Wednesday, November 24, 2010

What I am thankful for...

Around this time of year I think about all the things I am thankful for. There are so many things I thought I'd list them all out in no particular order.

1. My dad...he is the strongest person I know
2. My mom..she is ALWAYS there for me
3. My family...near or far I love them
4. My friends...they are there to support me in all I do and all I go through
5. My health...enough said
6. My ability to run...there are so many who can't, won't or don't
7. My job...I've been there 9 years now and know how blessed I am
8. Our military...they keep us free and safe
9. CatDog and SpongeBob...even though they are only cats, they are my kids and love me unconditionally...
10. A roof over my head and a car to drive...

Sunday, November 21, 2010

He will always be my daddy...and my hero.

I've blogged before about my family and how much they all mean to me. I have been VERY blessed with awesome parents who raised me well...if I do say so myself. I think I turned out ok. Recently my family had to band together again and help dad through this last crisis. As he has said to several people, he donated the toes on his left foot to diabetes. His surgery went well and he is home again, only spending 2 days in the hospital. We knew this was coming for a while, and we prepared ourselves. Dad was ok with the surgery if it meant the ucleurs (sp?) stopped. He has spent every day of the last 8 months cleaning, changing and dressing this one wound. The surgeon said taking the toes will eliminate this...hopefully for good. I like his surgeon, nice guy. He answered all my questions on a level I can understand him, I mean come on, I don't speak Dr. I'm ok with him "dumbing" it down for me if it means I know exactly what will happen to dad. I went by Thursday after work to visit with daddy and bring him some food. The surgeon came by why I was there to change his dressing. Knowing the toes were gone and how much they had planned to take and actually SEEING it are 2 totally different things...and I was not as prepared as I thought I was. I know this surgery had to happen, and I want my daddy around for a while...but it breaks my heart he has to go through this. I started to tear up and had to look away. My dad is my hero. As a little girl he was invincible to me. And as an adult he still is. He is the strongest person I know. He is always there when I ned advice, help, guidance. He never judges, he just loves. He is honest and true. What you see is what you get. He is NOT letting diabetes take control of him. Yes, they battle it out, but my dad will ALWAYS win. I am his biggest fan. I will be there for him NO matter what...no matter what time...no matter what I'm doing. Thank you to all of you who have prayed, checked in on us and everyone that cares. Keep it all coming as his recovery will take some time. But he is a fighter and he has a lot of fight left in him! I love you daddy!







UPDATE 11/24/10: We had to call 911 and have dad rushed to the ER on Monday night. Long story short some of his staples popped off and he was bleeding from his incision. EMS rushed him to the closest hosptial but the doctors there would not close it back up...they said he has to see HIS surgeon. They bandaged him back up & sent him home. I took him to see his surgeon first thing on Tuesday. His foot was not bleeding when we left the house, but when we got back to the room & the Dr came in, it was bleeding...and bleeding A LOT. The surgeon located where it was bleeding from and it was a small artery inside his foot. He sewed it shut and we are hoping that will be the end of that. The surgeon is going to make a house call on Friday to my parent's house to check dad's foot again and I am hoping he will close it back up. So the assumption is that this artery was bleeding INSIDE his foot, filling it with blood and that is what made the staples pop off like they did. Now I saw dad's foot post surgery in the hospital when the Dr changed the bandages, but seeing it yesterday...I really wish I'd have left the room. It is to date the hardest thing for me and I can't even imagine how he feels about it. He is stubborn & hard headed and as a family we will get through this and he will heal, it will just take a little longer now.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Palo Duro 20k

I am late in posting my blog on this experience, but better late than never! Here is how the story goes...

My BFF Melissa decided this race was to be her goal race. I thought why not do it too? It fell in line with my training schedule...was supposed to do 12 miles that day anyway...what's .5 more? Now when I registered I read the name of the race: Palo Duro Canyon Trail Run. I thought trail run...meh...there are trails around White Rock. I've done hash runs on trails before, no biggie. Boy was I wrong! This race was much harder than I ever predicted. I showed up at the start to run with Melissa, stick with her through out the race, keep her motivated and encouraged. I treated it as a training run and not a race. To me it was more important to see her reach her goal!

So about the race & course itself. I knew it'd be somewhat of a challenge, but I wasn’t at all prepared for the ups and downs of the trail. I am pretty sure after this experience I can say that I’m 98% a road runner. I got sightings of the road during the race and wanted just a little pavement. I got some…like 10 feet. A few places on the course spit us out onto the road for just a taste of road and asphalt, then sent us back onto the trail. Thanks for the teaser. We started at 7:30 am, just as the sun was rising over the canyon. It was such a beautiful site! The first 3 miles were not hard at all, so we felt pretty good. We were thinking this was going to be a breeze! Then around mile 4ish when we started the up & down climbs, we took back the "this is easy". The up & down climbs lasted pretty much the majority of the race...some were short, some were long, but all were difficult. The aid/water stations were so much better than road races. We had our choice of the following: water, gatorade, Coke, M&Ms, candy bars, potato chips, sliced bananas adn the BEST of all: PB&J squares. Can you say heaven! The volunteers were so nice & encouraging...they'd even talk to you untile you were ready to run again. There is a different mindset and attitude with trail runners vs. road racers. They aren't focused on a PR, and if they are you'd never know it. At the mile 9 aid station there was a mama deer that was hanging out eating sliced bananas...it was an awesome site. And also at mile 9 was the stair case of death. Our legs were already becoming shaky, then we have to manuever a nearly vertical decent down to a clearing where a photographer was waiting was intimidating. And what a crappy place for a photo op. You either look frightened or thankful to have survived without injury. We had to go down these satirs of death step by step holding on to tree branches for dear life. Melissa slipped a couple of times and I kep telling her not to fall...I didn't have any band-aids. :-).

The majority of the second half of the trail was walking...and that was fine by us! We were saving it for a strong finish! We rounded the corner and could hear all our friends who had already finished yelling & cheering for us! I love that! It always gives me an extra burst of energy! We made it across the finish! Melissa's Garmin clocked 3:57:24. Fine by me...so many things were not in our favor...Melissa was sick and fighting allergies the entire run, it was not a road race which is all I've ran up to this point, and it was a challenging course. The remaining question is: Where are the cheeseburgers and beer??

Melissa, I am so proud of you for putting the hours & miles and completing your goal race...sick and all! You did great! The Las Vegas half will be a piece of cake now! Keep up all the good work!

Thanks to Melissa & Dave for letting me tag along. The canyon is georgous and I'd love to go back.

Next up: DRC half & White Rock half.