Social Security, or a Half Marathon?

Here is my fourth campaign update, as I slowly approach the Crawlin' Crab Half Marathon for Team in Training to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Hello from Art’s Cancer Kickin’ Campaign, with update number 4!

It occurred to me that, with another year clicking over on my life's odometer this week , I will be old enough to start collecting Social Security. But will I do that? Nope - instead, here I am training for another half-marathon. It will be my fourth half-marathon in a row, after three full marathons. So, does doing half marathons (13.1 miles) instead of full marathons (26.2 miles) mean, like many other old-timers, that I am slowing down?

We'll debate that later, but let's take care of first things first, which means thanking the many generous donors who have contributed to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society on behalf of my efforts with Team in Training in the Crawlin’ Crab Half-Marathon this coming October. If you want to make a donation, read about what I am doing, or see my list of honorees, the place to start is my TNT web site:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/va/crwlncrb13/afritter

If you want to donate, but don’t wish to use the secure on-line donation, simply contact me about how to get LLS a check for your donation.

On the fundraising front, I have attained 38% of my goal with about 12 weeks left to go. Will my hair be purple on the day of the race, October 6? It will be if you all get me to my fundraising goal!

Now, about that aging topic. Well, it's true - I don't feel quite as spry as I did when I walked that first marathon eight years ago. 26.2 miles, or even 13.1 miles, is a long way to go on foot. Since that rainy day in 2005 when I became a marathoner in Anchorage, Alaska, I've had a lot of adventures on the race course. Along the way, I became a runner, or maybe a "wunner" is a better way to put it, because I have interspersed walking with my running in every race I have ever done over 5K. (I don't know if wunner is a real word, unless Elmer Fudd uses it, as in: "Stand still, you wascally wunner!")

The tricky thing about running, at least for me, is it seems to have caused left knee pain for a good long while since I was training for the 2012 Shamrock Half Marathon. And therefore, I have gone back to being a walker, at least for now, instead of staying as a runner, er, wunner. That is how I have been training for this upcoming race - lots of fast walking. This past Saturday, we walked for 8 miles, so I am getting the miles in on my feet. The knee still bothers me, but not as much as when running.

So, when I was running, what is it like as an old guy trying to keep up with all these young people I tend to train with? Well, I'll share a tongue-in-cheek tale of the difficulties that this can cause:

http://racn4acure.blogspot.com/2013/02/what-61-year-old-men-should-not-do-part.html

Old guy or not, Social Security or not, slow or not, sore knee or not, I am going to just keep putting one foot in front of the other - repeating as necessary - for as long as I can! In the last year, that has amounted to more than 5 million steps, or about 14,000 steps a day on average! And that is a good thing, because as we age, we really need to stay active, or I believe we will rust in place. And while staying active, if I can raise some money that will help put incurable cancer in its proper place - the dark dust bin of history - that would be a very good thing indeed.

That’s all from my campaign at this time. Thanks again for your interest and your support, as we try to steam Cancer the Crab once and for all!

Art