Sunday 24 May 2009

Happy Running Girl



I have been running and it sure makes me a happy girl. 
I have a triathlon in August.  
I have a half-marathon in September.

I am thinking I am going to have a half-marathon in January - in Maui!!!!!

I have not yet taken the huge step of booking my trip, but I think I am going to.  Soon.

I am so happy to be feeling like myself again.  It has been the longest winter of my life.

Monday 18 May 2009

What a month or two it has been!


Holy Cow!

I was running in April, then I got stricken with a series of migraines.  Like debilitating migraines where you go home and pray it will go away.  I took maybe 3 or 4 dosages of migraine medication, which is pretty hard on the body.

On April 16, I experienced chest pain and shortness of breath.  I called the doc and they told me to go straight to the ER (actually they wanted to send an ambulance, but since I work at a hospital, I thought that would be incredibly embarrassing).  They kept me for 6 hours in the ER and did all kinds of crazy tests, among them a PET scan.  They said that I did NOT have a heart attack but that I needed to go see my doctor at the first available appointment.  

That weekend, I got to ponder this and I was sure I was old and dying.  It was awful.  On the next Monday, I went to my doc, who felt that I was in good shape and it was unlikely that I had heart disease - more likely I had an adverse drug reaction to the migraine medication.  But we scheduled a stress test.  Well, I didn't know a woman my age was supposed to quit 5 minutes into the deal!  No one told me!  So, I went for 12 minutes, which is off the chart for a 57 year old.

Using my blood pressure and my cholesterol, They calculated my risk of developing heart disease in the next 10 years as 1%.  One Percent.  That made me feel very very good.

Then I started running again....

Last week, I developed a horrible toothache.  And the worst part was, it wasn't actually my tooth that hurt.  It was a gum infection, which was horribly painful.  I  took antibiotics for 5 days and that went away...

Then I started running again....

Now I am feeling good.  I ran this morning.  I am going to ride my bike to work tomorrow.  I am a happy girl about this.

I am looking into half marathons to do in January. ... still have Maui on my mind.  

Has anyone done a race in Hawaii?  Any advice?