NEWS

• House is home from the hospital. Recovery has begun.
• Last big training weekend before taper-time. Saturday - 4 hour run. Sunday - 7 hour bike

Waddling to bring it on...........

SURGERY UPDATE

House is still in the hospital recovering from his surgery on Monday. It was a tough one for him. 7 years ago, he severely fractured his talus bone in his ankle. Now the osteoporosis has created a hole in his ankle. Because of his age, he is too young for an ankle replacement since they only last 10 years. To delay having to do this he had reconstructive surgery. They took bone and bone marrow from his pelvis and mixed it with a ceramic material and surgically fractured his tibia and injected the material into the talus bone. Now we wait and watch for it to grow and repair. Hopefully he will come home maybe tomorrow. Pain control has been the biggest issue.


Thanks for all the prayers and the 2 home cooked dinners that were delivered by friends.














I have been getting my training in early in the morning. This weekend is scheduled to be my biggest one then I taper. I am so ready !


Waddling at the hospital...........

Brrrrrr.....

This year's Chicago Marathon was different in many ways. The most noticeable was the temperature. It was 37 at the start with wind and clouds. This year also because of training for an Iron distance race, I did not sign up. My running buddy Snips did sign up though. In my training plan, I needed to have around a 15-16 mile run. Thus I started the race with Snips with the plan to exit the course around mile 16.

It was different to be at the starting line and taking in all the excitement with no plan for finishing. I envied all those running their first marathon. I remember the butterflies that I felt, the doubt of what the day would bring, and the thought that today would be life changing. Never would I have guessed that I would ever be training to be Iron. What a gamut of emotions spinning around.

Snips and I ran along, chatted and took in all the excitement. She was running so strong. The crowds and parties were smaller this year due to the cold. The enthusiasm was unchanged. At times, I felt drawn to run the entire thing but that didn't last long. At mile 16, I gave Snips a hug and off she went with a smile. I knew she was getting stronger by the minute. She ran to a PR which was 13 minutes faster than last year.

I did not stay for the parties and celebrations. I grabbed the train and head for home to spend some time with House before his surgery today. This will be his 7th surgery in a year. Because of the osteoporosis from his fracture to his right ankle years ago, it has fractured and the is a hole in his Talus bone. Today they are taking bone marrow from his hip and they will re-fracture his ankle. They will reconstruct his ankle with a ceramic frame and bone marrow. It will take months to know if it is successful. The goal is for him to be healed enough to travel to North Carolina for my race. All prayers for him are appreciated.

Training is still important but not a priority. I will get as much in as I can when I can. I was blown away yesterday when I returned home to find that Iron Snoopy had dropped a meal off at my house for when I needed it. Wow, words could not describe my appreciation. How lucky I am to have her as a friend.

As I sit here in the waiting room, it actually brings life to a stop for a few hours to catch my breath for the weeks ahead.

Waddling, waiting, and praying.................