Five Years Ago

I was thinking the other day how five years ago, not quite to the day, I did my third and last marathon.  This one was the PF Changs Arizona Marathon in Phoenix (mostly).  It was my third Team in Training marathon, all as a walker, and I was celebrating five years in remission the month before.  I still remember some of my teammates having a little ceremony that day in training and giving me five purple and green balloons!  It was also the first marathon I did as a grandpa, and the first I did knowing that my sister Ann had breast cancer.  Her name was the first that I wrote on top of my race shirt.  Now, she is gone, coming up on two years, and that is hard still to believe at times.

Also gone is five more years of my life, just like that.  Since that race, I've done two more TNT events, this time as a runner - walker (a "runalker" as I say).  Both of these were half marathons, and I added a third half marathon last year, the Shamrock Half, on my own to celebrate surviving cancer ten years that May.  Even though my left knee has not been normal since then, I don't regret it because I made a statement for my 10 year mark.

But I was reflecting on how our lives just move along.  Five years, gone by just like that!  I wonder sometime if I will do another marathon.  I could maybe do one as a power walker again, and maybe as a runner - walker - but only if I can figure out what is going on with this knee.  It hurts a good bit even after a moderate length walk, or a hike.  Not excruciating pain, but pain that should not be there.  I was doing some one legged squats last night, and my left knee hurt a lot with each one, my right knee not at all.  So something is still not right.  I think I need to go to another doctor and see what they think.  Which reminds me (as my friend Mindy did last night), it is also time for an annual checkup with my oncologist.

A small group of us got together for a beer last night, to toast Ed and what he meant to us.  Most of them are actively involved in training for a TNT event right now.  And it made me realize a little more how much I would like to solve this knee pain and get out there in purple at least one more time before I get too old.  I'd love to think that I have one more marathon in my legs (and knees)!