A tight sports bra does not a bad day make! Or, why sometimes you just have to suck it up and keep going

GREAT news!!  We have raised $920 since last Wednesday!!  We are so close to 20% of our total goal.  If you haven't made a donation yet, consider giving $10 to help get us closer to our first 20% goal!  Lizbeth is so excited about this fundraiser and race, and I'm excited to be doing it for her.  Here's the link to the donation page:  http://tinyurl.com/ccdzmf9


Lizbeth started chemo again.  This time she is getting a different "cocktail" of drugs to try and shrink the tumors.  The chemo drugs plus the drugs they give you to combat nausea and other side effects can make you pretty loopy.  I've gotten several texts from Lizbeth, and while they're not her usual crisp typing and grammar, her spirit, determination and sense of humor comes through in all of them.  

As I ran around Lake Johnson last night, UP and DOWN the hills (they're short but brutally steep), I felt really great and was able to keep up a good pace.  I felt like I had tons of energy, even at the end of my run.  

Today was a completely different story.  I did not eat well, and in the craziness of the day I pretty much forgot to drink my 64 oz. of water.  I stopped to pick up some new running gear since I haven't really bought anything new to run in since, ooooh 2007 or so.  What can I say, I liked my gear and we had been through a lot together.  

So when I headed out on the trail today, tired, pretty dehydrated, wearing snug not-even-close-to-broken-in gear, with an Amy's burrito sitting in my stomach like the huge brick of rice and beans that it was, I did not have a good feeling about my impending run.  About 5 minutes (yes minutes, not miles) in, I looked down at my Garmin and realized that it definitely was not keeping the correct pace/miles since there was no way I was running a 24 min. mile (I'm slow, y'all, but come on).  Add that to the list of "reasons your run will most definitely suck," and I had mentally bit the dust by the end of mile one.  I stopped and walked.  At first I felt pretty defeated, but I thought about how running is pretty much like everything else in life.  Some days will be A-MAZING, some days will be meh, and somedays your new sports bra will just be too tight.  Ok maybe not the last one.  But seriously.

I let myself be frustrated, I let myself feel sorry for myself, and then I got over it.  I thought of all of the runs I've done that have been those magic runs where you go 10 miles and feel like you can go 10 more (or hopefully 16.2 more...).  I thought about the days when it was 30 degrees out and the freezing air kept you moving until you warmed up and realized how much you LOVE running in the cold (and HATE running in any weather over 75 degrees).  I even thought about my hilly run yesterday that just so happened to be my fastest time yet on that route. And then I thought about the text I got last night, which loosely translated out of the chemo fog said, "I so miss you, could you come see me? It's taken me thirty minutes to write this.  Love to you and Brian."

Are you KIDDING ME?!  Liz was so determined to send that text (and write her blog post today, which you should read at www.fatig.org if you haven't seen it yet) that she most likely DID spend 30 minutes trying to get it right and get her feelings across.  And for her to be sending love to ME when she's going through what she is is simply incredible to me.  Let's just say I started running again.  Immediately.  

"Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity."
- Henry Van Dyke