Leaning on Family

 This year’s marathon challenge has been one of the toughest in the last 18 years, both physically and mentally.  Coming off last year’s medical problems and the disappointment of not being able to run in the Boston Marathon I figured this year has got to be better.  It was not to be.  My body has never fully recovered from the kidney/sepsis setbacks and it appears to have advanced my Parkinson symptoms.   As a result I had to lean on my family even more this year to complete the challenge. Their response was overwhelming and heartwarming.

Have I mentioned I am blessed with 9 wonderful grandchildren?   The credit for that of course goes to their 6 loving parents (and I like to believe a modicum of credit from us grandparents).   Among the parents, all are athletes of accomplishment, 4 have run marathons and 2 have run the Boston Marathon with me.  It’s no surprise that the 4 oldest grandchildren are top runners on their school cross country team and the next youngest 2 while not old enough yet to join the school team, are also runners.  

All of them joined in to help me crank out the miles including the 3 and 5 year-olds who ran/walked with me for a mile (actually they would sprint ahead then stop and wait for me to catch up).  I don’t have words to express the joy of running with my grandkids, exchanging stories about school, friends, activities and sports.    Equally emotional was having the family gather in Nick’s memory to help children and their families struggling with cancer.  Who wouldn’t tear up when the 3 and 5 year-olds handed me their money from their Easter egg hunt to honor Nick and help the sick children.

 

Another Marathon Challenge in the books.   We met our family goal of 50 miles and God willing I will be out there again next year.   I am still in need of donations to meet this years goals, if you haven’t given yet we can use your help. 

As always, thank you for your support.

 

Running Like a Turtle

I was recently asked what it is like to run with Parkinson’s.  I wasn’t surprised by the question but I found myself struggling to come up with a good description.   Ultimately what came to mind was the movie Fifty First Dates.

Bear with me for a minute.  I’m not a big fan of Rom-Coms (Romantic Comedies).  The plots tend to be rote and predictable (boy meets girl, love at first sight or they hate each other, life either gets in the way or brings them together, then happily ever after).    The exception for me is Fifty First Dates.   In it Adam Sandler meets Drew Barrymore who has a traumatic brain injury that prevents her from creating new memories. Every day when she wakes up in her mind she is back before her accident.   And every day Adam must woo her all over again.

Running with Parkinson’s is kind of like that.   On many mornings when I get up, it feels like my body has forgotten how to move.   The muscle memory is still there but for some reason the brain can’t seem to find it.  Kind of like Alzheimer’s for the muscles.   Some days are better than others but every day requires some level of retraining to reestablish the connection between the brain and the muscles.   That translates into a lot of warm up and spending the first few miles reteaching the body how to move.   On the best days that connection gets reestablished but slower than an old dial up modem.   It doesn’t help that one side moves slower than the other making my running look more like a “zombie shuffle”. 

So, where are we on the Marathon Challenge?  Again this year I’ll be leaning on my family to help me complete the distance.   I haven’t recovered from last year’s kidney/sepsis challenges but I still have a few miles left in me and running/jogging/walking with my children and grandchildren is an inspiration for me.   That, and the help I get from all of you in supporting the children fighting cancer.  Their marathon is much more challenging than mine.

So, in two week I’ll be out there again, this time running like a turtle.