Wednesday 5 June 2013

The past 2 years summed up as short as I can make it...

 Since grade school, I have always been "athletic" and running was always a part of that. In high school I joined the x-country team. My best runs were always the runs that made the way in to the trails. There is nothing better than the smell of the trees and the rough trails that move in all directions under my running shoes. After high school I still ran here an there. I would enter random races but, never any consistency. 5 k runs were never an issue. I think my fastest 5 k was around 24 mins. The gun goes off.. and I bolt. (I run fast). 

10 k runs... A little different. I could never seem to hit that darn 10km mark. Gee, I wonder why!? "Slow down Brenda" I used to hear my friends say. Slowing my pace down was never easy for me no matter how hard I tried. 

Over the past two years, I have been trying to find my mojo for running again. I remember flipping through a newspaper or magazine a couple years ago and crossing an ad for the Lymphoma Foundation. I called the Ottawa location to gather some info on how the run worked. What a perfect idea I say to myself... Seeing as how I am a lymphoma survivor. During this conversation with the girl on the phone, I find out that registration just happens to be free at that time. After discussions on how the event works, I sign up for the San Diego race. A fundraising (need to raise $5000 I think it was) and training we will go... I started training but, I was having a lot of pain in my low back. Some days I had no problem running. And the next day I could barely walk. I raised over a $1000 to get started, I have events planned to raise the remainder of the $4000 and then one day I get a phone call from the Lymphoma foundation. Before I move on, let me just say that I had this conversation prior to signing up for the race (I thought we were clear). The foundation continues to tell me that I need to either re-schedule myself to another race or I am going to loose the money I already fundraised. I can't run the San Diego run unless I have the $5000 or I give them the balance on a credit card (which I discussed previously that I didn't have a cc). 

Anyway, enough about that. Bottom line is I didn't do the run. Since that, I have had it in my head that I would do a 21km run eventually. 

Back to the sore back... Trying to run with a sore back is not that easy. A year or so ago, I decided to hit the gym hard to see if strengthening my core would help with the sore back. Not completely. So, off to my Doctor I go. She sends me for an MRI and long story short... Dec. 2012 I get a phone call from a specialist office. They wanted me to go in the day after this call. A week later.. I'm in the Dr.'s office, he's reading my X-rays... I question something he says to only hear him say back "well as a cancer specialist"... What???? WTF am I seeing a cancer specialist for? Ya, my family Dr. Didn't share that very important piece of information with me. Moving on... I have had a cyst growing inside my bone since god knows when. I had an MRI done 2009 and it shows up there. With that said, I chose to operate to have it removed. Dr said 2 days recovery. Nope, 4-6 weeks later, I'm still in pain. I had a new respect for a walker and the new upper body strength I now have. Thank god for all that training I did over the past year. 

6 months later... TBC




No comments:

Post a Comment