Just Plodding Along

Moving is hard. Missing friends, my running tribe, my running routes. I just need time to meet people, create a new tribe, explore the area. Health issues are hard. Two months of stress and worry to find out I am mostly okay....still waiting for the final word on September 10th. But in the mean time I can run and that is the important part and except for a funny beating heart the rest of me is pretty dang healthy. Getting back in shape is hard. I have not been making it any easier due to the fact that my favorite running route starts with a two mile uphill climb followed by a few miles of ankle twisting, big rocked trails and then back home with a quad crushing downhill. Oh and lifting weights on a regular basis has made simple life tasks extra difficult (I swear I would put the plates away if I could just raise my arms). Things have seemed hard lately. Even knowing why sometimes doesn't make it easier. The last few weeks have been a bit extra frustrating in the running dep...

So just to recap what has been going on: 1) pitifully attempted a 50K in ridiculous conditions 2) felt weird pressure in chest and felt like death 3) went to ER- eh not sure go see cardiologist 4) after ridiculously long wait due to moving to a new state, getting in the system, general time it takes to get an appointment see cardiologist for stress test and echo thingy 5) stress test looks weird 6) wait for week and a half wondering if my heart is abnormal or arteries are in the wrong place or what And then yesterday: 7) get CT scan 8) find out that my heart actually very healthy. Yes it beats funny but that is okay and it beats at a rate and a volume that is really, really good and my arteries are beautiful (ya know that inner beauty;)). Oh and my cholesterol is da bomb FYI. In case you were wondering. Doc says I am gonna live forever. 9) And then the doc said.....YOU CAN RUN..... So you all know what that means! Wild West Relay and Hood to Coast Relay are on!!...

I am hoping to get good news today about running after getting a CT scan of my heart this morning. But regardless of news the past couple of years have been full of awesome running experiences that I am thankful I have gotten to be a part! In no particular order of awesomeness: 1. Kendra getting a 5K PR. Kendra was my first running buddy when I moved to Columbus Georgia and is one of my favorite people. It was awesome to see her become a running badass and I was super happy I was running with her when she killed that 5K! 2. Helping Amanda train for and crush a half marathon. In the past year I have watched Amanda become an amazing athlete and was impressed and inspired by how hard Amanda worked to run her first half marathon....which was in June near Atlanta in high humidity and temps. She obviously likes to aim high. I was so proud of her! Helping her train confirmed that I myself would like to help others achieve their goals and got me motivated to work towards getting m...

This past Thursday I did not get the news I was hoping for. I wanted to hear you are fine, run it up! Instead after an echo-cardiogram and a stress test (which by the way stress tests are one hell of a workout, basically running uphill, like straight up, hold on tight you may fly off this treadmill at any moment your butt will hurt for days workout) I got a we need to do a CT scan to check your arteries because the stress test results did not look normal. No running! No running! No running! To sum everything the doctor said up: I either am totally fine and my heart beats funny or something more serious may be going on with my arteries. So fine or serious. And I don't get the CT scan until the 16th. At first I was all boohoo my life is over. I will never run again. Whoa is me. and then I swung the other way My heart is stupid, how dare you betray me. Doctors know nothing ahhhhhhh I have since landed on I had to give myself a little reality che...

So the key to going to the ER is to have chest pressure or pain. There is no waiting. Straight to the back and hooked up to a million machines. Because the nurses and doctors seemed so concern I was getting a bit freaked out. But then they operate with the idea that you are having a heart attack until proven otherwise. The nurse said my right lung capacity was diminished, my heart had a very irregular heartbeat and with a chest x-ray was enlarged. All very, very concerning they said until I mentioned that was my normal apparently according to the last time I had all of this done. Except for the lung thing that was weird. They gave me oxygen which made me feel better but never figured out why that was the case. They took lots of blood and said most likely then it was an electrolyte imbalance from the hot and sweaty race I did yesterday. When that came back they would pump me full of electrolytes and I would be all better. Except that my electrolytes were fine but my heart seemed to...

I went into this race a little bit naive. We had done the math. We ran the marathon in hilly Atlanta in around five hours and had walked up a lot of the hills. So add an hour for increased difficulty of trails and even more hills. And then add another hour for heat and humidity and bam we should finish around 7 or 7.5 hours. No problem.  Reality- I crawled through at 9 hours and 27 minutes the second to last person to meet the cutoff (a few poor people did not make the cutoff). For a good chunk of time I thought I would hold the coveted spot of last person to finish. Even had the blog title going in my head- Rockin Choccolocco- the time I finished last. But as they say, you never finish last and there happened to be one poor gentleman out there having an even worse day than I was.  I should have known that this race was not a good idea. But for some reason I think I am invincible and can do anything. Well this race was a real slap in the face that I am in fact not...

This weekend was supposed to be all about D, graduation and fun. Instead it was about me getting admitted to the hospital. I guess I thought D was just pulling too much focus. Had to bring it on back to me. Things started out fine. Picked up the parents-in-law, had fun at lunch and went to a friends party. But throughout the day I was feeling  kind of funny and by the time we left our friend's party I knew I had a fever. So got some thermaflu and crossed my fingers that with some rest and drugs and I would wake up all better, bright eyed and ready to scream my head off at graduation cause I am classy like that. Didn't happen. Temp of 104, passing out and generally feeling like death meant no attending graduation for me (I made D and his parents go which he did not thank me for since he was worried about me the whole time). D got home from graduation and took me to an urgent care place who sent me to the ER when all their test came back negative except for a high white blood...