Four Years Out. 26.2 Miles to Go.
I don’t know exactly when my “cancer-free” date is. I finished chemo in October/November of 2015, and apparently, it worked…so I’m going to call right about now four years free. With that milestone of sorts, it seems like a good time to try something very much outside my comfort zone. I’ve been running for a few years now, but still didn’t have TOO much interest in doing a marathon. But then? I don’t know, when you have the opportunity to raise money for the organization that, literally, saved your life while being able to participate in the most iconic race on the planet…I feel I needed to at least give it a shot. So here I am. Becoming one of those people.
There’s a joke that I’ve heard a million variations of that’s basically: “Q: How do you know if someone (insert: has run a marathon/does CrossFit/is vegan/etc.)? A: Don’t worry! They’ll tell you.” I get it. Marathon running is obnoxious to a lot of people. We all roll our eyes at 26.2 bumper stickers. But hey, those 0.0 stickers are pretty bad too! Lots of things are obnoxious. I’m going to try and not be an insufferable runner. And if I am? Well, there are worse things. I hope you’ll still want to read along.
The name Keepsake Tinnitus is a lyric from the late, great New Jersey band Cymbals Eat Guitars. It’s a phrase that, much like tinnitus itself, has rattled around in my head for a while. Physically, I made it out relatively unscathed. Sure, a few blood clots almost killed me and apparently my lungs look a bit gnarly, but that’s not really something I NOTICE on a day to day basis (although I will gladly use it as an excuse if my marathon time blows). The tinnitus though…that’s something harder to ignore. I already dealt with it occasionally before from being a dumb kid not wearing earplugs to Dinosaur Jr shows. But now? Constant. Cisplatin (one of my chemo drugs) is what they like to call “ototoxic,” meaning “it’s gonna screw with your hearing”. And did it ever! If you’re talking to me in an area with a lot of noise, chances are I can’t hear you. I will be sure to smile and nod though. It’s generally known that survivors will at least have some sort of “keepsake” from treatment. This is one of mine…always there buzzing in the background. At least I have the reminder that I made it out.
Welcome! I plan to do these bi-weekly. My plan is also to be more focused in my writing. We’ll see if either of those happen. Here are some random bullets.
We are talking running here, so how about some tunes to go with it? I’ll be making a 1.5ish hour running playlist each month. You can check out October’s here.
Eliud Kipchoge. Not even sure what else can be said. It’s just pretty incredible to see something happen that was assumed to be impossible.
Thank you to all those who have donated to Dana-Farber so far. I’m feeling pretty good about reaching the $10k goal. I’ll be planning some events soon to help things along. Stay tuned.
I’ve been running pretty regularly 4ish times a week. The problem is, each run has typically been 3-4 miles on average. I’ll need to work on that pretty hard, so I’m glad I got in a little over 8 today.
That’s all I got right now. Any questions? Comments? Things you’d like to see? Let me know! Until next time. Enjoy your Sunday.