It’s a question I asked myself after the Nova Scotia
Marathon in July. And one that comes my way pretty much every other day.
What’s your next race, Larry?
My skin doctor, a runner himself and enthusiast of those
reverse-aging types like myself, marathoners who are approaching sixty (the
past Sunday [Oct. 5] I turned fifty-nine), has recommended the Jersey Shore
marathon (it’s flat and not in a hot-weather month) and I was impressed to see
that my pal Marty and his wife Jane completed The Country half-marathon on my
birthday. I would love to run The County one day.
I’m still not sure when. Maybe I’ll restrict myself to a half-marathon
for a year, with the view to training for a marathon after I’ve turned 60.
When I began running almost forty years ago, I had a simple
goal. To keep healthy. I was a pup, only twenty years old, when I landed in
hospital with blood clots to my leg, groin and lung. My sudden decline stumped
doctors. For months afterward, I was on megadose blood thinners. In those days,
doctors didn’t have a great deal of experience with a twenty-year-old suffering
from serious geriatric-style health problems. When I asked what I should do to
improve my health, they said, Walk don’t run. Take it easy.
I didn’t take it easy for very long. I started running every
other day before my twenty-first birthday. I still do that today.
But if I go three days without a run, my left leg swells up
uncomfortably. It’s not about the blood clots. I haven’t had a serious clot
since 2001. But my left leg has damaged vein valves, so much so that my calf,
especially after a non-running day, expands to twice the size of my healthy
calf. It doesn’t hurt, because I was blessed with healthy veins that serve as a
bypass for the blood that doesn’t move freely through my damaged leg veins.
These are called collaterals.
All of which is to say, why race? For years before I run the
Brooklyn Half in 2009, it was enough to simply run for my life. Maybe I’m in
transition. Race, or not race? Given my health history, this is a good problem
to have.
Next: Running for Your Life: Love Those October Days
