The MS Runner

It amazes me that it is not “politically correct” to say those words because you might offend someone.  I bet all those people are not offended about getting a paid day off from their employer every year.

Catching up on a few things.  I had my MRI and met with my MS doctor last month.  The MRI showed no new lesions and the option was on the table to either continue taking my medication, or to stop taking it all together.   Going in I was thinking that I wanted to stop taking the medication, but I guess I chickened out.  What if I stopped and then things got worse?  Is it the medication that is working so well, or just the fact that things aren’t going to get any worse for me?  I hate the injections, but I hear that in the next few years there will be an oral medication that I will be able to take.  I might as well just keep on doing what I’m doing.

I still haven’t decided what my next marathon will be.  Jason and I still want to hook up and do one together, but he was diagnosed with an inflamed IT band.  So his running has been curtailed a bit.  If we don’t run together, I may do The Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach.  I’ll have to see how my training goes as well.

My daughter Kari announced yesterday that she is pregnant!  Yikes.  I’m happy for her and her husband, but then again I don’t want them to struggle financially.  They are both still paying off their college loans, and most of us all know that having a baby ain’t cheap.  Heck, having a dog isn’t cheap, and they have 2 of those.  Speaking of which, my dog Miles has been a big drain financially.  He got his side ripped open awhile back (about a 12″ gash) and had to go  to the hospital.  He ended up getting stitches and staples, but after a few days it got so infected that they had to remove the stitches and staples, and leave the wound open for a few days.  So then he got stitched back up and everything seems fine.  But then he got some eye infection, then he got another parasite.  It’s always something with that boy.

Good news, bad news.  My knee actually feels good.  I’ve gotten 2 shots, and I’ll be getting 3 more.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that my groin is hurting.  It actually seemed to be getting better until I ran 14 miles on Saturday.  About half way through, it started hurting, but of course I pushed on.  Now it’s killing me, so I think I’ll have to shut it down for awhile.  But for how long?  1 week? 2?  I have no idea.  I missed a long run last weekend, and it looks like I’ll miss another long run this weekend.  The San Antonio Marathon looks like it may be another in a list of marathons that I have run while being injured or coming off an injury.  But now, I will go to the gym and ride the exercise bike and do the elliptical trainer.

I have an MRI scheduled for this week and this could be the the beginning of the end for my medicine that I take for my MS.  We shall see.

The Colfax Marathon is over, and I wonder if it will be around next year. There was only 488 marathoners that ran, which seems really lame. I’m not sure of the half marathon or the relay teams, but the total number of people was way down. Plus, they just don’t seem like they know what’s going on. At the Expo the day before, I went to pick up my bib and they had me listed in the half marathon. And they even ran out of shirts for the marathoners. How could you run out? There wasn’t even 500 of us.

I went into the day hoping to hit about 3:50, but the weather forecast made me adjust my prediction. I knew the 2nd half of the marathon was going to be hot, so I was hoping to at least get under the 4 hour mark. The heat is the worst enemy for people with MS. There are a lot of people that can’t even go outside in this type of weather if they are infected with this disease. I know that by the time I finished, it was in the 80’s and no clouds.

My first 18 miles weren’t too bad. I was hitting my times that I wanted to and still feeling okay. At about 2 1/2 miles, the run took us right in front of The Irish Snug Pub, and Frank, the owner, had a Guiness waiting for me! How many runners can say that they had a beer at any point during that run? Maybe I should of had one more towards the end. At mile 10, my quad was hurting, but not to the point where it was affecting my run. We hit the halfway point and turned around and headed east right into the sun. The good thing was that it was mostly downhill. I was feeling good and confident. But then at mile 18, I had to go to the bathroom, and yes, it was THE dreaded bathroom break. I lost 4 minutes at that point, and for some reason, I lost my energy. The run from there took us into downtown Denver and as you know, it’s always hotter downtown. There was also a couple of nasty “hills” to deal with which is always a challenge at any point of a race. I decided on one incline that I better save my energy so I walked up and that was even hard to do! With 3 miles to go, I knew that I wasn’t going to break 4 hours, so I think that at that instance, I kind of gave up. I still ran, but not as hard as I should have, because I figured, “what’s the point?” I look back now and I realize that you should never give up. Those last few miles of the marathon are very important to whatever level you are at, and if you can dig deep within yourself, that will just make you that much stronger for your next marathon or at whatever run that you do. Anyways, I finished at 4:09:56, which was a PR for me by 5 minutes. Here are my “stats”;

Overall - 177 out of 488

Age Division - 20 out of 50

Gender - 136 out of 307

10K - 55:11

15K - 1:23:04

25K - 2:16:48

30K - 2:47:41

From this point, I’m not sure what I want to do. I’ve talked about taking a break from marathon training and maybe just running some half marathons. Maybe when my brain gets un-fried, I’ll be able to think better and make a rational decision. We shall see.

I hate shots. For awhile, it didn’t bother me much, but now it seems such a pain. You wonder why they can’t come up with a liquid or pill form. Well I think they have, so do you think I should try this? Or maybe just wait and see what happens in the study.