Running — racing

In our last blog, we talked about the benefits of the long run in building your running endurance, but for many of us even as we build our endurance and run longer we find it somewhat difficult to maintain our desired pace. 

How many of us find ourselves running slower during the latter portion of our runs? I know I do, even when I purposely go out slower on a run sometimes the fatigue will set in and I’ll slow down toward the end of my run. 

One of the best ways to maintain that pace...

About 5 ½ years ago, my daughter noticed a small bump on the right side of my neck and told me I needed to go see a doctor about it. She is a bit of a worry wart about medical stuff, but she also happens to be very persistent, so I went. 

I wasn’t overly concerned, so you can imagine my surprise when my doctor told me I had Stage 4 Head and Neck Cancer. Not knowing much about cancer at that point, I asked her some questions; in particular, I asked her what Stage 4 meant. I can pinpoint the point in time I realized I was in deep trouble to when she answered “Well, there isn’t a Stage 5”. 

After a short 24 hour pity party, we started looking at potential treatment options and agreed on the most aggressive one to start in a week so that had time to put in a feeding tube, and do a boatload of testing to make sure I could survive the treatment. 

After the preparation, I went through 4 rounds of chemotherapy (losing about 40 pounds and all my hair) and 7 straight weeks of radiation, broken up only by a 5 day period where I had to go on steroids to reduce the swelling in my face and on May 14, 2015 I had my last treatment. 

And, I’m happy to say, I’ve not only been cancer free but I’m probably in better shape than I have been since my 20’s having completed a Sprint Triathlon and become very serious about my running, nutrition and overall health. 

This pandemic reminds me of this period of my life, and I think there are many reasons to use this crazy time period to better ourselves and come out in a better place. So, I’ve committed to running every single day during the pandemic and have come up with 5 reasons how and why you can use running to get through this and come out stronger on the other side.