The Power of One?

For those who did not know, I had thyroid cancer in 2000 and again in 2003. This is a cancer of inconvenience. It is sooooooo not a death sentence. So my doctor amped up my stress levels and scared me, but really, it's because I know what a huge drag it would be to go through it again. Many types of cancer seem to be considered "cured" after 5 years cancer-free, but mine can recur for years, decades. I am 5 years cancer free, and I have no intention of having a party about it.... Luckily recurrence does not affect survival rates for my cancer, so that's good. My biggest "fear" (not really a fear, more like the thing I most want to avoid) is that my physical conditioning would be absolutely demolished if I were to be treated for cancer again. Like, lose all my coordination, gain 25 pounds in 7 weeks, take years to get back to where I am now..... Not a really serious problem, but hey, let's face it - women are judged by our physical appearance, and if I'm fat, people will assume I'm a lazy, undisciplined overeater. The judgement is cruel.

Anyway...... dropped into the doc's office on Tuesday, refusing to leave the Lower Mainland until I got my results (or at least knew that the correct test had been done). As luck would have it, there was a cancellation, so had an appointment. The results are in and they are....... INCONCLUSIVE!!!!!! Yeesh! For the cancer marker, we want the number to be <1. And it's 1. If the number were 5 or 6, we'd be making a treatment plan.

So what does 1 mean? Well, we're not sure, so he wants to do more in depth testing in the near-ish future. Hmmmmm. I am free to take off, do my thing, go where I like, etc. etc. and he'd like to do more in-depth testing sometime. Like in a couple months.

Royally Victorian

On Thanksgiving Sunday, I ran the Royal Victoria Half Marathon. For those paying attention, yes, that`s my second in 2 weeks! No, I haven`t gone mad. I don`t have a hopeless running addiction (there`s still hope for me). My friend Susan was doing her first Half, so I went along to support her and run with her.

The run was AWESOME. Susan thinks this must be "her distance"! She did really well: 2:38.32, which is really great for a) anyone, but especially, b) a first timer, and c) someone who's never gone farther than 15 km before. We were happy, had perfect weather, got hugs from a good friend on the course, no pain, no hard effort, AND she stopped for a beer with the Hash House Harriers on course!!!! WHAT AN ANIMAL! I would have barfed. Apparently Gatorade should come in beer flavour too...

I felt really bad though that her family were not aware what a big deal the race was, so she had no spectators. But I was so proud of her achievement, plus we had a great talk with her younger son about the great feeling of working toward, and then achieving, a goal. (I think that's a really important life lesson, myself.) And her husband did give her big hugs later, so that's great.

She was hardly stiff the next day, and biked to work on Tuesday! An overwhelming success!

Looking great at 15 km!

My next running goal: Reggae (half) Marathon on Dec 6 in Negril, JAMAICA!!!!!!!!

My acupuncturist/running partner has invited me to join her. She's staying at a yoga centre on the beach, and she'll be doing the 10 km race. It's a week before my Big 40, so my intent is to train super-hard, be very strict with diet, and be SAH-MOKIN hot!!!! Oh yes, there will be pictures to memorialise my Hotness at Forty! (The ones with the bikini will be for public consumption, but the others....by invitation only. HA!)

Stressssssssss

I am hung over today. Tough few days. Got summoned to Vancouver to see endocrinologist re: cancer test results. Obviously, I was freaking!! He told me he was just being careful, and that although the ultrasound results were classed as ok, there were some lumps in my neck that he wanted to look at himself. Sent me for second set of blood tests in 3 weeks..... I told myself he was just being over-cautious, but....was totally freaking out.

So......had the appt yesterday. He said that 2 labs in a row had done the wrong test! He said the ultrasound shows (I think) 3 lumps, and that these were all present last year too. 1 is bigger, 1 is smaller, and last one stayed the same compared to last year. The problem is that the blood test result we need is the actual cancer marker.....If THAT number goes up, then we have trouble.

So I went for my third blood test yesterday.

And I wait.

Running HIgh in Banff

As mentioned earlier, I travelled to Banff, Alberta for a 22km race - Melissa's! It was, without doubt, the toughest event I've done. I don't know really why - probably a combo of NO flat ground; very, VERY windy; potholes and cambered roads; high altitude; plus I hooked up with the folks from my runclub who are at my next time goal so pushed myself really hard for a long time. Really, I cannot compare the effort to do a training run, compared to a race. But with the incredible scenery, it was a terrific course!!!! In that sense, I cannot complain.

I was really disappointed that it took 2:30 for me to do 22 km - a long way slower than I thought I'd finish!!! However, Kerri was at the race as Kamloops Team Support (thanks!!), and told me she was surprised to see that at 2:20, no one from Kamloops had finished yet. She knew I was hoping for a PB, so she expected me by then. Turns out none of the Kamloops racers finished before 2:25. The reason this is significant to me is that last year, the people from my club that I was 10 or 15 minutes behind......now I'm only 5 mins behind. In fact, some people who were 15 mins ahead of me last year..... on Sat, I was only 3 mins behind!!!

Kerri said lots of people said the race was really, really hard. So by Tara Math, despite the actual time being slow, I have made an improvement relative to my peers of 5-10 mins. I feel pretty awesome about that!




But here's the most interesting part of the whole thing: at the 20 km mark, I suddenly had the sensation of being insanely STONED. Truly, I was giggly, excited, high energy, and definitely felt really really out-of-it. All while running fast UPHILL. Unfortunately it only lasted 500m, but it was one of the strangest sensations I have ever had. (And all the more weird as I'd been off alcohol for 6 full weeks, so there was NO outside influence.)

[Look what else I found out!! Gatorade should come in champagne flavour! Aaaahhh, my first alcohol in 6 weeks. :) ]

I know we've all heard of Runner's High.....But I always thought it was that nice sensation of just feeling less stressed, happy to be outside, rosy cheeks, fit body, so happy I reached my goal, nicy-nice, etc. etc. What I experienced was NOTHING like that. I was hurting - my lungs, my feet, my legs; my arms had been completely pins-and-needles numb for about 8 km; and I was filthy grouchy......and then suddenly it was like a Saturday night at university!! I failed to notice Cheech or Chong slipping me a bong, but that's how it felt! WHOOOO-HOOO!!!!
I did a little online research, and found a bit. Apparently, there is some science that it IS indeed a similar effect in the body to THC from marijuana....but it's hard to dig out.So I'm wondering what experiences are out there? Have you experienced anything like this? Know anyone who has? Know any stories about it? I'm really curious about this.

Hey, maybe that's Cheech in the bushes back there?

Bling! Bling! Flowers

Last year, I ran in the Las Vegas Half Marathon. So they send me emails, trying to get me to participate again. On one of these emails, they showed the most gorgeous running shoe - it had a big swirly paisley on it, done in sparkley gems. I went, "OMG!!!! How did I never realise that I needed to pimp my shoes?!?!?! How can I possibly have survived till now, without sparkley shoes?!?"

Luckily, it was easy to remedy this travesty. At Wal-Mart, I purchased some Liquid Stitch and found product entitled 'Bling!Bling! Flowers', 'Bling! Bling! Butterflies' and 'Sparkley Gems'. I have NO idea how I possibly got to this stage in my life without this stuff!Obviously, I would share the wealth with my runpals, Susie Sunshine and Carol. Are these shoes things of beauty or what??

Now, there was some concern that problems could occur... what if we lost sparkles on the course? We were Pimping our Shoes for a run in a National Park, after all. What if a sparkle was lost, and we got busted for littering? Or worse, what if a squirrel ate that lost sparkle, got it stuck in its little rodent bowels, DIED, and we wound up in the hoosegow for Endangering Wildlife??? Those federal rangers don't have much sense of ha-ha when it comes to squirrels.

Or, here's a different scenario: what if our shoes were so sparkley and wonderful that we were attacked by magpies and ravens? Everyone knows they are mad over bling! Visions of Hitchcock's 'Birds' loomed...

And the final risk: what if our shoes were so gorgeous that WE were entranced by the gorgeous bejewelment (magpie-like, all 3 of us!), and could only stare at our shoes throughout the race? Surely, we could trip and get hurt?

Well, it all turned out fine. :) NO sparkles were lost during the running of this race. I thought it might be a problem that I cheaped out and got Liquid Stitch, rather than the more up-market Speed Sew, but the LS held! [In fact, a week has passed, and I've run 30 miles since pimping my shoes, and have only lost 2 sparkles per shoe. Pretty good. Have not noticed any squirrels in intestinal distress near my home, so looks like the coast is clear.]

No problems occured with magpies, ravens, or any other bird..... No doubt the laboured breathing of the runners scared them all away.

And, finally, I did stare at my shoes quite a lot during the race. They were just so pretty! Somehow managed not to trip over my bejeweled feet though. (Gives a whole new meaning to Tripping the Light Fantastic!)

who wouldn't enjoy this view? Really!

Susie Sunshine, Calamity Carol, and Terrible Tara: manic pre-race smiles