Ok, over 3 months since my last post.
I’m doing great.
August:
I did my 1-year PSA test and all is good. Less than 0.1
I paced my friend Jon for the last 25 miles of his first
100-mile run. He had so much adrenaline
flowing that he out ran me for the last 2 miles.
Two weeks later I paced his wife Jess for the last 18 miles
of her 50-mile run.
They keep trying but haven’t got me to do an ultra marathon
(any race over 26.2 miles) yet.
I also got back in the pool to start getting my swim on.
For my birthday we took the dogs to the beach. I love the ocean! It’s the place that really calms my
spirit. It’s like the edge of the earth. Can’t go any further. I just have to stop and let all of my
troubles melt away.
September:
Prostate Cancer Awareness month. I had a group of friends who came to Napa to
do the Zero Prostate Cancer run. It
wasn’t as big of a group as last year, but I didn’t push to get people to
participate. I hate fund raising so I
just threw it out there and we still had a good group.
It was a small race but fun.
I came in 3rd for age group, Jon came in 3rd for
age group (only because he hung with me for the first 4 miles of the 10K), Norm
won his age group and 3rd overall in the 5K, Wendy came in 2nd
in her age group her daughter McKenna came in 3rd for 14 and under
in the 5K.
Hiking in the Sierra's with the wife.
Also in September, I was able to talk to the 50-60 men at
our church’s men’s retreat about prostate cancer. I only wanted about 5 minutes to show a short
video and talk, but a bunch of men had questions. Several wanted to talk to me at the end of
the evening.
A great little trail run with Norm around Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe.
October:
The return of Cowtown, AKA Urbancow ½ marathon. This was my first ½ marathon 10 years ago and
I’ve done every one since then. I only
wanted to finish around 2 hours. I
finished right at 2:00.
I also did a trail half with Jon and Jess on Jess’
birthday. Great run in the Marin
Headlands, down, then up the Dipsea trail stairs.
We also started a church home group on Thursday nights. It’s been a great mix of people, ages
60-early 20s. We had them over to
celebrate our 27th anniversary on October 15.
November:
This last week was a tough week, very stressful. Andrea got a new car and only 6 days later
the battery died and she was stranded in a dark parking garage.
A couple of days later she woke up with pain in her abdomen
and thought it might be her appendix. (It
was a blocked intestine.) We had a 2:00AM ER trip that ended up with her
admitted for the rest of the day.
It seemed like nothing was going right all week.
Just one of those weeks that you take each day hour by hour.
All caught up...
California International Marathon in just 3 weeks. I’ve had a bit of a sore ankle so I haven’t
been pushing any speed work or hard training.
I decided I’m just going to run this and enjoy it.
I really have much more fun when I just run with people
instead of running for a time. I’m
guessing it will be somewhere between 4-5 hours. Probably around 4:30.
I want to be in a good place when Coeur d’Alene Ironman
training starts in March.
Sometimes I think, “What the heck am I trying to do an
Ironman for?”
Then I remember.
Cancer took away my opportunity to do an Ironman two years
ago and now I’m reclaiming it.
I’m not letting the cancer have the last word in this.
The fight goes on.
