(Click on the photo to enlarge it)
Running the Peachtree 10K Road Race on the 4th of July is near the top of my Cancer Revenge List every year. I was not able to train very much this year because of the hyperbaric oxygen treatments in late spring and several months of taking pain killers--the combination of which made me very tired. Then, once I had those things behind me, Atlanta became Hot-Lanta in June with record high temperatures, and my training was limited to about 2 early morning runs a week.
The temps had been running consistently near and over 100 since mid-June and we set an all-time high of 106 five days before the Peachtree. Then, the night before the race we had some heavy rain storms that lowered the temps for the morning of the race--even if it did hit 100 later on.
My goal was to run about half the distance and walk the other half. My running partner, Jeff, and I actually ran nearly all of the distance, walking only on the two biggest hills. Of course we had the "Coldest beer of the year" after the race, and then complained only about the t-shirt color this time--the selected front design was quite acceptable.
The rest of the day was a typical fourth of July--which is the whole point of this being on my Cancer Revenge List--to not let the Prairie Dogs intrude on our lives any more than they already have. We came back to our house, had the traditional orange rolls with more post-race beers, took a nap before going out to swim at Damon and Aleisa's, ate some great food, and then came home and took another nap. Two naps in one day--it don't get any better than that!
Two days before the holiday I had a follow up with the doc who did the jaw debridement and got some mixed news. Most of the jaw area is healing but much slower than expected, and he confirmed what I had suspected for a few weeks--I have a piece of exposed bone in that area. He couldn't tell if it was old dead bone just now surfacing (good news), or new dead bone since the debridement (bad news). So, I'm back into another period of wait-and-see what happens with the piece of dead bone and what that might mean for the future.
But for now I'll just enjoy meeting my goals for the Peachtree and having the best uneventful 4th of July a cancer survivor could have.
Mike
