Well number 29 today and the "novelty" has definitely worn off. I am sticking to real action movies to get me through the last 10 treatments. I feel very motivated because I am definitely feeling much better. I completed a 9 mile run the other day with 2 conditions playing against me.
It was hot (which I am not used to) and I was wearing Ken's shoes (which are at least one size bigger than mine). But I made it. (I forgot mine back in Bandon)
No bathroom stops, no problems at all with the bowels. No more mucus, no more bleeding and very little pain, and no nausea recently. Ready to make black bean soup...... Ken says perhaps we should wait till NEXT week..
I am feeling pretty darned normal, except for the eyes and I am even getting used to that.
I have decided that I really would like to plan to run a marathon this year. Though I have never gone back and read this entire blog again, I am pretty sure I mentioned early on that I was going to run a marathon in a year, and everyone thought I was nuts, and I probably was.
I remember trying to run while I was on radiation, and being thrilled at getting 2 miles. I have come so far ( well ...... 7 miles).
A marathon is 26.4 miles (or 27.3), and it is exactly the distance from our house on the beach, to Fred Myers in Coos Bay. I used to run that distance a couple of times a year. I did run 3 formal marathons in the past, the first one in Seattle in 1996. The way I see it, that would be a good one to plan for, both timing, and sentiment wise.
It is in November, US Thanksgiving weekend, and this year would be 15 years.
It holds another significance for me as well. The night before the marathon, Ken and I got a call that his beloved Aunt Genie had had surgery that day for an abdominal mass, and it turned out that she was just full of cancer, so they just closed her back up, nothing done. I guess most people run a marathon thinking of the great accomplishment they are making, however that day all I could think was how very lucky I was to be able to run, when poor Genie had cancer and was going to die of it. Many tears along the way. Genie was one of the most wonderful people I have ever known.
So I think perhaps that that should be the one I should aim for.
Basically the way you "train" for a marathon is to have one long run and two short runs a week, the long run increasing by a mile every week, until you reach about 15 miles and then you have a long run every second week, and a 8-9 miler on the in between weeks.
I may try to do it even slower than this, having the long run every 10 days to allow for more healing time. The one other thing that has cropped up is the numbness from the chemo. I had numbness in my feet and hands that started towards the end of chemo, but most of it went away except from my right big toe, which is numb all the time now. However when I run the other toes become numb as well and gradually the bottom of the foot also starts to go numb. The numbness in the big toe turns to pain ( which I believe must be the peripheral neuropathy pain which is described as being a burning type of pain). This all goes away when I finish running, except the numb toe. It is kind of funny in that in diabetics we are alway teaching them to examine their feet regularly especially if they have numbness, as they would not detect an injury. Well I did not think to check my toe until today and was quite surprised to find a big blister on my toe, which I had no idea was there. So I WILL need to be more careful and check my toe on occasion.
I thought I would include this video, it was filmed on an IPhone....pretty incredible EH?Bye for now,
love
janet
jankenb @ gmail.com
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