It has been awhile since I've written - I have had a couple of crazy, but pretty amazing weeks!
For the past several months, I have been training to run a half marathon here in my home city. It is the first time I've run this particular race since being diagnosed with DM, and only my second race in total since my diagnosis. I always hesitate to get too excited about things like this, because I know I can't count on staying healthy. Case in point, after months of training, I started to relapse again a few weeks before my half marathon last fall. Right up until race day, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to run it - in fact, I'd resumed IVIg treatments just the two days prior, so was still feeling kind of crummy from those. But I decided to try to run, and stop if I felt too awful. Fortunately, I managed to push through some discomfort and finish a pretty decent race - although it was a slightly slower time than what I had hoped to run, it was still respectable (1h 51min 30 sec).
This year, my training had gone really well. I was training with a great group of runners, and spring is my favorite time of year to run - even though the weather can be unpredictable, you know it is generally going to keep getting nicer. The days get longer, the sun gets warmer, and you have lots of time to appreciate the beauty of the last pieces of ice drifting downriver or the leaves turning green on those long runs! Overall, I felt really good throughout my training, and it is such a gift to feel your body getting stronger and faster. After 4 months of speedwork, hill training, and 20+ km weekend runs, the big race day was last Sunday. My main goal was to beat my time from last fall - but my ultimate, ambitious goal was to try to run the time I had wanted to hit last fall, 1h45mins. It was a COLD day here - only 4 degrees and no sun to be seen; but as always, the race atmosphere is tons of fun and the adrenaline pumps you up! Also, I knew my hubby and parents would be stationed at various points throughout the race to cheer me on and give me a much-needed boost over the long race. I ran the first half of the race right on my target pace of 5 minutes per km. At around 10km, I was feeling pretty good, so I decided to pick up the pace slightly. Amazingly, with 6km or so left, I was able to pick up the pace even further. I maintained this fairly aggressive pace right up the killer hill at kilometer 20, and even though I wasn't able to pick up my pace anymore at the finish as I'd hoped to, I crossed the finish line in 1h42min and 2 seconds. An incredible time for me! I placed 23/573 female runners in the event, and 104/988 runners overall. I was pretty thrilled!
All right, for those of you who don't care about sports, I'm done talking about running now :). A few hours after the race, I hopped on a plane to Montreal for the Canadian Pharmacists Association conference, where I was giving a brief presentation of some of my thesis results. Needless to say, I was pretty tired when I got there - however, because I only had a couple of days there I wanted to make the most of them. I went to lots of the conference talks, but socialized a lot too. I am not a big fan of public speaking and so would have preferred to get my talk over with earlier, but I wasn't scheduled to speak until the day before I left. But my talk went really well, I think (I told myself only I noticed the slight tremble in my voice amplified by the microphone!). I was able to answer the questions and got some great feedback afterwards. Since the conference was almost finished by this point anyway, I decided to treat myself with some time off to explore Montreal. A friend and I had a lovely lunch followed by some shopping and people-watching downtown. It was such a relief to have both my run and my talk finished, I finally felt like I could let my hair down. That evening I spent more relaxed time wandering around downtown Montreal. I just love being somewhere different, and Montreal is a beautiful change of scenery! (Although I have to say I was embarrassed by how rusty - or should I say, nonexistent - my French has become).
The next morning, I boarded another plane to Edmonton to see my favorite band of all-time, U2, live in concert, with my hubby, sister, and her boyfriend. They were driving down and able to pick me up at the airport. I was worried my expectations were maybe set too high, but the concert was AMAZING!!! We had some great laughs afterward too. The next day, we drove back home. Phew! Then I basically slept for two days to recover!
The only downside is that my rash was spreading and getting super itchy over the past couple weeks, so I broke down and had to start taking prednisone last week. Hence why I am still awake writing this at 4:00am on a Sunday night! Sigh. Oh well, I am scheduled to start IVIg again this week, so hopefully that will knock out this rash and I can get off the prednisone. Otherwise, I have been feeling good muscle-wise so really can't complain. But either the prednisone, my neurotic nature, or a combination of the two have got me stressing out a bit lately about the future. Finishing my thesis, finding a good job, saving money, all of that fun stuff. Also partly why I am still awake now! But I don't think I'm going to find any magic answers tonight, so back to bed to try and get a few hours of sleep. Goodnight!
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