Thanksgiving

A Good Thanksgiving

Let me start by saying ‘I lied!’ in my first blog! I said that comments would not relate to my own training progress. But this one is a little different. What happened yesterday truly does make it ‘a good Thanksgiving’ for me in a very personal and selfish way. At the same time that I write about my own good fortune in this instance, I am very much aware of so many other things for which I am thankful, beginning with family.

First, a bit of history. Ironically, on the day I received an e-mail saying that I had been accepted to the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge Team for 2010, my ability to train was shut down! We had a snowstorm back in October that left 7” of very heavy and wet snow on the ground here – and a lot that didn’t make it to the ground remained on leaves of trees. Needless to say, there was tremendous loss of limbs of all sizes, and often whole trees. Hardwood tree architecture is simply not designed to carry so much extra weight at the ends of branches. One of our dogwood trees looked pretty pathetic by the time I cut off all of the broken and cracked branches, so it had to come down.

With my trusty bow saw, I cut off all of the branches, but called a friend with a chain saw to make the final ground level cut to bring down the remaining 7-8 foot ‘stump.’ He is also a wood turner, so was excited by the prospect of getting so much dogwood – a very dense wood – that he could use. Both of us have cut hundreds, if not thousands, of trees over the years, and are certainly safety conscious. He arrived fully equipped – chain saw chaps, steel-toed boots, head and ear protection. I steadied the stump so it wouldn’t bind the saw as he made the cut. He finished, put the saw down, stood up, put his hand on the stump with mine, looked at me and said ‘OK,’ and we pushed the stump over. Unfortunately…it kicked back and a branch stub hit square in the middle of the nail of my big toe – which was not protected by a steel-toed boot. The result was a chip off each side of the end of the bone in the big toe (but no skin breakage, so it wasn’t at all messy!).

Jump ahead to yesterday. I visited my orthopedic doctor, and he told me that I could stop wearing the big grey boot I had worn ever since to protect the toe as it healed. Within an hour, I was on the track to see - gingerly at first - just how it felt. And everything felt good! I did only two miles (predetermined as the maximum I would do), and was pleased to see that my time (12:20 pace) wasn’t nearly as bad as I had feared it would be after five weeks of no power walking! Today I did three miles, and dropped my pace to 12:11 – that is at least 15 – 20 seconds faster than my pace at the beginning of my training for the Ottawa Marathon last spring. Not that the difference is all that important at this stage, but at least it is encouraging. The good news is that most of my joints seem to be functioning the way they should, and muscles aren’t really crying out either. For this I am very thankful.

In just three weeks, I will begin my ‘formal’ training program for Boston. The way I look at it, I have three weeks to get my body back in shape to begin the 18 week training regimen that will culminate on April 19. I’m on my way!

Over the next week or ten days, I will be kicking off my fundraising campaign in earnest. I would be honored, and very appreciative, if you would visit my Dana-Farber personal web page and make a contribution toward our Team Goal of $4.4 million this year. Contributions may be made on line at

http://www.rundfmc.org/2010/alanc/

If you would prefer not to make the contribution on-line, you can mail a check, made out to Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge. (Please do not make the check out to me!) Send it to me at: Alan Cameron, 541 McCormick Ave., State College, PA 16801. I will see that it is forwarded promptly for deposit.

Thank you for your support! It will make a difference when added to all of the other support our team is able to generate. The team is off to a great start! As of today, we have raised more than $230,000. At $168,000/mile, that puts us about 1 1/3 miles along the 26.2 mile course. This is about the stage where the pace picks up a little, and I need to kick it up a notch too. We are working toward the ultimate finish line: a world without cancer.