2011 Running Thread

Sounds like a fun run Goldlining!  Always nice to have something to break up the monotony and keep you going.  Congrats on breaking 3 hours.  That is awesome!

I started trainig for a half last week.  This week was the first long run -- 6 miles. I have not run that far in over a year. It was tough ... I hope it gets easier because they are just going to keep getting longer and longer!

Hi fellow runners - I am a runner AND a bc survivor - thought you would enjoy my recent blog below -

Hope runs

In an effort to be an athlete (who'd a thunk it??) and run like it's my job...it has become like a job.  I set my alarm, I put on my "uniform" (some sort of tech fabric and $100 sneakers), pack my "lunchbox" (Spi-belt full of Gu), punch the "clock" (Garmin GPS) and go put my "time" in while training to get the "payback" I want (hopefully).   

Wait...back up....That is not why I run.  I will never be paid to run, I will never win a race or even place in the top 10 (unless there are only 10 people in the race) and at the end of the day I don't care.  I admit I get sucked up into the challenge of challenging ME.  Getting stronger, getting faster, seeing improvement and maybe even surprising myself now and then (like Miami). But honestly, none of that matters.

I run because I can.  I run because it keeps me healthy and strong, emotionally and physically.  As a cancer survivor, I don't live in fear (I refuse to) of it coming back,  but I do live with the reality of it.  You know the saying "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?"  So it's always there, hanging out in my peripheral vision - It doesn't block the view but I know it's there.  But it can't run.  And I can. So I do.

Will running cure me?  Maybe or maybe not.  Research shows that breast cancer survivors who exercise regularly and intensely are less likely to recur and more likely to survive.   In the meantime, though, and maybe more importantly, the thought that it might (cure me) and that I am doing something to control something so out of my control is a powerful drug called HOPE.  And if you think hope is not that big of a deal, consider being on the other end of the spectrum - hopeless. 

So to me running = HOPE.  In the middle of the night, when I wake up in fear and before I have a chance to boot it out of bed, I go over the miles I have run.  I remind myself how strong I am, how healthy I am, what I have accomplished, what my goals are and then I go back to sleep....but not for long since I have to get up early to run!

So yeah, the weather is annoying, the treadmill is boring, and I can do speed work til I am blue in the face (well, that would be bad!) but at the end of the day, running keeps me sane.  It is my HOPE.

Not only does Running =Hope but to me Running=Strength, Accomplishment, Power.  As long as I am running, I am breathing.<although possibly gasping>   And yes, mostly I run BECAUSE I CAN!

Cinnamonrocket- I was just pouring through the 2010 running thread and saw you had given me feedback on this about a month ago.  Sorry that my memory is so short!  But thanks for reminding me of your experience and great to hear how quickly you rebounded once healed.

I think I'll listen to my body and the stiffness I still feel in the abs and wait at least another two weeks.  Last thing I want is to have a setback! I've been on my bicycle trainer (still too cold in NY to bike outdoors) so feel like I can still get the blood moving, heart rate up, without running yet.

Congratulation Goldining.  I hope that I do that well at my first 1/2 marathon.  I am hoping to run it under 3:00

Thanks everyone. I didn't win THE race but I won MY race :-)

8,208 place (out of 13,091) 

I just put my pretty medal in as the avatar (somehow it turned sideways but some days, it's ALL sideways.) 

We'll miss you lewing. Hope to see you again soon.

Sorry to see you take a break when spammers are still around. 

Linda - Sorry to hear about the problems ..  you never had problems on this thread with us runners!  Please come back and join us when you can! We'll miss you!

((Hugs))

Charley

Hi Winterpeg

Holy cow, are you there in -21C now? Brr. Running outside yet or still recovering inside? 

I had uni-mastectomy for my DCIS without reconstruction at that time, and was running slooooowly at first, a month later and a half marathon 9-10 weeks post-op. It was easier after mast than lump, because there was no jiggle. For that, honestly, I kinda like the mastectomy.

I have the same question as you about reconstruction.

I am consulting on the prophylactic side and reconstruction this week. I think my centre doesn't do DIEP, and I expect the PS to give me a song and dance about how pedicle TRAMS are no barrier to running and to me, it's just logic that can't be true. I would rather have no reconstruction than no abs. I think for running I need all the abs I can get.

The local DIEP goddess is at another centre so I expect that I need to go to the back of a different queue (damn the family doctor's random choice of mammogram centre in the first place).  

Since my DCIS was removed with the uni-mast in December, I don't foresee my turn for DIEP coming up before September, so my choice may be prophy-mast and no reconstruction in March/April -- and a half mary (aiming for Disneyland Labour Day weekend) -- followed by double DIEP, or defer the prophylactic mastectomy until I make my way up the DIEP waiting list and do it then with immediate reconstruction, and in the mean time, run the half-mary with the prosthesis and industrial strength running bra. (See, it's all about the running. It's how I claim an illusion of control!) 

I have read elsewhere on BCO, a medical columnist responding to a specific question said that a marathoner pre-surgery could reasonably do a marathon 6-7 months post surgery. Reading between the lines, I don't think she was talking about setting a personal best, but April to December doesn't seem to be a lost cause recovery time frame.

Anyone who runs and has had flaps of any kind, please share your recovery and running experience. Winterpeg and I really would like to know.

I saw the PS this morning, and I am soooooo happy - she asked what I knew about reconstruction and I listed the options as I knew them, and my personal pros and cons: too many allergy issues to feel comfortable about implants, and I want my abs for running. I would prefer no reconstruction over TRAM. 

The PS volunteered that DIEP was best for me, but she only does unilateral DIEP as she has no teamer/partner, and with no prompting or pleading required on my part, she offered to refer me to the duo that do DIEP down the road a couple km, and that would move me up their priority list. She said I should leave the prophylactic mast until that time and do bilateral DIEP which would be immediate on the prophy side. Going to register for that Labour Day run tonight! Maybe this afternoon!

I want a prophylactic mastectomy on the other side and bilateral DIEP because I will never relax as long as it's there. I feel that it's a time bomb. The DCIS came out of nowhere fast and symmetry is just intuitive to me. I have the same vision correction in both eyes, I am deaf in both ears, and sure I'll eventually have DCIS in the second breast. I don't want annual mammograms and I can't have MRI for monitoring as I have a cochlear implant. Watchful waiting isn't my style. 

Bittersweet: she did not have any concern about flap material!! I don't want to be DD. I was B after my breast reduction and have been pining to be a B ever since the damned baby weight. DIEP solves both problems. I weigh 30 lb more than I weighed before my pregnancy (and the "baby" is 15+ -- years, not lb, though she WAS a big baby). 

After my lumpectomy in October, I went to the store, but didn't run for 5 or 6 weeks because DD jiggles too much, and really only worked up to 2 or 3 km before it was December and I had the mastectomy. After that, with my wonderful Twiggyish flatness, I started on the treadmill after 4 weeks just 4.4mph for an hour, but kept at it once or twice a week, and by 8 weeks post mastectomy I was up to 7.5km alternating slow running and walking. Then the week before the run I decided I was still obligated to "taper and carb load" :-))) my favourite part of the run events.

My fitness asset is I never ran a step until I was 50+ so my knees are in mint condition. I actually delayed the lumpectomy for 6 months after the biopsy in order to run and get cardiorespiratory fitness and destress after a hard academic year (heavy teaching load) and I felt it helped a lot that I was so much fitter than I usually am. 

"Half mary" is runner jargon for half marathon. Me trying to sound like an insider: like "oh 10K is the new 5K" :-)  I'm a runner in the enthusiast sense, not the proficiency sense. I'm not a bloodthirsty competitor. I run for celebration and impressing myself with being able to do something that feels hard. Oh, and bling. Definitely the bling.

Hi ladies

I had a dbl mastectomy on 2/17 and my first chemo on Friday. I ran a marathon this fall and have done 3 others. Anyone running with t expanders? These feel like tupperware but I'd like to get started again. Any thoughts .



I have 3 ac chemo left and 12 taxol plus herceptin

Lewing, this winter I bought black neoprene running masks for me and two of my running buddies so that I wouldn't be the only one looking like I was running away from a crime scene.



Manitoba is where I live and run. No hills to speak of but the snow and cold are also a good challenge. Ran three times this week and hope to get a few more runs in next week before I turn into an electric reclining chair potato.



Uncertainty and waiting seem to be around every corner. Wednesday's MRI led to call from BS Thursday letting me know concerning nodule spotted on "good" breast so will have US next Wednesday. Good news? Surgery still scheduled for 22nd....for now.

I am having surgery on March 25.  I also had knee surgery 2 weeks ago, so I can run again.  I had a torn meniscus from training for a half marathon after a broken toe.  The knee surgery was scheduled when I got the diagnosis.  I felt, let's put me back together again all at once.  Hoping to swim before the breast surgery, then hoping to run before I start radiation.  Trying to organize my training around surgeries/radiation and hopefully nothing more.  I would like to participate in 2 triathlons this summer.   It is what keeps me going.