Two completely unrelated things to share today, and an alert about an upcoming piece of news.
First, during the day yesterday, I spent a few hours during the day at the children's hospital here. Coincidentally, I had two patients to visit in a solely personal capacity.
First, I'd posted before about my cousin and his wife coming to Dallas to have their baby (which happened Nov. 20), who they knew was missing half of his heart. I also posted a couple pics right after he was born. At the time, they did an operation shortly after birth and knew there would be two more surgeries in the future, the next one coming when he was about 6 months old.
Well, he's growing like a weed, so even though he's almost 3months old, his weight is closer to that of a 6 month old. So they brought him back to Dallas this week to do a cardiac catheterization (sp?). Based on the results of that, the doctors will decide if he needs his next major surgery within the next week, or if they'll be able to delay it another month or two. The debate is whether the decision should be made based on age or weight. Anyway, we should know that soon.
So I went to the hospital to hang out with my cousin and his wife and their three daughters (all aged 6 or under!) while they waited for the cardiac cath surgery to be done.
But then after that surgery (which went well), I went to ANOTHER floor of the hospital to visit another patient! My husband's godson (who is 8) has been losing weight over the last few months and weighs well below what a child should for his age. I am baffled by this because his mom does the cooking in their house and she's a great cook! Anyway, a couple nights ago, he started getting sick -- he was vomitting so much they took him to their local ER (they live in a suburb way north of here called McKinney). Well, after a few hours in the ER, they had done some tests and realized his white blood cell count was completely out of whack. The hospital there didn't have a pediatric ward or the facilities to treat him, so they transferred him to the children's hospital where my cousin's baby is having all his stuff done (my cousin lives in Oklahoma).
So I went to check on them. I could tell my hubby's godson wasn't feeling well, he didn't want to eat or drink and was just kind of laying in bed listlessly, but since I don't spend tons of time with him and he's autistic, I'm not sure what is normal for him. He's often seemed distracted, etc., when we're with him, but this just seemed worse. Anyway, his parents were there (my husband's bestie and his wife), and I could tell they were really stressed. Oh, I can't imagine how tough this must be for them. I hope they get some answers soon. I may go visit again today. Hubby went after work yesterday (before he came to meet me after the social run for dinner and then ice cream with my cousin and the 3 daughters).
But the second big thing that happened yesterday was the social run last night. I ran just under 4 miles and mostly talked with a friend I hadn't seen lately and one person I didn't know but met through him (and I ran the whole second half of the run with her).
Afterward, I chatted with Alan Culpepper for a little while. I came up with several questions to ask him.
First, I asked for Boston tips. He said that he thinks the last 4 miles of Boston are the toughest miles he's ever run. He said mentally and physically, after you hit mile 22 and most of the hills (including Heartbreak Hill) are behind you, it's very difficult to realize there are still 4 more miles ahead of you.
Second, I asked about his current running. He runs by himself (that's easiest for his schedule) about 25-30 miles a week, still at a pace that I would consider fast -- 6:45 miles. His wife also runs about 20 miles a week now on her own.
Third, I asked about his future running. I was really interested in hearing particularly if he'd ever run another marathon but not race it -- maybe run a 3 or 4 hour marathon, more for fun. He said definitely not. He said neuromuscularly, his legs couldn't handle that. Aerobically he'd be fine, but his legs wouldn't let him do that. I tried to make it clear that I meant more just for fun and he said essentially (100% paraphrasing and all my words) that running isn't fun for him.
He ran from the time he was 12 until he was 36. His parents never pushed him, but by the time he was in high school and college, he knew what he wanted and he went for it. So he has been running competitively for a long time and I guess it might be hard to change that mindset. Adam used to play professional baseball -- I wonder if he'd play it now just for fun. Anyway, Alan Culpepper said if he were to undertake some kind of athletic endeavor just for fun, not as a competition, it would be something like bicycling. He said he'd love to ride some kind of race like that for fun.
It was very interesting!
So, I had a 10 mile tough run this morning. I felt like I was struggling a lot but actually. But since I'm running based on HR now, I just tried to follow the plan. When I got home and looked at my data, I saw the pace was actually pretty fast for me, so it makes sense it would feel pretty grueling.
But personally, I had another stomach issue on the run this morning. I don't know what's wrong with me! I didn't stop, but if there had been a restroom available, I would have. I wonder if today's problem related to the fact that I had sweet potato fries last night and I don't eat fried food very frequently. Or maybe I'm getting so old that I'm becoming one of those runners who has to get up really early to make sure there's adequate bathroom time before a run. I guess that's not a unique issue for older runners really, but I've always kind of had a gut of steel. Never had to worry about it. My time may have come. Also, I've had itchy skin for about a week now, but I doubt that's related to having 2 runs where I needed bathroom stops. More likely related to trying to use up my backlogged supply of bathroom products.
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