Guest post: Crohn’s doesn’t mean can’t

It’s been a while since my last guest post, but since it’s December I thought I’d give you the gift of getting a break from me. As you may remember, earlier this summer I traveled to Birmingham for Social South, a social media conference. This post is made possible because of someone I “met” at the conference. Actually, we didn’t meet in person. She just happened to read one of my posts with the Social South tag. A few emails and a few months later, I have a guest post in hand. Meet Alison Groves, 30, the Social Princess for Raven Internet Marketing Tools located in Nashville, Tenn.

In August 2008, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. I was sick for almost a year before the diagnosis was made … seems that my symptoms weren’t the typical ones for Crohn’s sufferers, but that my colon was in such rough shape, several holes had begun to form. Crohn’s is an autoimmune disease in which your immune system literally attacks your intestines, which you can imagine leads to a not so pleasant daily experience.

I started down this path to diagnosis in early 2008 when I got a call from my GP telling me that they got some blood work back on me and were alarmed at my level of anemia. I was three full units of blood short, and no one could figure out why. Little did we know at the time that my colon was so inflamed, I was literally bleeding from the inside. On my first visit to a hematologist, he said to me, “We’ll get this figured out, but I can assure you one thing, you’ll never run a marathon.” Well, gauntlet thrown!

I’ve been an athlete my whole life; I played competitive softball from the age of 7 (one of my teammates went on to be a two-time Olympic gold medalist in the sport), and even played in college. But running was never something I was into. I could spend hours in a batting cage, but two laps around the field and I was over it. But one thing I can never back down from is someone telling me I “can’t” do something. So when that doctor told me I’d never run a marathon, I immediately began running.

I began with walking really, mixing in a minute or two of running at a time. It instantly made me sick. My body, which was already being punished with not only a chronic illness but literally being poisoned every day with a low dose of chemo to knock down my immune system along with about 10 other daily pills and a weekly injection, was not having it. I spent about a month married to a toilet, but wouldn’t give up on doing that hour or so a day of walking/running. I finally had an epiphany one day that my body was just so depleted of electrolytes, it was making me sick(er). One of the big issues of Crohn’s is that your body has a very hard time absorbing nutrients since the intestinal track is constantly inflamed. So me spending an hour working out in 90-plus degree heat and not hydrating enough lead to body meltdown. Once I got that on track, I never looked back.

Now, I’m doing anything between a 5K to 8 miles a day. A 5K seems to be my running threshold at the moment, but just a few months ago I was only running in quarter mile intervals, so I feel like this is a huge hurdle. I’m training for a half marathon in April, and quite possibly a full in April 2011 in London. Not sure I’ll actually be able to run that entire distance, but for me it is more about finishing something that someone said just a year ago I’d never be able to do.

And there’s good news on the health front — the hematologist says my body has made those missing three units of blood back on its own and that from a blood standpoint I’m as healthy as I can be. And he actually attributes this to the running itself. Funny how that came full circle.

Can I have a normal week?

What is normal? I don’t think it exists. That’s certainly been true in my little running world lately. Sure I got in a good run on my Ohio trip, but when I headed to Birmingham for Social South last week, a “good” run just didn’t happen. The conference was loaded with some valuable information to take back to work and to use personally as I look to eventually do something different, but it was also loaded enough that I was wiped out mentally at the end of both days. (If you’re interested in any of the chatter about Social South, check out the #soso feed on Twitter.)

I did manage to get in 2 miles on the treadmill and a short 2 miles on the bike at the hotel, but other than some decent walks to where the conference was, it was truly a rest week. At least with running. However, I didn’t catch up on any sleep and I sat uncomfortably a lot.

But this week I have vowed to end my training on a high note. I don’t want to feel like I left anything behind with my training this summer. It all started today with a decent 4-mile run during the hottest part of the day. I’ll at least be better prepared for the heat this year if it’s anywhere close to last year’s misery.

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If you’re a regular reader to my blog, you’ve probably noticed that it looks a bit different. To leave a comment on a post, click on “Comments” to the left of the entry. All my other information – links to other blogs, tags, etc. – is now at the bottom of the page. As always, I’m not committed to this design. I just felt like changing it the other day during a WordPress discussion at Social South. Eventually I’ll be brave enough to design everything on this blog myself; I just need the time (and confidence) to do it.

The calm before the storm

It’s been a quiet week for me with running, all by plan. Monday was a travel day back from Ohio; Tuesday was a day off from work to catch up on things around the house, which included some nice cross training with an hour or so worth of yard work; I ran 4 miles yesterday; and today was a travel day with a flight to Birmingham. I’ll be in Alabama through Sunday. I’ll try to get in a run or two while I’m here, but I’m not putting pressure on myself to do so.

My run last night felt great — a couple of days of rest did me some good. After three straight weeks of good runs, I am glad to ease back this week. Next week will likely be fairly intense before a little bit of tapering the week after that. This type of training has worked well for me before, so I think I’ll peak at the right time for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half, although I still have no speed in me at all.

After more than 16 hours in the car in a four-day period and then dealing with airports today, I’m so glad I don’t have to travel that often. It would be really tough to be a traveling runner – for anyone who has to do that, I have a new respect for you. Sure I had a good run in Ohio and maybe I’ll explore Birmingham by foot, but I’m exhausted tonight.

In the next 25 days … and the Blue Ridge Marathon

It’s really hard to believe that the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon is less than four weeks away. I have a little more than three weeks to continue doing what I’m doing for a decent race, but in the next few weeks I have a lot going on. This weekend I’ll be traveling to Ohio to visit the in-laws. While I have no doubt that I’ll have a nice very flat long run this weekend, I do lose two days in traveling on Friday and Monday. But with the way this week has gone, I should still get in 20-plus miles for the week.

Next week is a bit more tricky. On Thursday, I am headed to Birmingham, Ala., for Social South, a social media conference. Of course I’ll still run, but I may miss a good long run. That will be OK though. It’ll be a nice break before one final week of solid training before I really ease up the week of the race.

The biggest thing is the feeling of being busy while keeping my eye on the big prize — the race. In a way it’s nice to have distractions, but at the same time I’m eager for it to get here.

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A couple of weeks ago I mentioned what may become my next marathon. At the time I had very few details about the race, but today I received an e-mail alerting me that things were falling into place. The official name is the Blue Ridge Marathon, which will be held on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The inaugural race will be held April 24, 2010, beginning and ending in downtown Roanoke, with a tour of the region’s highest peaks in-between, according to a news release. The event is part of celebrating the Parkway’s 75th anniversary.

“This race course will be like running through a post card,” Congressman Bob Goodlatte said in the news release.

“It will be beautiful, it will be difficult – even for experienced marathoners — and it will give people a chance to use the Blue Ridge Parkway differently than they’ve historically been able to do,” event co-chair Pete Eshelman, director of outdoor branding for the Roanoke Regional Partnership, said in the news release.

The race also allows runners to see several other attractions in Roanoke including the Taubman Museum of Art at the start and Hotel Roanoke at the end.

For more information, visit www.blueridgemarathon.com. Details are also on Facebook; you can also get updates on Twitter by following @BRM26pt2.

I think this a great idea for a race — I’ll decide soon after the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half if I’ll do this or not. And even if I don’t, there’s a half marathon that’s a part of the event.