PM - 3 miles on the muddy Milton Trail in a light mist/drizzle with Riley and Finn - who was completely filthy after we were finished. Yoga after giving Finn a good scrubbing.
So - my quick year in review for 2018:
I had a decent year of running and training and racing starting off with a fun USATF Cross Country race in Tallahassee FL with Rob. I had a couple of good 5k efforts and a nice 10k effort in Dunedin over St. Patrick's Day weekend.
I ran 3 marathons - Grandma's, Chicago and New York. I was only really trained up for Chicago and ran reasonably well after Richie dropped from the race - and ran a time that would have theoretically met the Boston Qualifying standard for my age at 3:27 but Boston was already full by then, and I am not certain that would have even gotten me in this spring anyway. I will need to go a couple minutes faster with the new qualifying times next year. My goal for next year is to get a qualifier for 2020.
I covered just over 2000 miles of training this year which is slightly down from last year, but I did have a significant health issue in November/December that contributed to that decrease with a 90% blockage in my LAD artery requiring a heart stent. Thankfully I became aware of the problem with symptoms (jaw pain and general malaise in as little as 8 mins of effort) whilst running - and was persistent with my doctors who were thorough in their efforts - rather than being dismissive. Really felt as though I dodged a bullet - especially when I happened to pick up Jim Fixx's Complete Book of Running one evening (at our family Christmas dinner - in a restaurant waiting area with a library) and recalled through a Google search that he died at age 52 of a heart attack - with the post-mortem noting blockages in three arteries including one of 95%. He had a family history - father died at 43 after a heart attack at age 35 - but he never followed his doctor's recommendations to have a cardiac stress test even within a few months of his untimely death.
I don't have a family history, never smoked and none of my annual physicals or labs gave any indication of a potential problem. Given my over 40 years of running - I never even considered (and neither did my doctors) that I would be a candidate for coronary artery disease or a potential heart attack. I guess you just never know...
But now nearly 2 weeks since my procedure - I feel great. I have improved on my diet - which was not terrible to begin with - and I have been released to return to running (no more than) 3 miles per day for the next 8 weeks. Barring anything unexpected - upon fully release from my cardiologists, I hope to resume my routine of training for at least 1 or 2 marathons later in 2019.
Happy New Year!
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