A Mama's BlogIt’s been a while since I have had a Wordless Wednesday, and I have been wanting to write a post about a few of the hiking/backpacking trips I have been on recently, and hope to soon! For now, here is a picture of the Gore Mountain Range near Silverthorne, CO.
A wrote a few weeks ago about two neighborhood boys that were bullying Ryan at the park. When I wrote that post, I had no idea what was going to happen.
Since then, I am very happy that the younger boy, C., seems like a new kid! I saw him at the bus stop the very next morning, after he had been pushing Ryan, after he had stared me down, and I had talked to him. I said hi to him, and he said hi back. I still make it a point to say hi to him every morning at the bus stop. I say hi to the older boy too, but he ignores me.
After about a week, C., started coming to the park in the afternoons without his “friend,” the older boy. He would play with Ryan and the other younger kids really well. He showed the younger kids his skateboard and let them try it a few times. One day he was playing football with Cole, and another little boy who is also three, and he was great with them.
Another mom comes to the park a lot in the afternoon as well, and one day she brought her quilt pattern she was working on, along with the fabric squares. I was asking her about quilting, and C., came and sat down next to us and listened and asked about quilting too. The other mom explained the patterns to him, and he really seemed interested in it.
Another day C. ran up to me and told me had a new GPS. When I asked him if it showed him where he was, he said no, it played music. I realized he had an MP3 player. I asked him what kind of music he liked, and he talked to me for several minutes about music. On Tuesday afternoon, Ryan, C., and some of the other kids in the neighborhood played for an hour at all of our houses- skateboarding and riding down the driveways on their scooters. I no longer see C. with the older boy, and the older boy if he is at the park, stays away from the younger kids.
I have never seen C.’s parents around though. I am not sure what the situation is, but I can see that C. just soaks up attention from adults. I think sometimes any attention, even negative attention is better than nothing. I am happy that our neighborhood- the kids and parents have been able to give C. some positive attention, and he has responded so well!
I have no reason to believe that C. would be bullying any kid now. He told me after I started talking to him that first night after he had pushed Ryan that he “was a good kid.” These past few weeks have proved that C. was right.
I have never “trained” for a race, and I hesitate to even use that word. Training sounds serious. I like the word “preparing” better.
Last week I was able to start preparing for the Race for the Cure, not at a gym, but at a local playground. Now you see why I don’t really consider myself “training.” I don’t think serious runners train at a playground. Since I am not a serious runner, but a mom, who also has to watch two little boys most of the time, while I prepare for the race, the playground is working out for us.
The first time we went to the playground, the boys rode their scooters. From our house, it was probably just under a mile. I discovered there were two bike paths at the park. The first one was probably not more than half a mile around. The boys did great following me on their scooters as I ran.
I liked the path, but after four times around, (with breaks), the boys were getting tired, so I decided to take them up to the playground above this first path. There is a much smaller path I could run on, while the boys played at the playground. Here it is: (can you hear Eye of the Tiger playing right now?)
I am guessing this path is probably not more than a quarter mile around. Since I am not a serious runner and am not training, I don’t have any fancy GPS running watches, or anything like that. The best feature of this path was the boys were occupied on the playground (they are on the red climbing thing):
I ran around this path about seven times. The boys were exhausted by the time we got home- they still had to ride their scooters home.
On Thursday evening, I figured out that if we drove to the park, the boys could play much longer, and wouldn’t be so tired, which would mean more running time for me! It worked really well. They started getting really into it, and would stop playing every time I ran by the playground. They would stand there, and hold out their hands for me to high five them. Ryan ran around with me on the path a few times. I told them I would get them some whistles, so they could be proper coaches.
I followed the advice Sonja had given me and didn’t try to run fast at all. I had a lot more energy, and I didn’t get tired and have to walk any of the path. I ended up running 20 laps. I ran for thirty-five minutes. I wasn’t sure how close I was getting to 3 miles, I figured I was at least in the ball-park.
On Friday night, the boys and I went to my dad’s house in Denver to spend the night. While they were roasting marshmallows, I went on a run. My dad told me where my sister used to live from his house, was 1.2 miles. If I could run there and back, I would be just under 2.5 miles.
I started to run, and felt great. I had to tell myself to slow down and not run too fast. I must have had a really good pace because I felt like I could have kept running. I reached my sister’s old house. I thought about going a few more blocks, so I could be really close to 3 miles, but it was getting dark, and I wasn’t in an area I was really familiar with. I headed back to my dad’s. I only stopped once, and it was to take this picture on the Washington St. Bridge right above I-25:
About two blocks away from my dad’s house, I started to get tired. But I was also excited that I had been able to go so far, and realized that I would actually be able to run the 3 miles for the race! When I got back, I had run 2.4 miles in 35 minutes. I figured I could do 3 miles in 45 minutes.
On Saturday, my knees and hips hurt! Running on concrete will do that. Plus, I had been running in really, really, old tennis shoes. I think they are at least five years old. I decided even though I am not training, I wasn’t going to spend a fortune on new shoes, but it was time for a pair of actual running shoes. Here is a old shoe-new shoe picture: (it shouldn’t be too hard to guess which are the old shoes 🙂 )
Yesterday evening, the boys went to their dad’s house, so it was the first time I was able to time myself, and see how far I could run. I had measured the distance in the car and measured 1.5 miles from my house. I wore my new shoes, and it took me a few minutes to get used to them. I also started feeling really sluggish as I started off. I couldn’t really find a rhythm. I was running faster than I wanted to, and had to force myself to slow down several times.
At 1.4 miles, everything started to click. I reached the 1.5 mile point, and turned around to run home. I didn’t check to see what kind of pace I was on. At 2.5 miles, I just sped up. I felt really good, and decided to run faster. A car came up behind me that I had seen, and I ran off to the side of the road. At the last second, (and I mean second) I saw this HUGE hole. I had to leap to get across it, and I just barely cleared it.
I felt a surge of energy and ran faster until I got to my house. I looked at the time, and even with starting off slow, having to run off to the side of the road every time a car came, and the dodging-the-hole-episode, I was thrilled to see that I had ran the 3 miles in 41 minutes! I was also happy that I didn’t have to stop and walk any of it.
Race day is in 13 days, and I feel very confident where I am right now. I wasn’t sure if I would even be able to run/walk 3 miles. I am going to set a time goal. If I can run the entire distance, and if I can do it in under 40 minutes, then the training preparation will have paid off.
Last week I decided to do something I have never done before- I signed up to run in the Komen Denver Race for the Cure on October 4th.
This is actually my first running race too. Running is not my first choice for exercise. However, I have always wanted to run in a race, and after seeing my friend, Erika, had formed a team, I signed up on her team.
In March Erika was diagnosed with breast cancer, and because of a strong family history, she opted for a bilateral mastectomy. Erika finished her last round of chemotherapy in July, and the cancer is in remission now! Erika has two young children, and while I was recovering from my thyroid cancer surgery, Erika was reaching out to me, and was a great source of encouragement and strength.
Another friend,Nicole, is planning on running too on Erika’s team, and we are going to run it together. Even though my first thought was to walk the race, I decided if there was ever a time to push myself, this was it. Cancer just flat out sucks. It doesn’t matter what kind it is, or if you have a survival rate or a remission rate. It is a powerful feeling to have beaten cancer, and it is a gift.
On a personal level, engaging in an activity (even running) that can help find a cure for cancer, will be empowering- kind of like a “take that cancer!” It is eerie how many people I know, or have heard about through friends, who have been diagnosed specifically with breast cancer this year. Most of them are younger women- women in their thirties- with newborns, infants, and toddlers. These women are so incredibly strong, brave, and inspiring.
Preparing myself to run in a 5k race is nothing compared to just one round of usually five chemotherapy sessions that most breast cancer patients have to endure. I can prepare for a month, make the 7am race time start, and I am grateful I am healthy enough to do it.
It was a bit humbling to ask my world class triathlete friend,Sonja, who has ran 50 miles before, and just competed in an Ironman Competition, for tips on running 3 miles. But Sonja has given me some great advice, she will be running in the race too, and will give me a running day pep-talk/advice on the day of the race. The race is not timed, so my goal is to finish it and hopefully be able to run the entire course.
I’m having some interesting experiences trying to run 3 miles while watching the boys. There isn’t a time where someone else is available to watch them, so we are figuring it out. I’ll be writing a few updates on how this experience is going, and how the coaches, (Ryan and Cole) are helping me. They have been great! 🙂
The Susan G. Komen race for the cure is in hundreds of cities. You can click here to find a race in your area. If you don’t want to run or walk, you can donate to the organization or to your local city’s chapter. If you would like to donate to Erika’s team, please e-mail me and I will provide you with the link.
I am excited to run in this race, and to support the women I know with cancer. If you have, or are planning to run in your area’s Race for the Cure, I’d love to hear about your experience.
Cancer is a word, not a sentence. ~John Diamond
Edited on 9/17/09: Thanks to Mama Bird for reminding me to share the link, in case you wanted to sponsor me, which in turn will go to Erika’s team. Here is the link. Thank you!
In April I found out that I had thyroid cancer. If you are a regular reader of my blog, than you know I wrote a number of posts chronicling my experience with thyroid cancer during the past eight months.
The doctors can tell you when you are done with treatment. They tell you when you have made the physical shift from a cancer patient to a cancer survivor. But they can’t tell you when the mental shift will happen-that you can now get out of cancer patient mode, and get back to your life.
It was important for me to take a series of smaller steps, to get myself mentally out of the cancer patient mode. I started doing more activities with Ryan and Cole that took us out of the house like going camping, to the zoo and to parks. I have had quality time with my family- all of us together and also spending time with individual family members. I started exercising and doing activities again like hiking and riding my bike. As I did these things, I could feel the mental shift happen.
One step that I had not had an opportunity to do was spend time with my friends. We all became friends around the time when our first children were born. We would have playgroups, craft nights, and mom’s nights out together.
As our children grow, our activities have changed, and we have all become busier. The time we have to spend with each other has diminished. But this summer, they put their own families and lives on hold to help me. They didn’t ask me what I needed- they just did it. They did everything from cooking meals, to doing housework, yard work, offering childcare, stopping by to say hi, to just being there for me, and offering their support. Not a day went by that I didn’t hear from one of them- either by phone, e-mail, or cards.
So when Mile High Mamas, announced they were having a social media event with Mom it Forward at the Warwick Hotel in Denver, last Thursday night, my friends and I were exctied for the night out. I was also happy that we could spend some time together. Below is myself with some of my terrific friends, Nicole, Alison, Melissa, Amy, and Julie.
The event was a lot of fun, with wonderful appetizers and a wine tasting. I was touched by several women, who when read my name tag, gave me a hug and told me they had been following my cancer journey, and offered their support. Several blog posts have been written about the evening- you can read Amy’s, Aimee’s or Amber’s posts for more information (and pictures) on the event itself.
As we were getting ready to leave, the Warwick staff invited us to see the only rooftop pool in Denver, that just happened to be on their roof! We put our feet in, and that soon turned into splashing, which turned into two of the women, Aimee, and Jyl, jumping in the pool, fully clothed for a swim.
They looked like they were having a great time, and as I watched them swimming around, I decided that I was going to go for a swim myself. It would be the perfect way to remember the evening.
Julie was ready as well so we grabbed hands, and took the plunge!
Shortly after, Amy and Alison joined in too. We were silly, laughing, and having fun.
The evening was about fun and friends, but also for me, it was a way for me to mark the end of being a cancer patient, and celebrating life with amazing women that are my friends.
As I jumped into that pool, the shift was completed. I have returned back to my life- healthy and strong.