Tag Archives: running

I Can Start Running Again!

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Running GearIt has been 14 weeks since my surgery and I am so ready to be normal again. I hope normal is an option. But maybe I am actually shooting for normal plus. Yes, let’s say I’m shooting for normal plus. I had my three month post-op appointment in Houston a week ago and saw neither of my surgeons. Bummer. One was not going to be there and had to cancel his portion of my appointment and the other one got called into emergency surgery. I still had the MRI and the hearing test and both were fine. Nothing has grown back according to the MRI [awesome news] and my hearing is no worse than before the surgery. I can live with that for now.

What I really wanted from that appointment was for my surgeons to brag on how wonderful I was doing and that my life could get back to normal. I wanted them to see what a great job they did. Instead, my ENT surgeon’s resident met with me. Now I could have hung around in Houston for several more hours until Dr. Gidley got out of his emergency surgery but I knew I was ok.  I didn’t need my surgeons to tell me that.  Besides, a girl does have her priorities.  I had a hot date with my husband to go dancing.

I have been really anxious to get back to running so I asked the question to the young resident. Can I start running again? He told me I could definitely start back, just to take it slow. No worries there. Slow and easy is my thing. I have put back on all the weight I had worked so hard to lose two years ago, so I am essentially starting over yet again. I am ok with that too.

The first thing I did when we got home was to reload the “From Coach Potato to 5K” app back onto my iPhone. I remember so well the first time I used it three years ago. Keith and I had participated in the A2A 5K here in Ardmore in 2011 and I literally walked 90% of it. I had never run before and had never trained to run. I had no expectations and we were only participating because Keith’s employer had encouraged all their employees to be a part of the event. So we did. After that we both kind of got the running bug and decided that we would be better prepared for the next year.

This is where my little 5K Runner app came in. Keith got us a home treadmill and everything. We really didn’t have room for it, but we crammed it into the little third bedroom Keith was using for an office. This cute little app starts you off with a 5 minute warm up and ends with a 5 minute cool down. In the middle, you learn how to run. The first time it has you run, you run for an entire minute! Do you know how hard that was for me? That one minute seemed like an eternity and I was breathing like a freight train. I will never be able to do this. My thighs were screaming and I was getting shin splints.

Somehow I got through those three days of one minute runs and then it got jacked up to 1 ½ minute running intervals. Again I would tell myself, I can’t do this! I remember the day I knew I was going to have to run for 2 entire minutes. I told Keith, “I can’t run for two minutes.” He just looked at me and smiled. He’s a machine and was already running his three miles pretty effortlessly. Let’s just say it’s easier for men can we? Little by little I continued to work the program and when I participated in the A2A 5K in 2012, I cut six minutes off of my first years’ time. The next year, I ran the entire thing. I did not set any land speed records, but I ran the entire thing. I had reached my weight loss goal and was feeling pretty good.

Now here’s where life and excuses come into play. Shortly after the 2013 A2A I found out that I have three bulging disks in my neck with bone spurs. My doctor told me to quit running. He said it was the worst thing I could do. I was so bummed. I had worked so hard and it was something I was really learning to enjoy. Of course this is also the period of time when my dad’s health was not great and things with him were consuming me. So for the next couple of years, my exercising was spotty and pretty inconsistent. In July of 2014 I rededicated myself to starting over with my health and in September I found out I had a brain tumor. The violins are playing very loudly here. Can you hear them too?

So once again I am starting over. My intentions are always good, it’s just the follow through. I can think of it like getting over an addiction, one day at a time. Oh and this week I heard on the news that sugar is as addictive as cocaine. Well it really was hard for me to not eat that hot roll and Santa Fe Steak House last night, so I ate it. Let me stop thinking about that hot roll and get back to my point, which is starting over.

So last Saturday I got out the shoes, got my iPhone, plugged in my tunes, turned on my 5K Runner app and I went out into a beautiful 53 degree sun shiny day and headed for the trails by my house. It was awesome. I did my five minute warm up like I was instructed and then my app told me to begin running. Yes, here we go. I started off [very slowly of course] and wasn’t even thinking about it. I had some good tunes on and I was looking at the scenery and I no more got started that my app told me to “slow down and walk”. Had it been a minute already. I’m not even out of breath. What is the deal? This went on for about 20 minutes; walk 2 minutes and run 1 minute. When I was done with the day one workout I was shocked. I hadn’t even gotten out of breath. That one minute seemed like 15 seconds. Maybe I haven’t lost everything I had worked so hard to achieve prior to my surgery. Yippee.

Since last Saturday the weather has been crappy and my training has been taken up into the bonus room where my old friend the treadmill sits proudly. She and I have met several times this week for my one minute bouts of running. This morning however, I began week two on the app and had to run 1 ½ minute intervals and I did it without collapsing. So exciting. Maybe the following week I will be at the 2 minute run interval. I know at some point it will get harder and I can’t wait.

I continue to move from normal to attain normal plus.  Next step?  Getting my hair color fixed!   I long for the smell of hair dye and to kiss this dishwater blonde hair goodbye.  I just have to hang on one more week .

Just a Fan in the Crowd

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Keith

Last Friday afternoon, Keith and I headed for Tulsa. My cancer survivor hero husband had signed up to run in the 15K Tulsa Run. For those of you who don’t know how far 15K is, well it is 14.5K more than I can run. Apparently it is around 9.4 miles. OMG.  This year Keith had a milestone birthday and has decided to run in a major race with some major mileage. A half marathon seems like major mileage to me and that is what he has been training for. He has friends and coworkers who are quite accomplished avid runners and they told him about this 15K run in Tulsa. Seemed like a great opportunity, so off we went.

Keith’s training consists of being out the door at 5:30 a.m. 3 or 4 mornings a week, in the dark, with a flashlight, headed into Regional Park to City Lake and back. Did you get the part about it being dark? He sees lots of wildlife during that time of day: bunnies, deer, armadillos, possums and SKUNKS. Yes, he has almost “run over” a skunk on many occasions. Some mornings it is literally, ok skunk, who’s going to get out of the way, you or me. So far, the skunk has scurried away, thanks be to God.

We get to Tulsa about 6:30 and Keith wants to “check out” the route, so we drive it. It’s like a roller coaster, EEK. The area of the run is very scenic though, not sure he will notice as he is grinding up the hills and traversing down. At 8 p.m., we met our fellow Ardmoreite runners at an Italian restaurant just a few blocks from the hotel. It was delicious, but eating a heavy meal at 9:15 is not ideal. At 9:15 I’m thinking about my stretchy pants and reclining.  We had a table of about 12 people.  Three or four conversations were going at any given time. Now all those people sitting to the left of me, I didn’t catch much of their conversation as that is my tumor ear. Conversations to my right I could keep up with. Conversations across from me, again, not great. Then there is the general loud restaurant noise, which adds frustration for my hearing issues at a whole other level. I have some adjusting to do. Finally back in our room at 10:30, stuffed from dinner and ready to recline. Big day starts at 9 a.m., at the start line.

Keith bounds out of bed the next morning boasting that he slept GREAT. He’s up, got his stuff together, dressed in his running gear, drinking his Herbalife Prepare…all is good. We head downstairs and catch up with some of our fellow peeps and about 8:30 we start the two block journey from our hotel to the “starting line.” I can feel Keith’s prerace excitement. He is ready to get this thing started. As he makes his way to the official starting line, I am heading several blocks down the route to watch him come by and snap his pic. We had been told that around 9,000 people had signed up to participate in the event with 5,000 of them running with my husband. I position myself in what I think is the perfect spot to see him when he runs by. As I’m sitting there waiting, I notice a drone above my head. I have never seen one in real life and it was pretty cool. Just then the gun goes off and the race is on!

Then it occurs to me, how am I going to find Keith in the midst of 5,000 people? I mean the people look like a lava flow. No one can pass anyone at this point. It is basically like cattle. Sorry, but that’s what it reminded me of. I so wanted to get his picture on his first 15K. I focused my search for Keith’s lime green Nike cap. Hundreds and hundreds of people keep coming up over the hill at the starting line and I have no idea where or how far back he is. I just have to focus, green hat, green hat, green hat. AND I FOUND HIM. Started snapping pics and hoped one of them would turn out.Green Hat

After he went by I knew I had about an hour and a half to piddle around. The finish line was right in front of our hotel, so I began working my way back that direction. There is a very large and beautiful Presbyterian Church that had its bells playing music and in fact one of them was a hymn we sing in our church. Then on the other side of that church was Trinity Episcopal with its beautiful red doors. As an Episcopalian, I always have to check out Episcopal churches when we travel. This one did not disappoint.

I found myself a spot to wait it out about 20 yards from the finish line. I had decided that I could snap Keith’s pic as he is running to the line and as he goes through it. I picked out what I thought was an awesome spot, but the longer I sat there, the more people showed up and my window of vision got pretty small.

At about the 45 minute mark, I can see in the distance flashing lights and the first runner working their way to the finish line. Yes, 45 minutes. OMG. What is that a 6 minute mile for 9.4 miles? That is flat out running. We cheered as he neared us and he finished at 46 minutes and a few seconds I think. No one anywhere to be seen for another 2 or 3 minutes. He whipped them all. A few more came in periodically but it was still VERY early.

About that time something got my attention. There was a young man with a cane and he had gotten inside the running barricade, was running down the middle of the road with his cane above his head and shouting something. The crowd on that end of the block was cheering him. He got about half way up to the finish line when the policeman that was monitoring my side of the street stepped out and stopped him. The young man appeared to be either high on something or mentally ill. He was belligerent with the cop saying that “this was his race.” The officer escorted him off the course. About five minutes later the young man appears again. This time he was across the street directly in front of me and the officer. He was yelling something at the officer and was doing something with the cane that indicated he was ready to use it as a weapon on the officer. So over the officer goes and this time the young man finds himself in handcuffs, backup is called in, he is placed in a police car and removed from the situation. WHEW. This young man was a ticking time bomb. In the infamous words of Sweet Brown, “Ain’t nobody got time for that.”

People continued to come through. Some with costumes on, some with very little clothes on and one man with NO SHOES ON. Absolutely barefooted. At about the one hour 20 minute mark, runners are beginning to come in more heavily. In fact there are so many coming in that I am again worried that I will not see Keith and be able to get his picture. There are people in my way that are taller than me and the police officer is in my way. It’s now the one hour and 30 minute mark and I know he’s going to be coming by any second! What to do, what to do….. I again started looking for “green hat”. Then there he was. I yanked my camera up, pushed some people out of my way and snap, snap, snap. HE DID IT – one hour and 36 minutes.

I hurried down to the finish line and was frantically trying to find him in the midst of all those people. Next thing I knew, he had found me. Nothing like a sweaty kiss from my wonderful husband. I am so proud of his accomplishment. Now’s he’s back to training for the A2A half marathon in March. GO KEITH!