Finished

Finished, a photo by gibsonsgolfer on Flickr.

It was nine months ago this week that I had two strokes that knocked me out physically and mentally. I felt I was in fairly good condition at the time and even today there is no final answer on what caused the strokes, only that they were located in my brain stem.

I had been doing some training at the time for the Vancouver Sun Run, an event I had often planned to enter, but only seldom had I made the trip to Vancouver to do the run. On December 10, two days before the first stroke, I completed a 5.41km run in 46:57, an 8:41 pace. Two days later, my ability to run was gone.

Since getting out of the hospital I have found a new interest in walking / shuffling. I set myself a goal to do a 10K and on June 26, I achieved that goal, albeit slowly. I went 10.57km in 1:42:48, an average pace of 9:43 and according to my GPS map, I did the first 5km in 47:45.

Today I ran with my daughter, Chelsea, in memory of my son-in-law Elias who passed away 2 years ago from brain cancer. She has become an advocate for other widows - helping herself along the way - and was running today in support of the Liz Logelin Foundation, a positive support group for widows in need. I set up the course for her and we did a touch over 5km - 5.05km - in a time of 44:49, not as fast as pre-stroke, but I was very pleased with the result.

Will I try the 10km in Vancouver next year? We'll see.