Today is Patriot's Day in Massachusetts, otherwise known as Marathon Monday, as usually the Boston Marathon is held on this day, excepting years with pandemics. This also means it's now been a day and 10 years since I ran my one and only marathon, which happened to be the Boston Marathon. Did I mention I ran the Boston Marathon? I wouldn't want that detail to be overlooked.
I still remember making the last turn onto Boylston Street, and breaking down in tears at how far away the finish line still was. The marathon mentally broke me. I finished not so much because of determination, but more because it was the fastest way to end the torture I had been enduring for five and a half hours. However, while many people in similar situations say "never again", I thought "I'll be better prepared for my next marathon".
But then overuse injuries started happening when I tried to increase my training, and then eventually this cancer thing that's a real downer has basically scuttled my marathon dreams. I'm not saying it's impossible I'll run marathon number two, only that I don't currently see a path to being able to cover 26.2 miles in a single day. Prior to marathons, I need to get the cancer out of my liver and find myself in a situation where I'm not on continual chemotherapy, or at least can lengthen out the chemotherapy cycle to give me more recovery time between each infusion. My worst fear is the cancer will start growing again and I'll be back on the street looking for a potential treatment, for what would be the fifth time. That fear is very high this week as I have a CT scan scheduled for Wednesday, and I'm currently batting less than 50% on getting good CT scan results.
In the meantime, I'm trying to focus on my Big Hairy Audacious Goal, or BHAG, of running/walking/crawling a 5K or more in 50 different towns. It's a way to keep me moving and with a treatment miracle or two put me in a position to consider another marathon campaign. So far I've completed 3.
BHAG #2, Mine Falls Park, Nashua NH
Mine Falls Park is a handful of trails along the Nashua River in Nashua NH. It's a favorite of many of my running and walking buddies because it's nearby and relatively scenic. This time I went with Donnie, my walking buddy and fellow cancer survivor. It's both exercise and a support group of two at the same time.
There was still a bit of ice on the river...
A wide spot in the river makes for a scenic view, excepting the parking lot on the far side. It is on the outskirts of a city after all.
Me and Donnie posing for a selfie in front of what I think are the Falls. Still masking since we're both immune compromised and we haven't completed our vaccine shots yet. Yes it's outdoors but we talk a lot within 6 feet of each other, and we're both erring on the side of reasonable caution. I'm very pleased that my friends are appropriately paranoid about infecting me.
BHAG #3, Barre Falls Dam, Barre MA
Barre Falls Dam has been one of my go-to destinations since the pandemic began. Getting there requires a scenic drive through rural Massachusetts and there's a number of trails to explore, particularly the Midstate Trail which is how I discovered the dam in the first place. However, I've pretty much explored all the trails by now, so it probably won't be as frequent a destination going forward.
Fun side story: Years ago I was with a small group of guys who drove to Barre to pick up something. What we picked up and why I've long since forgotten, but I vaguely remember there was some gathering in the town center with various groups promoting themselves. Barre is pronounced "bare", and thus we were sorely disappointed in the Barre Women's Club. It wasn't what it sounded like to us, just some fully clothed women who happened to live in Barre.
This time I did the bare minimum 5K. This was only day 7 of the chemo cycle, and my body wasn't very thrilled with the exercise. Normally I'd hope it would tell me I'm out of shape and slow. But no, it just made me feel like garbage and my mood tanked. I was crying my eyes out at mile 2, which is not unlike my marathon finish on Boylston Street 10 years prior. Chemo affects the brain, and makes it focus on all the awful possibilities involved with a cancer diagnosis. I blame the chemo because in the last days of the cycle I have much better success focusing on the day and enjoying what my body will allow me to do. I do a lot of crying on the first weekend of the chemo cycle. Coincidence? I don't think so.
Perhaps I need to treat these BHAG outings more as casual walks with lots of photo stops and breaks as needed, and not worry so much about how long it takes me to actually cover 5K of distance. Maybe that will help with the moods. I'm on my 9th cycle of this chemo and still trying to figure things out, but then again, I've never found two cycles of any chemo to be quite the same.
I also had to include a picture of my car, which is still clean after having been recently washed on a good day that I blogged about previously. It's now about 24 years since I custom ordered it from Ford (5 speed manual, crank windows, V8 engine, and not much else) and still going strong. That's the dam in the background, over the car's roof.
Here's a shot from the top of the dam looking at the downstream side. If you click on it and zoom in you can see a bench down there, and stairs leading down to a rock right by the rapids. I would have walked down and taken photos, except then I'd have to walk all the way back up and that didn't seem very enticing.
Obligatory selfie in the flood plain upstream of the dam. If needed, this whole area can fill with feet of water to prevent flooding downstream. I've only once seen any water in the flood plain.
A shot of the upstream side of the dam from the Midstate trail. Note the yellow triangle on the stone post in the bottom right. Just follow the yellow triangles and you can walk all the way from the New Hampshire line to Rhode Island. The trail goes to the right up to the road, over the dam, and then back into the woods.
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