Part 3:
2008 brought two more surgeries 5 weeks apart in an attempt to repair damage done by the radiation treatments. With my immune system impaired, I came down with bronchitis early in the winter training for Go St Louis Half. Again I struggled but kept the pace; again working hard on my speed I was able to attain my goal of a sub-two hour half. I finished in 1:59:48!
Training for the L&C Marathon, one interesting run stands out. I was on a cruise with my entire family (that in itself takes endurance) to celebrate my Mother's 90th birthday. That Saturday was a 14 miler. That is 67 Laps on board. The fun part was that my Garmin registered not only my speed but that of the ship as well AND it measured to distance that the ship traveled so the graph looks like I ran a very fast 58 miles!
Race day brought Hurricane IKE blowing through St. Louis. Disappointed I elected to not start the race concerned that I would either get sick again or injure myself in the downpour. At this point race sponsors were considering paying me not to register!
2009 and here came another bout of bronchitis just in time for the Go StL Half, so I gave up my number. Another bout is August, damn it was getting tiring. My radiologist swears it can’t have been caused by the radiation but COME ON 59 years without, radiation, then three times in two years.
So what will the future bring? My plans for 2010 are to run a decent half at GoStLouis then begin training for L&C with a goal of qualifying for Boston (4 hours). It will be a challenge! There I’ve committed it to writing and sent it spinning throughout the internet for everyone to see, I guess I really have to do it now!
That’s the story.
Thanks for sharing your story. I only knew a vague part of this. Sometime think about blogging on your insight that you shared in the minute for mission you gave a year or two ago.
ReplyDeleteVictoria