully improve upon my performance today. Improvement is the most important thing that can happen to me now. I’ll let you know how I get one in my next posting.

Doug Suess

2005-08-29T22:30:00.000-07:00

I’m giving most of tonight’s Blog entry over to Doug Suess, our second featured honoree. Doug celebrated his fifth year free of cancer yesterday and had a big party to celebrate. Before I hand the ‘microphone’ over to Doug, I know a lot of you are wondering how I got on today at the sports medical institute in Palo Alto. In short, it was one of my most painful experiences ever… and my knees feel MUCH better. I promise lots more detail in tomorrow’s entry, but tonight, it’s all about Doug.

Tell me about some things about yourself that have no connection to your cancer.
I have 3 kids (all girls) ages 9,18, & 21 only the youngest is still at home full-time.
We have 2 dogs & 4 cats. I like to collect die cast cars, DVD’s & Harley Davidson Stuff.
Last year in the spring we bought a used motor home (we got a great deal) and have gone on a few weekend camping getaways, I really enjoy the family time together, even though most of the time my youngest girl the wife and I go.

Can you tell me a little about the day you found out you had cancer?
I was scared, socked and I thought why me? What is my family going to do?
My youngest was only 2 year old

What type of cancer did you have?
I had Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, but was at first diagnosed with diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease similarly kind of Lymphoma.

What are the different stages of treatment you have undergone?
The first year of treatment I was having chemo for the Hodgkin's Disease at 6 months into treatment every thing was looking good the cancer was responding well to treatment, but at 9 months my symptoms all came back my doctor contacted Stanford got me approved for a stem-cell transplant. Off I went to Stanford for high dose chemo, stem-cell collection (I was able to use my own stem-cells because my bone marrow had no Cancer cells) more high-dose Chemo that would kill the resent cancer, but that would also kill the bone-marrow, and then I got my Stem-cells back to start to grow new bone marrow. I also did a trial study at Stanford of a new treatment of Retuxun, a less invasive drug that only kills tumor cells, also while in recovery I had to have my spleen removed the cancer & the tenement for it caused too much damage to it.

How has cancer changed your outlook on life?
Life is a fragile thing don't take it for granted you never know what tomorrow will bring .

How has your treatment benefited you?
I am still here for my family and living every day!

Describe a ‘bad’ and a ‘good’ day.
Almost all days are good now. I don't like to think about the bad days when I was going in treatment, there were so many of them. I am glad I made it and I hope others will have an easier time. With the research and new treatments maybe the can.

What as Team in Training (TNT) done for you and your family?
The support and caring when I was going through treatment was a great encouragement to keep fighting, and now the friendship & common goal help raise funds to find a cure for blood cancers the group feels like family

You have enough ‘stuff’ going on in your life right now. Why have you volunteered to be one of our team’s honorees?
My goal is to help raise funds to find a cure for blood Cancers, to show the funds do help. I am still here.

Do you have a message for the people who are currently training with TNT?
You can and you are making a difference. Keep it up. We know it can be hard but the money you raise may be the funding to the research for cure to some kind of cancer. One life lost is too many!

Bad Knee Blues

2005-08-28T21:38:00.000-07:00

Let’s just get this out of the way first. My knees are still broken. I am definitely on the mend but it’s taking a LOT longer than I had anticipated. I haven’t written anything in a few days as I was hoping to make my next entry the one that tells you about how my knees had an incredible recovery and how I was able to make our eight-mile run yesterday after all. Well, that is not the case and it’s been a while. In this case, no news does not necessarily translate to good news. Lets go back a few days, shall we?

My company just released the product I’ve been working on over the past couple if years and there was a beach party organized to celebrate. One of my dogs, Luka, had an infected paw as he had been to the vet earlier in the day to remove a big thorn. She wanted to safety home and dog-sit him, for fear that he would bite at his wounded paw so I decided to take Ronan myself. That’s a photo of Ronan at the start of this posting.

So I arrived at Seabright beach, deciding to park at Aldo’s. As I approached the sand I realized that the party was about a half mile down the beach. Now, those of you that have kids may know how difficult it is to pull a baby stroller through sand. I decided that I didn’t have much choice, as my other alternative was to park closer and take the stroller down about 100 stairs to the beach (and bring it back up that way later?) So I pulled the stroller through the sand. THIS DID MY SORE KNEES NO FAVORS WHATSOEVER. I arrived to be told that my name had been drawn for a prize but it was given to someone else since I was not there to collect. Nope, I was too busy pulling the stroller though a few hundred feet of sand. ( I also noticed that my coworkers had developed a certain skepticism regarding my ability to get in shape in time for December. This was both demoralizing (as I was asking myself the very same question) and disappointing. I mean, my coworkers have no reason NOT to think that I don’t have a chance in hell of doing this, but I thought they might at least pretend! By the time a carted Ronan and his toys back to the car I was in a foul mood. My knees felt like they were as sore as they had ever been.

Saturday morning, my knees did not feel TOO bad. Not GOOD, but definitely improved. I got up early as I promised our running coach that I would be at the Saturday run starting point at 8am. Unfortunately, I was not fit enough to run but I volunteered to do anything that could help the team. I knew that I would have gotten more and more despondent if I just sat home on Saturday morning, knowing everyone else on the team was out there running eight miles. My job was to go out to the six-mile turn around point on the course. Those running six miles would be told to turn around where I was placed. Otherwise, the eight milers would be told where to keep running. I guess I felt like the soldier on desk duty. I event wore my running gear to feel more part of the day.

I ended up at my designated spot about three quarters of an hour before any of the team was due to pass me. The turnaround point was actually in a residential neighborhood. I had brought a flask and a deck chair to sit on. I placed the chair in from of a fire hydrant and waited. I got lots of funny looks from passers by, let me tell you. I looked like I was all ready to watch a parade or something. The guy who owned the house across the street from me even came out to ask why I was looking at his house. I explained my job and decided to turn the direction of my chair. I got so many questions that, out of boredom, I told someone that the city was paying me to make sure nobody parked in front of the fire hydrant. I think they believed me for a couple of seconds. For how weird Santa Cruz is, I was surprised at the level of interest I achieved. Soon the runners started passing by and I took a few photos and tried to give some words of encouragement. I was very jealous of everyone, as I know they would achieve something that day that I couldn’t. Eight miles. Jake, my mentor did a good job of giving me a pep talk while I was out there, however and I felt like it would still be possible to get back on that horse. The support I’m finding in my TEAMmates is fantastic. I really appreciate that. I never feel like a ‘loser’ while I’m out training (or watching people train).

After the run, we attended a nutrition clinic that cheered me up no end. In short, I am going on the Anti-Atkins diet. It was a good day out, overall and I was glad I went out to ‘support the troops’. I will rejoin them on the battlefield very soon!

This morning I noticed that my Achilles felt sore. You know, I think this may be a good thing. It means that my knees were not so painful that they are masking all of my other maladies. At the end of the day (literally), my knees are still sore and that is very depressing. I’ve got another acupuncture appointment tomorrow, which is followed by an appointment with the Sports Medical Institute in Palo Alto. I’ve actually had to ask for some paid time off to keep up with all of these knee appointments. PLEASE LORD, LET MY KNEES FEEL BETTER TOMORROW or, at least, let me find a route cause for the problem (that goes beyond my being an idiot).

So that’s how everything stands and oh, in case you’re wondering. I’m not giving up. It’s a lesson I’m learning from my new honoree friends. And on that note, congratulations to Honoree Doug, who celebrated his 5th year cancer free today. I wasn’t able to make it to his party but I’m sure it was a very happy occasion. I’m highlighting Doug’s Q & A on tomorrow’s blog, so don’t forget to ‘tune in’ to that.

Pins and needles

2005-08-25T23:05:00.000-07:00

The photo? That's my dog, Luka, showing how much he likes my new shoes.
That was an interesting day. Started with me landing my feet on the ground this morning. My knees STILL hurt like crazy. This was officially disappointing. I was beginning to feel very disheartened as this stage. I didn’t think I was doing anything particularly strenuous all week (especially when you compare it to previous weeks) but still my knee conditions seemed to be deteriorating. I cycled into work (the short way) and my knees felt fine. My knees are always fine when I cycle. I guess that is a good thing. I decided when I got into work that I would schedule an acupuncture treatment with someone one of my TEAM-mates HIGHLY recommended. I’d never done acupuncture before and I was a little anxious, to say the least. Anyway, fortunately, they had an opening this afternoon and I was on my way.
The acupuncture involved getting a series of very thin needles stuck into different areas on my knees and legs. Here’s the interesting thing about acupuncture, for those who have not experienced it first hand. It doesn’t really hurt. The needle going in doesn’t hurt very much at all. The needles can get twisted a bit and you can FEEL it, but it’s more peculiar than it is painful. One hour later, I’m out with the promise that I should feel better VERY shortly. I felt worse. Seriously. The pain seemed to have spread around my legs. My legs were a little achy all over. Hmmm. I also got a bunch of herb tablets that, get this, I have to take 8 of, 3 times a day. Yummy. I also got some lotion that I have to smush all over my knees before and after I exercise. To be honest, it smells a bit like yak’s poop. Still, skeptical as I may seem, I’m willing to ‘stay the course’ with the acupuncture for now. I have another appointment on Monday. So that’ll be an acupuncture session on Monday morning followed by an appointment at the Sports Medical Institute in Palo Alto. To be honest, this is all starting to cost me a pretty penny.
So, off I go to track. As I drive there I was feeling very disheartened. It’s been almost a week and my knees are in as bad or worse shape as ever before. Track was a bit of a disaster. I walked around the track during the warm up. I did my best to keep up with coach’s drills. When it came to running, however, my knees screamed NO FREAKIN’ WAY!!! I sat out for the rest of training and tried to practice my core strength. I did this as a way of channeling my disappointment that I couldn’t train with the rest of the team. As I did some stretches, I noticed that the backs of my knees were inflamed. Believe it or not, I saw this as progress. It was proof of my hyperextention theory. So, here’s the list of BAD things I’ve been doing to end up in this situation.

Coach told us at the very start of training that we should stand on one leg and then the other when we brushed our teeth every night. I did what I was told except for one important step. I didn’t bend the leg I was standing on. I locked it solid. So my knee bore the brunt of my body weight.

Every time I stretched, I hyperextended.

Last week when I was running my six miles I got shin splits. I tried to run off the pain. Doing so meant that I transferred my weight elsewhere… to my knees.

After the run, I drove over to Campbell to get a new pair of running shoes. Part of the buying experience was to test run the different shoes. Every time I tried a new pair, my knees hurt more and more… but I had driven 30 miles to this place and so I felt it was more important to run through the pain. WRONG!

From that point on, I officially had my sore knees. I tried fixing them by going on a strict regiment of strengthening and stretching. Once again, I was straining muscles, not stretching them! Things just kept getting worse!

Every time I brushed my teeth I locked my knees!

Wow! This is turning out to be a longer entry than I thought. I guess I’m using this blog as a way of venting my frustration and to work out some things in my head. I’m still very depressed about my current physical condition, but I have a few things that cheer me up.

Despite my recent semi-physical activity, I’ve felt worse at different times this week.

Once again, my team has shown me what a team really is by stopping and chatting with me as I hobbled around the track tonight.

Out of everyone I talk to during the week, Coach Ed made me feel most confident.

I found out that a lot of out mentors (and last season’s running team) has injuries and they still ended up running 26.2 miles

I will get better.

Stacy is being more supportive than ever.

You are still reading my blog, which means that I have your support.

Finally, please remember the reason I’m going through all this pain and suffering. People are dying every day with different forms of blood cancer and YOU can make a difference in their lives and maybe even help them live. Just a few bucks will go a long way. REALLY!

If you’ve already made a contribution please accept my sincerest gratitude. Your contributions have eased my pain, and they will ease the pain of many others ten times over. Just ask any of our honorees. I run for them.

Hyper-extentions

2005-08-24T23:16:00.000-07:00

A short entry tonight. I think I had an epiphany tonight. Actually, Stacy helped me arrive at this epiphany. We were stretching together this time so Stacy could help me focus on what muscles I should feel the stretches in and I kept noticing that I could only feel the stretch at the back of my knees. Turns out I was hyper-extending any time I had to do a leg-related stretch. This MAY be a big contributor to my bad knees. I also noticed that I lock my knees when doing other balancing and stretching exercises. Could this be the missing link? I’ll let you know over the next few days… and yes, I know, I am an idiot.

Ten Mile Run

2005-08-23T22:49:00.000-07:00

I went for an easy ten mile run at 5am this morning. The air was clean and I was feeling good. My legs felt like they could go all day. I smiled as I heard the call of a blue jay on my seventh mile. He was my sole supporter at this time of day. Only three more miles to go. I hear my wife calling me. “Martin!” she calls. “Martin!” I look around to see her so that I might wave back to her. “Martin! Ronan’s awake. He’s crying. Can you get up and see if he’s okay?” Huh? I open my eyes and stumble out of bed. It had been SUCH a nice dream. My legs hit the floor and … no, my knees STILL hurt. Probably because I was stretching incorrectly the night before while I was trying to do some strengthening exercises (incorrectly). I try to stretch my inner thigh (say) and, for some reason, the muscles in my butt (say) collectively go ‘ouch’.
I spent most of today sitting down being depressed that I had to drive to work as a result of my bad knees. Those bad knees spent a lot of time in ice while I typed away at my work. I got home and decided that bad knees or not, I had to go out and do something. So I went for a brisk two-mile walk. I followed that up with some stretching and a couple of strength exercises. Having forgotten to refreeze my ice packs, I treated one knee to a mélange of frozen garden vegetables in a butter, white wine sauce while the other enjoyed a selection of frozen haricots verts, flash frozen straight at the source. Very nice. That’s a photo of me with said vegetable selections at the top of this blog entry.
I really hope my knees feel better by Thursday night’s track training. Coach has been following my progress (or lack there of) of late so I’m hoping to get a few knee-preserving pointers from him then.
Lesson learned: It is very easy to injure your knees doing this running business and when you do, it takes forever to get back on your feet. I need to keep the muscles above and below my knees as strong as possible from now on.

Introducing Greg Melendy

2005-08-22T22:42:00.000-07:00

I promised last week that I would introduce you to a few of out TEAM’s honorees. Next week, honoree Doug Suess is celebrating five years of being cancer free. We’ll get to know Doug a little better in honor of that occasion next weekend.

This week, I am very proud to introduce Greg Melendy of Soquel, California. Greg is something of a local hero. When the people of the Make-a-Wish foundation came and asked him what dream they could make true for him, he didn’t ask to meet the San Francisco 49’ers or to go to Disney Land. He asked for a new piano for his school’s music department.

Hi Greg. Tell us about some things about yourself that have no connection to your cancer.
Well, I'm 17, I just graduated from Soquel High, and I will be attending Cabrillo College next semester. I like a wide variety of music, but my musical library is mostly filled with popular rock bands from before I was born. My 3 favorite movies would probablybe Amelie, Fight Club, and Donnie Darko, and my favorite T.V. shows would be Family Guy, Seinfeld, and The Bill O'Reilly show. One time, I explored an abandoned bowling alley in Monterey. I like the author Kurt Vonnegut quite a bit, and I like short stories byRay Bradbury. I was kidding about the Bill O'Reilly thing.

Can you tell us a little about the day you found out you had cancer?
It was Oct. 1st. It's hard to explain, but when I look back at it, it seems like a very normal day. In the few days before, I had noticed little red dots on my legs, which were called petechiai. These are a result of a low platelet count. Platelets are the blood cellsthat plug up holes in blood vessels. When one has a critically low platelet count and a high white blood cell count, which I also had, doctors test for leukemia. My dad took me up to Lucielle Packard Children's Hospital (LPCH) at Stanford, and there I wasdiagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) with a Philedelphia chromosome. Because of my age and the Philedelphia chromosome, I was put into a very high risk group.They tested my family for a match for a bone marrow transplant, but my brother's and my sister's DNA was different enough from mine that the doctors predicted better results with chemotherapy, and that's what I'm doing now.

What are the different stages of treatment you have undergone so far?
Induction lasted 4 weeks until November. After that, I was in remission, which meant that the doctors couldn't find any traces of the disease. However, they still treated me with chemotherapy because statistics had shown that I would get better results. After that,I went into consolidation, and that lasted until around mid July. Now I'm in maintenance, which will probably last for 2 more years, but it's much less intense than consolidation.

How has cancer changed your outlook on life?
Well, from October until about May, I was kind of in denial about the Leukemia’s influence on my own mortality. After I realized what my chances looked like, I was thrown into psychological turmoil, and that made me want to really live my life for my family and friends.

Describe a 'bad' and a 'good' day.
Bad days are any days up at LPCH. The food is crap, and I essentially get poisoned. The chemo isn't nearly as bad as the food though.Good days are basically any day that I'm at home and which, at the end of the day, I feel good about the last 24 hours.

What as Team in Training (TNT) done for you and your family?
Well, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, which TNT supports, provided us with lots and lots of information about the disease and ways to deal with it. This ranged from pamphlets on nutrition to information about support groups. We also got $500toward prescription drugs.

You have enough 'stuff' going on in your life right now. Why have you volunteered to be one of our team's honorees?
I do have a lot of "stuff" going on in terms of treatment, but since I had to cut down my school workload to the minimum last year, I did a lot of sitting around. I was, and am, more than happy to give up a Saturday morning every so often to support peoplegiving up their time for a good cause.

Do you have a message for the people who are currently training with TNT?
Yeah. Thanks. It is inspiring to hear that I inspired someone to run a marathon. That sounds like a joke but it's not. Well, it kind of is, but I'm serious too.

You can find the full story of Greg’s piano wish here…

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2005/July/17/style/stories/01style.htm

You should give it a read. It is a truly inspiring story.

Every body hurts, sometimes.

2005-08-21T16:37:00.000-07:00

Okay. It’s official. My knees hurt. I have a HOT compress on my knee right now. Science is amazing. What I used as a cold compress yesterday is being used as a hot compress today. No, I didn’t microwave my bag of frozen peas. I bought one of those hot/cold compress packs. How did I injure my knees this time? I ran another six miles.
I jumped out of bed yesterday morning at 6am to meet with a few others from the Team to run six miles. When I started running, I noticed that my shins hurt quite a bit. I kept on running but they were not getting much better… but my knees were fine. Part of our route involved us doubling back and passing our starting point (and our parked cars) at the four-mile point. I had stopped to try and stretch out my shins a bit at this point and, boy, oh boy, was it tempting to get in my car and drive home. Then I thought about next week’s EIGHT-mile run. It’s much easier to go from six miles to eight miles than from four miles to eight miles and so I kept running. The pain actually subsided as I ran and I received lots of support from everyone running which I really appreciate. The TEAM is going to get me all the way to the 26-mile mark. I now know this from experience!
Thanks to everyone who could have run by me but took time to make sure I was doing okay for a few minutes instead. Thanks to everyone who was out there struggling just as much as I was. Seeing YOUR pain motivates ME not to quit. Pain shared is pain halved (or something). When I came in to land after the six miles I was very proud of myself. I ran the six miles in exactly the same time as last week. I was expecting to run faster this week but I guess the hills were replaced with the so-called ‘shin splints’. Here’s another interesting observation. When I eventually stopped, I actually found that my legs, jelly-like as they were, wanted to keep running. Now, I personally wanted to stop but I almost felt like my legs had a mind of their own. It was probably just a symptom of my delirium.

No mention of my knees so far. Well, my knees started to hurt about two hours after the run. I was at the Running Revolution – the place where they video you on the treadmill – to get a new pair of shoes. Whenever I went out to ‘test drive’ another pair of running shoes, I found it very hard to run due to some pretty bad knee pains. Tim, one of the owners, told me that I could probably blame my old running shoes. Tim has LOTS of experience in this field so I hope he’s right. So, to cut a long story short (too late), I’ve been crippled with sore knees since yesterday’s run. I hope the body heals as fast as they say it does (who ARE these ‘they’ people, anyway?) because I don’t want to miss out on any of my training. Wish me luck!

By the way, please leave me comments so that I know people are reading this blog. Just click of the comments sections to leave your message, even if it’s just a message to say “I’m reading you blog and it’s crap!”

Ice, Ice, Baby

2005-08-19T22:27:00.000-07:00

Ice is great. I was limping around all day with my knees in bits. Actually, I don’t do anything ‘all day’ as my job requires me to sit in from of a computer screen for the most part. Anyway, I had a lot of knee problems today and I was getting worried that I was developing ‘runner’s knee’. I got home and Stacy asked me why on earth I had not iced my knees yet. It never actually occurred to me. Now I know I’ve been TOLD to ice after physical activity but I never placed much weight on the advice. I knew it was GOOD advice. I just never had much reason in my life to have to ice a physical injury… except the time after my first snowboarding endeavor, but that’s another story altogether. So, I went over to the fridge to fetch some ice. After realizing that ice, in its natural state, would melt all over the place, I opted for a bag of frozen peas. Don’t worry. The peas were organic. I lay down on the couch and placed the peas on one knee while compressing it with the back of the other. COLD! After applying the peas to the other knee I stood up and low and behold, my knees felt MUCH better. I was dancing around the place proclaiming this miracle cure they call frozen peas. I think Stacy thought I was mad, but I couldn’t believe how much of a difference it made. Come to think of it, I should really have called this entry “Peas, Peas, Baby”.

Last night’s track training was another educating experience. I was in pretty bad shape before the training started my knees hurt and my heels hurt and I just wasn’t ‘into’ it. I started with a slow warm up and felt a little better after talking with team member James who did some REAL damage to his knee a couple of weeks ago but was still out there running. Relatively speaking, I had nothing to complain about. After yet another episode of “scene from the ministry of funny walking” exercises, we did a group run where was all lined up in two big lines and ran like a centipede, or like we were a bunch of those nutters who run marathons in a Chinese dragon costume. The person at the rear sprints up to the front position. It was a good, fun team building exercise. After that, there was some more running. Oh, and the educating experience? My pain went away after about the first fifteen minutes of training! It did come BACK, of course.

I have two big tasks tomorrow.

Run six miles with the Team. No hills, no excuses (other than my ankles, my knees, my soles, the back of one of my arms and … there must be at least one or two other places I feel pain!)

Go to the Runner’s Revolution, run on their treadmill, get videoed and get fitted with some excellent running shoes (see my first ever posting). I’ll probably buy a load of stuff that I don’t really need too.

Did you notice that I made the cover of Runner’s World magazine? They asked me to pose topless for the cover but I think I should keep some things secret. Anyway, I’m more than a piece of meat! I’m just realizing that my muscles are starting to get sore again. Damn you frozen peas and your temporary cures! I’ll try green beans tomorrow. Maybe they’ll work better!

Three days without an entry. Shame on me!

2005-08-17T22:16:00.000-07:00

Hi… and to those of you recently new readers of my blog, a very big welcome. Let’s see, what have I been up to since my last entry on Sunday?

On Monday I cycled to and from work. Those hills were a bit harder then usual, probably as a result of Saturday’s grueling six mile run (see below). I managed to survive the cycle and it’s getting me used to the feeling of muscle burn… that feeling you get when your muscles are nice and ‘activated’. On Monday night, I tried some of the core strengthening exercises Coach showed us at the Thursday night track session. I much prefer these type of exercises than free weights as I am much more aware of the muscles that they work on and I get a lot less bored doing them. For those interested, the core strength exercises include the regular ones… push-ups, crunches, the plank and a few others that I remember, but have no idea what their names are (I’m a real pro, aren’t I?) My core is definitely weak and I need to work hard on this if I want to remain injury free.

Tuesday was a big day. I actually ran to work (the shorter, two mile, way.) To fit people, this may be no big deal, but to me, it was as alien as if I said “I think I’ll fly to work today on a blue elephant”. It was amazing how quickly I got there! I didn’t break any land speed records or anything (I realized this as it took me ages to overtake a walker) but it was still over much sooner than I thought it would be. At one stage I ran by a seasoned runner who gave me what I will refer to as the ‘runner’s nod’, that nod of acknowledgement that says ‘hello, fellow runner’. I felt like he would stop me and say ‘you are not a runner! You, sir, are an imposter!’ It was a funny (strange) moment.

I did feel very stiff by the time I got to work, however, especially in the knees, shins and ankles. I was pretty out of breath too! I’d even go so far as to say that I felt worse than I did on Saturday! It’s a great way to start the day, all the same. I arranged to get a ride home with Stacy and Ronan. Now, here’s the funny thing. When it came time to go home, I actually felt GUILTY that I wasn’t running home! This is a major change in my mindset. I know I will run both ways next week, To think, I thought riding my bike to work was a big deal only a couple of months ago.

Today, I took it a bit easy as my ankle still hurts a bit from yesterday’s run. I did my usual cycle into work but cycled the easy way too work and the hard way home. I cycled the easy way mainly because I was running late for a meeting. I continued with my core exercises just before dinner. I know I’m not trying enough during the exercises. I am such a wimp when it comes to muscle strength. I hope that all changes very soon!

Every night I look at myself in the mirror looking for changes but I continue to see this fat bloke stare back at me. I wish he would loose some weight since I have to carry that stuff around with me every time I run. I think I’m about 30 pounds (two stone) overweight, according to the textbook suggestions for my height.

Finally, I would like to give a shout out to those of you who have donated. The donation rate went up quite a bit after I ‘published’ this blog and that pleases me, no end, It tells me that the blog is serving its purpose of showing you that the money you donate is not for me or my run. It’s goes to the cause that I’m running for. In short… thanks. Your generosity will never be forgotten. I promise to continue to keep up my end of the bargain.

By George I Think he’s Got It!

2005-08-14T21:41:00.000-07:00

Boy, was I sore on Friday. All of the core strengthening exercises we did on Thursday made me feel like I had been run over by a freight train. Worse, still, I started to feel like I was getting a cold… the same cold Stacy and Ronan had suffered earlier in the week. I was NOT looking forward to Saturday’s BIG SIX MILE run. I went out with some co-workers on Friday night. It was good fun but I had to watch my eating and drinking. I was so revved up about my BIG SIX MILE run that I even ordered a pasta dish for dinner.

Friday night, I was up occasionally to cough like a man possessed. A sup of water would kill the coughing demon and let me get back to sleep but every time I looked at the clock I would think “oh no! Only six/four/two more hours before I have to get up and run SIX MILES”. If you run, you won’t understand the magnitude six miles represents to us non-runners. It’s REALLY, REALLY far! I wouldn’t even think about cycling six miles!

Saturday morning. 9am. It’s not too early but I’m driving off to my first public humiliation. I tell myself as I drive that this is only my first run and I’m really not expected to run very much of it. I’ll do my best, and try to deal with the consequences later.

I start the run at 9:30am. The run is in a place called the Henry Cowell State Park. I had actually previously walked the trail with my dogs. Actually, I walked only the first MILE of the trail because the hill during that first mile was SO STEEP we usually turned around in a fit of exhaustion. Mentor Joe ran with our little team and as we started running he explained about the killer hill and the fact that this course is probably the hardest out of all the runs we will do for the rest of the season. Great. I asked him if he was a motivational speaker.

As we started to ascend that hill I started talking to Julie, one of the people in the group, about her dog and my dogs and that sort of thing. She helped me pace myself. She was an experienced runner but I felt like she was able to carry me up that hill just by talking with me and keeping my mind off the negativity that usually sets in at the start of a run. By the end of the first mile I knew I couldn’t keep going at the pace I was going and let Julie run on to her own destiny… but I kept running… for about another half mile… up hill. I decided that I’d better stop if I was going to survive the six miles. Now by ‘survive’, I mean continue breathing, as my lungs were feeling like they were going to explode. I slowed to a walk and my form fell apart, as did my breathing as I tried to gulp air like a drowning man. I could hear our first volunteer-run water stop ahead of me. Volunteers were shouting encouragement to all that approached and I felt like I should at least be running if they were going to be clapping FOR ME. I ran the few hundred yards to the water stop, gulped down a couple of small cups of sports drinks and ran on. At this stage I had officially run more than I had ever run in my life (and I still had four more miles to go.)

Then something magical happened.

I ran… and ran… and ran. I ran all the way to the turnaround point (one mile past the water stop). I ran so much that I even became suspicious that I had missed the turnaround point and was running on and on without a clue. They would find my carcass years later somewhere in the woods. But I did find that turnaround point and ran back towards the water stop… and a kept on running. Then something even more amazing happened. For about a mile I got into my very first ZONE. The first zone I ever found in my life and it was truly a wonderful thing. It was almost like an out of body experience where I didn’t actually feel tired anymore. I was floating on air and I WANTED to run. I could hear my breathing and it was pretty rhythmic. I ran until I returned to the water stop. I had now run over twice my previous all time distance record. I was tired at that stage, let me tell you. The sports drinks tasted like pure nectar. I could almost hear the energy level rising within me like an ascending musical scale. So I kept running. I knew that most of the rest of the way was down hill so it would be easier. It was, literally, all downhill from here. And it was reasonable easy. I mean, it was difficult. I was hurting, but I was doing MUCH better than I thought I would ever do. I was applying all I learned at the track from our coach and every time I corrected my running form, I felt better and I ran well. In my mind I saw Rex Harrison exclaiming, “By George, she’s got it” in My Fair Lady. Sorry, weird reference. That’s what you get when I try to write a stream of consciousness.

So, about a mile left to go and I was enjoying being in yet another ‘zone’ when all of a sudden… zzzzzzzzzzzz… thump… zzz… gulp! Ahh! I swallowed a fly! I don’t know how big, but it hurt! (Albeit, probably not as much as it hurt HIM). What a day this was turning out to be, with every step I was setting a personal distance record and I got into my first ‘zone’ and I swallowed my first fly.

I ran until the finish. Six miles! I noted my time. One hour, fifteen minutes! I was very proud of myself. I really have never run before in my life and somehow these Team in Training people have gotten me to run SIX MILES, half of them UP hill and in a reasonable amount of time. I decided something once and for all. I will no longer refer to myself as a non-runner. I am a runner and I am in training for the Honolulu Marathon. All 26.2 miles of it! And I will do it! This was a MAJOR turning point for me because this was the first time I really believed I could do it.

What made the day extra special was that we enjoyed the Honoree picnic at the end of the run and I got to learn about what great people our honorees are. For those of you just starting to read my blog, I describe the role of the honorees further down. I plan to feature a different honoree every week on my blog starting next week. I hope you can get a chance to know a little about these amazing people yourselves. Their stories deserve to be heard. Please come back every once in a while so that you can learn a little more about what its like to live with cancer.

As I finish my blog I feel very grateful. I am grateful to Stacy and Ronan, as they allow me to spend a good amount of my free time away from them. I’m hoping Ronan will be one of the major beneficiaries of this little quest of mine as he may just grow up to play ball with a healthy dad. I am grateful to my TEAM mates. I have received a huge amount of support from so many people that in such short time have gone from strangers to friends… and friends I can depend on. I’m grateful to the coaching staff that has spent time getting me up to speed and taking the time to ask ME how MY training is going. I’m VERY grateful to the honorees who, despite their own problems, come out to cheer us on. It takes a very good person to selflessly give of themselves in times of personal crisis. Finally, I am grateful to my donors. They have generously given my campaign despite knowing that I have never gotten off the couch before. Many of them know that I’ve never even gotten close to upholding a previous athletic conviction before in my life. They all exhibit their faith in me by contributing to my cause. And for that I am very grateful. When I put all of these things together, I know that the wind will always be at my back as I run these 26 miles in December.

That'll do pig

2005-08-11T22:34:00.000-07:00

Did you ever see one of those TV shows where they are filming in the middle of the Serengeti and there’s a lion creeping up on a herd of gazelles. He spots one lone gazelle and make a run for it. The gazelle sees the lion just in time and prances away… at about 40 miles per hour. Although it seems as though he’s running in slow motion, the gazelle quickly outruns the lion and lives to prance another day. Picture that gazelle as it is running. That is EXACTLY how Ed, our running coach ran when he demonstrated how to run with good technique tonight in training. I, on the other hand, am currently running like a frightened buffalo being hunted by the white man. I’m slow, but safe, so long as I stay protected by the rest of the herd. Catch me alone, and you can have me for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Training went very well tonight. I learned three main lessons;

1. Running with others is much easier than running by oneself.
2. Running with good technique makes a big difference
3. Ironically, my biggest weakness is my core strength. Actually, my biggest weakness is Guinness, but let’s stay on the training theme, shall we?

Coach had us perform some ‘basic’ core strengthening exercises after the usual run followed by exercises based entirely on the “ministry of funny walks” Monty Python sketch, followed by a faster run followed by … wait for it… another run. It’s a good job we are training for a marathon. Otherwise I’d be complaining about all of this running around we seem to do. Anyway, we had a few minutes to spare at the end and it was time to contort your body to show exactly how much of a weakling you really are. I featured high on the weakling scale with the yoga regulars making it all look like scratching your back. Hmmm. Must practice the core strength. I think I’d do that by repeating Ed’s exercises rather than doing the free weights for a while. Something tells me this will all lead to Pilates. At least the Tae Bo fad is over.

I’ll ride my bike into work tomorrow, but for tonight, I rest my head as I say proudly to myself, “that’ll do pig, that’ll do”.

Hills

2005-08-10T20:55:00.000-07:00

I rode my bike to work today ... the long way. The long way may not seem to long to any of you seasoned workers but it's long enough for me! It's a fairly hilly three and a half mile cycle with a couple of killer hills that do a good job of burning my thighs. I did some good stretching once I got there and I cycled back the long way too! For that, I am reasonably proud of myself. I'm actually more proud of the fact that I battled those hills with a more positive attitude than I usually have... and it worked! They honestly seemed easier than before! I hope to RUN the same road some day soon. I have yet to do any weight training and its getting late. I think I'll compromise with myself and do my upper body exercises. Stacy has promised that she'll help me with them tonight. If I do them, I'm going to reward myself with a piece of chocolate.

All of this exercise has led to my eating a better diet. This is really good. I feel like I just bought a new car and I want to put premium fuel in it so that it burns more efficiently.

Tomorrow is track again. I'm actually looking forward to it! I enjoy running with the others on the team as I can see that some of them are hurting as much as I am right now. There is nothing I find more intimidating right now than running around the super fit.

I spoke with a couple of people in work about my training and they were very supportive. It feels really good to get that support from friends and family. I also keep getting large donations from unlikely sources. I would actually say that most of the money I have raised so far has come from people I would not have categorized as definite 'givers' on the outset of this mission.

Anyway, I'd better go. Stacy is waiting to put my through my paces.

That can't do attitude

2005-08-09T21:30:00.000-07:00

I really need to improve my attitude when running. I ran for the required 25 minutes today and it was very difficult. I applied all of Ed's efficiency tricks and I did, indeed, run leaner and meaner... for about three minutes! I ended up running too fast and burned out really quickly.

I'm sure it'll get better, but one of my biggest obstacles right now is... MY OWN MIND. I started running and thought "this isn't so bad". Then I thought, "nope, this IS hard, but I'll fight on" which quickly led to "good god, how on earth am I suppose run 26 miles? What was I thinking? How long have I been running for now? FIVE MINUTES? No, really, HOW am I going to run 26 MILES?", etc. etc.

The good news is that I now feel like I should have, and COULD have, gone a bit farther than I did. My mental attitude just needs to change. I'm wondering how on earth I'm going to make it through the six mile run on Saturday. If I can't make that, how am I going to run the eight or ten miles the next time? Time is short. My training needs to become more efficient. Thankfully, I'm still just at the beginning and can only go up from here.

I wish I'd played more twister!

2005-08-08T21:41:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I realized today that I'm not just an inexperienced runner. I'm also an inexperienced stretcher and an inexperienced weight lifter. I spent over an hour tonight trying to get 20 minutes of "core strength" training done. I started by trying to follow the stretching pamphlet we were given on Saturday. You put your left leg over your right leg. You face your left toenail and you should feel the stretch all the way down your mucleus maximus. I spent a long time contorting my body and kinda sorta getting some kind of stretch somewhere. I look forward to knowing what I'm doing. I think I need to buy an anatomy book first. I also found out that I know nothing about weight training.

I hope I get to learn all of these new experiences very quickly. I used to wonder why on earth people hired personal trainers. I used to think it was just some extra unnecessary extravagance for people with too much money. I was wrong. It turns out a personal trainer is a NECESSARY extravagance for people with too much money. I don't have too much money. I'll guess I'll be learning the hard way... by the book!

The good news is that the soreness in my muscles has subsided a fair amount... either that or I'm just getting used to them. Actually, it felt more like the strains shifted about the place. The sole of my right foot felt like it was in the mood to cramp for a lot of the day. Weird. I'm feeling pretty okay right now and look forward to whatever tomorrow brings!

I am officially training for a Marathon

2005-08-07T20:32:00.000-07:00

Well, the first day of training took place yesterday. It wasn’t too bad, actually… UNTIL I woke up this morning and could barely move a muscle! Now, I’m sure that such experiences are not that rare for you FIT people, but for the everyday slouch like me, it was a shock to the system, let me tell you!

Back to yesterday. I got up at 6:30am so that I could get some breakfast into me early enough that I wouldn’t want to through it up again during the training. Got to the training by 7:30am, feeling like I felt on my first day of school. We got an early pep talk and did some warm up exercises. All was well so far. A couple of laps around the course and a few more ‘circuits’ later it was time for my time trial. Actually, it was time for everyone’s time trial. We had to run a mile at a ‘comfortably difficult’ pace. A contradiction in terms if every I heard one. My time ended up being 10 minutes 25 seconds. Not too bad I thought and I was still able to breath at the end… although my breathing definitely fitted into the ‘comfortably difficult’ category. One of the trainers came up to me later with a clipboard and asked for my time. As I gave it to her, I noticed that several other people who had told me that they had run on ocassion had slower times than I did. This worried me. Now, one mile is four times around the track. Did I definitely run FOUR times around? Maybe it was only three! The reason I’m so worried is not out of honesty or anything. It’s the fact that these time trials will be used by our head coach as an indicator of how to pace our individual training going forward. Based on this error, I might be training 33% harder than I should be at this stage! The only thing I can think of doing is to time myself running the track again later this week. I think I’m supposed to run on Tuesday so I might go back to that track and see how I do.

After the time trail we participated in a shoe clinic. Some guy came out from a fancy shoe store and told us that we are all individuals… especially as far as our feet are concerned. He spoke long enough, and in sufficient detail to make me paranoid about my new $120 running shoes. I’ll probably go to his special store where they make to run on a treadmill and video your feet. They then play the video back in slow motion (perhaps with the Chariots of Fire soundtrack) and you end up with the right shoes for your feet. The shoe clinic guy also had a hundred and one other suggestions of gear we could not live without. I’ll probably buy them all, as I need all the help I can get!

We went through many more mini-clinics on things such as running technique, walking technique, gear to wear (the talk of bloody nipples really got me nervous), stretching, flexibility and weight training. We also got to meet with the honorees. The honorees are people who join the team and participate, not by running, but by cheering us on… and surviving. They are all either undergoing treatment or are finished treatment and in remission. All very nice people who I know will end up being my biggest inspiration. I’ll introduce you to them all though my blog as the weeks go on.

So five hours after it started, my first training session was over… and I felt fine. No, I actually FELT GREAT! I got home and was in great form. I even spent the rest of the day vacuuming the house and praising my newfound energy. Was this the runner’s high? Was I just delirious from my first sporting activity since I was forced to go out and participate in gym class? Stacy’s parents babysat for us and we went out for a meal. I felt so good I had a few beers and we went and watched a movie. During the movie, I noticed that my seat was VERY uncomfortable. By the time I was going to bed, my muscles were ceasing up and I decided to have a hot batch and a couple of Advil before retiring. I woke up in the middle of the night and I had a cramp in almost EVERY muscle on my body and I was sweating. This is it, I thought. This is where the pain begins. This is where I realize that I am, indeed, in as bad a shape as I thought I was.

I woke up this morning and limped out of bed to take Ronan out of his crib. I was surprised to find that he his weight had increased threefold over night. What had his grandparent’s given him to eat the night before? He felt a bit lighter as the morning went on and I tried stretching out my tired muscles and followed that with a bit of a lie down. It was at this point that I started to think how much of a moaning old git I really was. I was just a bit sore and was feeling sorry for myself (note to all sporty people, I know I should ‘listen to my body’ but I realized that my body was complaining a little and I was blowing what my body said out of all proportion) and remembered the thousands of hours of chemo therapy that cancer patients must endure. My muscles are sore because I have rarely stressed them and they are finally waking up. My hair is not falling out and I am only getting fitter.

Anyway, I took the two dogs and Ronan out to Seacliff and we walked a couple of miles along the beach. That did my muscles and me a lot of good and I’m almost ready to rattle them up again tomorrow for another twenty minutes of scheduled weight training… and my usual cycle into work.

I’m going to bed VERY early tonight. My feet are sore and I feel like I was run over by a bus… but I’m still committed (and very probably SHOULD be committed too! I heard many of you cry).

Until next time!

There is no i

2005-08-04T22:14:00.000-07:00

I was supposed to write something on this blog at least once every day. Last (and first) post was on Monday. So that's not a very good start, is it? I probably didn't write much because I didn't train very much... and I'm lazy!

Okay, turning over a new leaf. Let's start again...

Let me explain how the TEAM in Training system works. You train with lots of people in your local section. In my case, I'm training with the Santa Cruz section. Within that big group of people you are put into smaller groups of six or seven people and are given a so-called mentor. The mentor is someone who has gone through the training and successfully completed at least one of the TNT events. Our mentor is called Jacob and he's a really nice bloke. Jacob started out pretty much like I am now but has now got two Marathon's behind him. He's going to make sure we all get through the training on a personal level and will be there to listen to our rants and raves about the training or the fundraising or whatever. He will also do some of our running with us. Jacob invited the team over to his place for pizza and beer to go over our letter writing techniques. While he made a valiant effort to get us interested in the letter writing side of things, I think we were all a bit more interested in getting to know our team mates. It turns out that I have learned a few things about my team already.

1. They WILL be supportive
2. They genuinely care
3. We all have our personal reasons for doing this and "for the love of running" is not at the top of anyone's list.

I realize now that my team mates have reservations, fears and doubts just like I do. To be honest, I'm very happy to see that. I go to bed tonight feeling like this just might be possible. I run my first REAL training session on Saturday so I'll probably have all those self doubts again on Saturday night. For now I will thing of myself as Martin Walsh, marathon runner.

August 1st 2005 - A Long Road Ahead

2005-08-01T21:35:00.000-07:00

Well this is the first of my daily diary entries. I have yet to start my official training, so I can't complain about too much yet. I have started to push myself a bit more when cycling to work. I'm now going a long way that consists of three and a half miles of hills. I've bought my new $120 running shoes and I'm ready for action.

Before I go any further, I think I'll try to work out what I actually want this blog to represent, and in turn what you should expect as you read it. I want to have a daily journal of this incredible journey I'm about to go on. I want it to include the good, the bad and the ugly days. I want to use it as a method of venting when I'm close to breaking point. I want to use it to help me remember the incredible people I know I'm going to meet. I also want to try to keep it enjoyable for YOU to read now and for ME to read when this is all over. So, that's a start.

I went to the "kick off" meeting of the Monterey and Santa Cruz sections of TEAM in training. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team In Training (TNT) program is what is going to get me through this. They will provide me with a running coach who will tell me how to run, what shoes to wear, what to eat and I've been given a VERY comprehensive training schedule. I'll also be training with a team of people with different abilities and experience. As I looked around at the rest of the people I'll be running with I realized that this might actually be possible. It was not a room full of buff 22 year olds. There was even a blind guy at the meeting! I don't know if he'll actually be running, but if he is, I'll have NO good reason to quit. Then again, getting to know the local blood cancer survivors that we are running for (the so-called honorees) will be inspiration and motivation enough! How do I explain to someone that has undergone thousands of hours of painful chemo that I don't think I can hack it! I'm already realizing that the cause that I have decided to run for is actually my biggest motivation right now.

Anyway, there you go. My very first post on my very first blog. I'll write more about my thoughts on this whole thing tomorrow.