Birthday, survival, and not much running

Last week I celebrated a couple very important milestones, none of which involved running. My daughter turned three on Sunday(!) and I hit my five year cancer free date. As far as running, I got in four miles.

My daughter Riley turned three on Sunday. After the party we sat down and watched the videos of the day she was born and looked at photos. It is unbelievable that three years has passed. I am already finding myself reminiscing of when she was "small". Boy am I in trouble when she goes off to college...The party was a hoot with a bunch of Riley's friends doing hoola hoops outside. It was a good time. Happy Birthday to my little girl.

Last Wednesday I hit my five years of being cancer free, earning me the distinction of being as "cured" as one can be of cancer. It has been five years since I heard those fateful words, "You have cancer", and was subjected to the most painful thing I have ever experienced: a bone marrow test. Ouch. Running a 100 miles is nothing compared to that needle pushed into the hip. Lance Armstrong did not need drugs to win the TDF seven times because he had a well of tough experiences from which to pull perseverance. Once you have been down the hall to a chemo ward, you do not exit the same person. You are emboldended. Your faith is deepened and set in concrete. You love life and go after everything you never did with a passion not commonly found in others. You win the TDF seven times. You run 100 miles. You live and you love like you never have.

But you still have to work. Work as of late has been tremendously stressful and all consuming of much of my time. Such is life. I did manage to get in one post-Bradbury Bruiser run last week through the woods of Freeport and another run in today through the same woods. Today was beautiful, with a nice crisp feel to the air. Perfect running weather. Tom Tero and I took a 5.2 mile jaunt through the LLB trails and discussed my race plans for these woods. I am trying to figure out how to keep the runners from doubling back on the course into the face of slower runners. I have some time to next spring to get this right. It should be a fun course.

My buddy Jamie Anderson sent me a link to the following YouTube video of a Vermont 100 mile participant. Check it out if for nothing else than the guy's vacant stare about half way through. God bless him. Also, the soundtrack is excellent.