Final weeks before Chicago

I'm back home after two weeks down east on vacation and can hardly believe that in less than 11 days I'll be running the Chicago marathon with 45,000 other people. Five months of training and fundraising have passed so quickly.

This week has been hectic as my fellow Ottawa TNTers and I prepared for a major fundraiser tomorrow night. Once that's behind us, I plan to get serious about resting up for the race. I've got some catching up to do!

I received an email from Kirsi this week saying that she is feeling well and still hopes to run 10km "with me" on race day. What an inspiration it will be to think of her -- so many thousands of miles away in Helsinki but with me in spirit!

I'll be thinking of lots of others too -- including all the those whose names I've written on my inspiration band, family, friends and colleagues who've been so supportive, Jon's and Kirsi's family and friends, and all my TNT teammates. I couldn't have done this without them!

Thinking of Jon

Jon was in my thoughts even more than usual this week. Of course, I’ve thought of him often since deciding to train for Chicago and raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, but this week it was his courage in particular that I thought about.

My long slow run last Saturday was only 20km and, because it was so short (relatively speaking), I expected it to feel easy. It didn’t – 3km into it, I realized it was going to be a long tough slog. My legs felt like lead, my head was fuzzy and I couldn’t seem to find a rhythm. I suppose I was still recovering from the 36km run the weekend before, and was tired from a week of activities that included a two-day retreat for work, preparing to go on vacation, and helping to organize an upcoming TNT fundraising event. But, even knowing all that, I couldn’t help feeling discouraged. How could I have been training so hard for more than 4 months, and still be finding it difficult to run a mere 20km?

As I was shuffling across the experimental farm feeling sorry for myself, I started thinking about Jon – and, in particular, how hard he fought the leukemia that eventually killed him. How could I let one tough run discourage me? There must have been many days when he felt he couldn’t face another treatment or didn’t have the energy to go on – but he did go on, enduring months of chemotherapy, persistent infections, a bone marrow transplant, blindness, chicken pox, and eventual lung failure. While I know there were many days of hope and optimism during those months, there must also have been days filled with fear and despair. His courage and determination in the face of it all is hard to fathom – and, of course, incredibly inspiring.

As I write this, I’m home in Nova Scotia on vacation, nursing a sore foot, struggling to recover from a nasty cold, and feeling a little overwhelmed by all I have left to do before I leave for Chicago. But thinking about Jon’s courage and optimism is helping me maintain some perspective. What I have to deal with is nothing compared with what he dealt with so gracefully.

I had the honour of meeting Jon’s mom and dad in person a week ago, and was moved and inspired by their courage as well. Though their pain and loss are still so fresh, they welcomed me into their home, shared photographs and memories, talked about the importance of bringing an end to cancer, and thanked me for raising funds in his memory. I am more grateful than I can say to them – as well as to Jon’s wife, Michelle – for all the support and encouragement they’ve given me in the past months.

My summer "vacation" and why I'll be sad to see it end

I was feeling quite weepy as I headed out the door for my long slow run at 6:45 this morning.

First, because I was thinking about the brief email I received from Jon’s mother yesterday – which, in turn, got me thinking about how unimaginably hard it must have been for Jon’s family to lose him to cancer at such a young age. It has been such a privilege to be able to spend my summer celebrating his life by training and raising funds for LLSC. And I hope knowing that I and so many others remember him with such affection and admiration brings his family some small measure of comfort.

The second reason I was feeling a little sad was that my run today was the longest I will run before the marathon itself. Though I have two other reasonably tough weeks ahead before I start “tapering” (i.e. reducing my mileage so that my body can heal in time for the race), today’s run was the peak of more than five months of training. I have never in my life before run 67 kilometres in a single week, and my total weekly distance will decline steadily from now until race day.

Of course, in some ways it will be good to have the marathon behind me. Training and fundraising have taken up large chunks of my life over the past four months, and it's time I got back to other projects. On the other hand, I'll be really sorry to see the training come to an end.

I’ve genuinely appreciated the opportunities it's provided to explore beautiful and unfamiliar paths through the city, and have revelled in spending so many hours alone with my thoughts. I’ve also been happy to run with a purpose other than just keeping myself in shape.

Motivated by the love, support and encouragement I’ve received from family, friends and sponsors, I’ve trained harder and more conscientiously than ever before and, as a result, am physically and mentally stronger than I have been in a long while.

Lastly, and most importantly, I’ve been deeply affected by the many stories my sponsors and others have shared with me -- of battles fought and of loved ones lost to leukemia and lymphoma -- all which have brought home to me just how sweet life is, how fortunate I am, and how really important it is to find ways to give back.

Whatever happens Thanksgiving weekend, my TNT experience has already exceeded my expectations. I’ve met some truly inspiring people, raised a lot of money, and enjoyed many wonderful runs. Needless to say, I’ll have a lot of people to thank when I finally make it home from Chicago, finisher’s medal in hand.

PS I couldn’t resist stopping to snap a few photos with my phone as I ran past some astonishingly beautiful flower beds in a park near Dow’s Lake. Too bad the quality isn't better but I hope they nevertheless give some sense of how lovely the flowers were. The other photo is of me arriving home at the end of my 36km run.