Long Run Solutions

Fly fishing time of year

Few things in my life rank higher than fly fishing. I remember vividly my first fly fishing trip in the Rocky Mountains with my brother in the Steamboat Springs area. We fished the Yampa just below Stage Coach Reservoir and caught a few fish. What I remember most though was just looking up at the towering cliffs above us and thinking how lucky I was to be there. 

I had a chance to fly fish in northern Wisconsin over this past weekend. One of the fish I caught was this dandy large mouth bass. There were no towering cliffs in the background, but there are few things more peaceful than a small northern Wisconsin lake with the sun beginning to set.

I am not a republican

I want to preface this by saying I am a conservative person both socially and fiscally. With that said and in light of the Gov. Mark Sanford debacle, I mostly want to say............. I am not a republican. I am not a rebublican. I am not a republican. I am not a republican. I am not a republican. I am not a republican.........

My Story of Lyme Disease

I have spent many days in the field in northwestern Wisconsin, which is prime time Lyme disease territory. I have friends and family members who have been treated for Lyme disease, but I've never talked to anyone who has experienced the impact of Lyme. This is my short story of the acute short term impact Lyme disease has had on me. Will it have further impact? Research says probably not, but I guess only time will tell.

Lyme Distribution Map

My Story

I kept a diary during this time starting on Friday, June 12th. On that day I went back and re-created what I experienced June 9 - June 11.

In the days previous to the days listed, I now remember itching what turned out to be the deer tick bite site and noticing a small red area which turned out to be the actual bite.

Tuesday 6.9.09

I woke up with a backache. It's not that unusual for me to have an ache or pain, but I'm in excellent shape and I always know why something aches. In this case, I didn''t know.

Wednesday 6.10.09

I woke up with another backache. I took some ibuprofen as I did the day before and it immediately made my back feel fine. I ran 6 miles and played two games of softball in the evening. I took another dose of ibuprofen before playing ball.

Thursday 6.11.09

I woke up extremely sore...apparently from playing softball. I noticed the rash on my chest.

Friday 6.12.09

I started to think I had Lyme disease because of the rash and unexplained lower backache. I called the doctor in the afternoon and scheduled an appointment for Monday afternoon. Although I had found that ibuprofen completely controlled my backache and the itching of my rash, I forgot to take it when I went to bed and woke up very sore about 2 a.m. I also had a fever and generally felt bad. I got up and had something to eat and took ibuprofen around 3 a.m. I went back to bed wearing a hooded sweatshirt and sweat pants. Sometime after falling asleep my fever must have broken because I woke up sweating around 5:30 a.m. and felt much better.

Saturday 6.13.09

I left to mow the church lawn about 7:45 and finished up around 10:45 and left to meet a friend to go fly fishing. We headed out around 12:30. I drove because I felt fine. AS we fished I went past four hours without taking ibuprofen. By the time I took medication it was 7:20 and I was feeling very bad. My head, neck, and my entire back felt very ache and I was feverish and tired. I felt much better 30 minutes later and we headed to Siverthorne for dinner. By the time I arrived home around 12:30 a.m. I felt extraordinarily tired and lucky to have made it home. Saturday night was very restless and feverish and I slept in heavy clothing again.

Sunday 6.14.09

This was the first really bad full day. I could hardly get out of bed for church. My neck and back and head were very sore. The bite site had itched continuously since Saturday morning and was starting to drive my nuts. We arrived back home from church around 12:30 and I took some ibuprofen and Tylenol and headed to bed. I slept off and on until 4:15 at which time I took more of the same drugs and layed around for a couple of more hours. My head was hurting a bit less but felt heavy and my sinuses were congested. My neck was sore and the bite site was driving my crazy. Overall, I felt like crap. Symptoms included light nausea and generally flu like feelings. At this point, I couldn't get myself to the doctor quick enough

Monday 6.15.09 - First day of antibiotics

Another really tough day. I did get almost three straight hours of sleep between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. so that was a real blessing. I woke up feeling a little bit better. I did begin having some jaw pain today when I yawned and my urine was beginning to turn darker. The color was maybe one step short of freaking me out and early in the evening it lightened a little. I was very ache and very slow today. My neck basically turns with my whole body and my head was killing me as the day went on. My breathing felt a bit labored and I walked sort of hunched forward.

I met with a doctor today and started on antibiotics. I had blood work done for Lyme testing. In the mean time they tested me for HIV. Yes, HIV.

Tuesday 6.16.09

Worst day yet. No sleep . Incredible back discomfort. My kidneys ached like crazy and my urine was very dark. As I puked yellow bile into the waste basked next to my desk in the morning, the lab called to say they wanted me to come in for more blood tests. My liver enzymes were way out of wack and now they were concerned that I might have Hepatitis. Generally speaking this was not a pretty day for me. Neck ache, nausea, constricted chest with a feeling of pressure coming up from my belly.

As the day went on I did fell a little better. By 5 p.m. I managed to eat two granola bars and I have quit puking. At 7:30 I was able to eat some pasta.

Wednesday 6.17.09

I slept better but felt very stiff. Especially my back (mostly kidneys) and it took a while to peel myself out of bed. The more I moved around the better I felt in the morning. My liver enzymes improved slightly and the blood tests were clear in regards to the other testing.

Thursday 6.18.09

I went to bed feeling good and then about midnight my kidneys were burning and sleep was nearly impossible. This has been the basic night time theme and it's getting old. Basically, night time sucks. In the morning I start to feel better around nine or so. Once my backache cleared up and my kidneys quit hurting, all is well. My ability to work is not being negatively impacted. I have worked more than normal because I'm not working out and it keeps my mind off my aches and pains.

Friday 6.19.09

The night continues to be bad. Generally I'm starting to feel ok physically. I have not felt like I could go for a run or anything, but I don't feel bad.

Saturday 6.20.09

Last night was not quite as bad. I was able to sleep for the most part from about 11 until 3. I then tossed around until getting out of bed for good at 4. My back and kidneys hurt and I have a bit of a headache, but I had a good day and did some light gardening.

Sunday 6.21.09

Minor kidney pain in the morning but this was my best day. I still do not feel "strong" like I'm ready to workout, but I'm getting closer.

Monday 6.22.09

This is my best morning. Minor back pain this morning, but I felt really good today.

Wrap up

That's my story so far. I will continue on my three week schedule of antibiotics and expect that my illness will clear up entirely over the next month. For some reason my bite site is itching like crazy tonight, but maybe that is just it's last gasp.

Based on what I understood from others, I would have never expected this type of acute illness from Lyme disease. However, it may be a real blessing because my disease was so obvious and recognizable that there was no doubt I needed treatment.

 

Out of Commission

On my recent trip to the great north woods of Minnesota and Wisconsin, I brought home something I hadn't planned on. Specifically, Lyme's disease; and over this last week it has brought me pretty low.

I'm happy to say that I can see some light at the end of the tunnel and I'm on the mend. When I get the energy, I will chronicle my day by day Lyme's experience. It's been interesting.

Colorado Tornado Action

We have had quite a spate of weather here on the Front Range in Colorado. Everyday for the past five have seen Tornadoes within 20 miles of Denver. And the hail we saw this past weekend was the biggest I have ever seen.

The above picture was taken 45 minutes after this hail fell. The orange ball is a ping pong ball to give you some perspective on the size of the hail. The biggest of the hail was significantly bigger than a golf ball and it sounded like gun shots were going off as it hit our house.

When we took the attached video of the tornado that ended up ripping up Southland's Mall just 1 mile from our house, we had no idea that there would be so many tornadoes around that it seemed like everyone had video.

This 45 second video is of the tornado that came within a few hundred yards of our house. It actually turned directly at our house and as you can imagine, we headed for the basement. There is audio also so turn up your speakers. The comments are almost entirely about the hail, not the funnel cloud. Imagine that; we have a funnel cloud 1/4 mile from our house and we were more impressed with the hail.

Enjoy.

Download Southland's Tornado

Minneapolis Marathon - Mission Accomplished

On May 31st, 2009 I ran the inaugural Minneapolis Marathon. It turned out to be a very special day for me. I needed to run a 3:20.59 to accomplish my goal and qualify for the 2010 Boston Marathon. On this day, running along the Mississippi River, I finished in 3:20.40. As my friend Kurt pointed out shortly after the race, that was about 9/10ths of a second per mile faster than I needed to run!

 

It's hard for me to explain just what this accomplishment means to me. I have worked exceptionally hard to accomplish this goal and I have experienced significant disappointments and a hardy share of self doubt over the past year. And at the end of the day, to actually make it happen, leaves me feeling like it was all worth while.

In late April at the Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon when I crashed by mile 12, gave up on my goal by mile 13, and forgave myself around mile 17, this day seemed too far away to imagine. It's a long, long way between "forgiving" myself so I can finish the marathon and getting my head back on straight.

Between that day in April and this marathon, I visited the chiropractor and a massage therapist and tried to both rest and ramp up the number of fast miles I ran. My thoughts raced while wondering if it would be possible to recover sufficiently, in a matter of 5 weeks, in order to put in another Boston qualifying attempt. And, was I over training by trying to run more intense miles in between efforts? Was I setting myself up for a double failure?

Especially that last question was nagging at me when I spoke with my sister-in-law two weeks before the Minneapolis Marathon. She scolded me for my negative thinking and I owe her a big thank you for that. She was right to remind me that negative thinking would get me negative results and I acted on that advice by changing my thinking.

And finally after 19 miles of holding it together on race day and then one more mile of staying very close to where I needed to be, my body began to rebel against me. By mile 23 I had almost no room for error left and missing my goal was looking more and more likely. Somehow, I stayed close to the goal and Kurt was at mile 25 encouraging me and I could hear in his voice that I had to go, go , go if I had any chance. I heard both concern and encouragement and the concern was valid. Up ahead lay the most difficult marathon finishing hill I have ever heard of and I would have to scale it while staying on pace.

And then as I struggled, the refrain in my head was "Keep fighting". What else could I do? Well, I could stop fighting of course. And no one would have thought worse of me had I just walked and explained that my body could not run any farther. I mean really, my body could not run any farther.

But it did go farther. I have to admit, looking back I'm not sure why. Thank God.

I finished and I cried.

Minneapolis Marathon Update

BQ BQ BQ BQ BQ BQ BQ BQ BQ BQ BQ BQ BQ BQ BQ BQ BQ BQ PR PR PR PR PR PR PR PR PR PR PR PR PR PR PR BQ BQ BQ BQ BQ BQ BQ BQ BQ BQ BQ BQ BQ BQ BQ BQ

Is there anything more to say?

Minneapolis Marathon is 90 Minutes away

If you're looking for me today, I'll be at the finish line just a bit after 10:15 CST this moring.

A run in the rain

This afternoon, I ran for 42 minutes. That worked out to 5.1 miles and it was blissful. The temperature was 61 degrees and I can't help but praying that the weather turns out the same way in Minneapolis next Sunday.

I won't run 5 miles at one time again until I'm 5 miles into the Minneapolis Marathon and I can only hope to feel this good. I'll take a quick 30 minute trot on Wednesday and one more on Friday and then it's 26.2 along the Mississippi River. And if your wondering, I'm officially done checking the weather for this Sunday. What ever happens, happens. All I can do is prepare myself for success.

And then be willing to do whatever it takes

Quote of the month

Since all I seem to write about lately is running, I thought a good running quote might be in order.

"A lot of people run a race to see who is the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into an exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more."

Steve Prefontaine (1971-1995)

American Middle and Distance Runner

I continue to aspire to this ideal.