Physically, I felt great today. Sure I was a bit bummed out, but hey, you can't have it all. At any rate, somewhere during the course of the day, I got this incredible idea. Since I'm feeling better, wouldn't it be nice to go for a quick run... A run always picks up one's mood, right?
Well, for those of you who don't follow details of the life of Patrick, I've been running pretty heavily for the past 4 years or so. No marathons, mind you, but half marathons, and consistent daily long runs. And I do well for my age, too. In distance running (i.e. 5+ miles) I typically ran about a 7 minute mile, and I did a little better than that in the Charlottsesville 10 miler this Spring. I've been proud of my ability, and my goal was to train for the Richmond marathon this Fall. My typical activity before this whole cancer mess was to go 5-7 miles on 4 or 5 days out of the week. I miss those runs.
In short, I like to run. Unfortunately, one of the things that cancer seems to do is take away a lot of your identity. I mean to say, I'm still me inside, but me is now housed in the body of a not-so-athletic guy who takes lots of drugs to keep upright, and has a curious lack of hair. C'est la vie, I guess. Chemo helps this process by draining your energy - killing off the red blood cells that keep those muscles fed with oxygen. The upshot is that things like stair climbing, walking, running, and rock climbing, seem to require vast reserves of energy. I tire easily, and don't recover as quickly.
ell, back to my run. This jaunt was a short 3-mile loop I used to do on my slow days, when I was trying to rest the old bod. Just down to Catterton road and back, no big hills, no long inclines, just a nice quick run. Today this 5k run was exhausting. A trip that shouldn't take me more than 22 mins took 32 and I had to stop multiple times to catch my breath. All in all, I think it was a good run for a guy on his second round of chemo, but it definitely put things in perspective.
Still, a couple hours out - I'm feeling good. I'm feeling relaxed, like I used to after long runs. There's nothing better after being out of control of your body for so long, than to get a nice dose of exercise. I hope to do it again soon.
Moral of the story: The mind is willing, but the flesh is weak.
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Not bad. In all honesty, that's still just a hair faster than my 3 mile time. If we lived closer, this would be a good time for me to start running with you and then speed up as you bounce back. I'm sure that the window of us running anywhere near the same pace will be brief though.
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