Today (Dec. 9) while running on the treadmill for five-plus
miles, sidewinding rain pelting the brave nor’easters outside the windows,
folks I can see with their turned-inside-out umbrellas and humbled in hunkered-down
hoodies, I’m thinking about Pascal Dupuis.
On Nov. 19, the hockey world learned that Pascal Dupuis, a
longtime winger with the Pittsburgh Penguins, known for his on-ice prowess with
Sidney Crosby, for working the power play, the penalty kill, seen by many as
the sparkplug that makes this team of offensive stars go, be one of the most
dominating teams in the National Hockey League had been diagnosed with a
potentially career-ending condition: a pulmonary embolism, or a blood clot in
his lung. Pascal Dupuis, like me, is a sufferer from deep vein thrombosis.
Recently, Pascal has returned to the ice to skate. That
means the blood thinners have been doing their job. It’s anybody’s guess when,
or if, Pascal will be able to play this heavy contact sport again. After all,
the way Pascal plays the game: never at half-speed, headlong into the corners,
ditching the easy way out, he runs a risk of doing great harm to himself. He,
like me, must keep his blood thin by taking pills in order to best safeguard
against another killer blood clot forming, this time not in his lung, but
perhaps in his heart or, God forbid, his brain.
Pascal Dupuis was in his middle thirties when the blood
clots came; I was in my early twenties. Pascal, I feel a lot different from
that young man who was sick in bed, so frustrated with the fact that this had happened
to him. You returned to the ice, I went out on the road and ran. To date, I’ve
entered eight marathons, and completed six of them. It took me only forty-five
minutes to run those five-plus miles. I’ve completed one Boston Marathon, and
next year, a couple of weeks after turning sixty, I will be running in my ninth
marathon (No. 9, your number, Pascal!) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with the view of running faster than 3 hours 55 minutes, in order to
qualify for my second Boston.
Keep your head up, Pascal. The way you’ve lived your life so
far, the best things are bound to happen.
Next: Running for Your Life: Simply Write It Down
