Category: RUNNING STREAK (Page 2 of 34)

On December 29, 2008, while living in Austin, Texas, I started my running streak. Today, was #5,450 without fail. The idea originated with the husband of a woman that my wife had just hired at the television station. We were having dinner and this fellow runner told me about an organization called The United States Running Streak Association (USRSA) and their website at www.runeveryday.com. I was intrigued when he recounted that on a recent business trip, he had forgotten to take his running shoes and was forced to go the distance (minimum of one mile) in his wing tips to maintain his streak. I had toyed with various streaks through the years and found satisfaction and motivation in trying to extend the timeframe of doing it daily, but nothing official.

My biggest challenge was always trying to determine which days to rest while training and struggled nearly every day with a mind game as to whether I should run or not. I had long gotten over distance challenges and needed a new approach. The idea of “just doing it” every day was appealing to me, eliminating the day of rest question, so I set a goal of one year, starting with New Year’s Day of 2009. As it turned out I couldn’t wait and began my streak a few days earlier. I would be rewarded one year later with a certificate of accomplishment and membership in the USRSA. One year led to two and soon will become fifteen. 

I found that the first mile is always the toughest and just to be sure I would always extend it to at least 1.1 miles. I did not have a GPS when this started, so I wanted to be sure that I always achieved at least the minimum. Over the years it became 2.1 miles and eventually 3.1 miles daily. There were also some 10k races, as well as extensive distance training for the Hood to Coast Relay challenge in 2017. This past summer, I cut back to 2.1 miles due to the exhausting Florida heat. I estimate that during the course of this 15-year period, I’ve covered over 13,000 miles and written 323 blog posts about this journey.

However, the end of this streak and perhaps the beginning of the next one looms ahead due to heart surgery. January 15th will be my last day of this current streak with uncertainty as to when I can start again. I take my hat off to all of those that have somehow managed to go further and in most cases faster -up to more than fifty years without a day off. They’ve avoided serious injury, hospitalization, debilitating surgery, foul weather, hectic schedules, or simply forgetting to get at least a mile in every day. I was not as fortunate. For me, open heart surgery is the end of this road.

Running was a mixed bag this morning, feeling sluggish and heavy. My ear pods weren’t functioning, so without music I had little distraction from thought. With a pending surgery date of January 15th and the end of this running streak just months away, I felt fortunate to even be running at all. Today was #5,442, and by that date I will have likely progressed from “Experienced” to “Well Versed” on the USRSA site at www.runeveryday.com, having finally surpassed fifteen full years. I will need to check in for surgery at 5:30a, so there will be an early morning “finale” mile, just in case for some reason there is a delay or miracle, and the streak can continue. 

January 15th will conclude 5,496 consecutive days of daily running without fail, placing me at #157 on the all-time retired list. That position will steadily fall as the 225 currently people ahead of me in longevity will eventually face the same fate. Also, the first day I miss others will begin to pass me and almost certainly someone just starting a streak that day will someday beat my total. All records are meant to be broken, even those that are not necessarily anywhere near the top, like mine. For fifteen years I’ve somehow avoided injury, severe illness, lack of motivation, and other circumstances to survive doing this arduous daily task. Ultimately, they will have to stop and start my heart to deter me. 

I once thought that the whole point in running every day was to keep the weight off and avoid the doctor. Obviously, it didn’t work, so for me it apparently all just boiled down to a game of stubborn perseverance. I can’t possibly tell you the number of times that I did not want to take those first steps or nearly stopped mid-stride. Instead, I kept going, day after day, committed to that run and the next. I will surely face the depression of missing that first day, surely convinced that I will somehow be able to rise from the hospital bed and complete another day of this streak. After all, following that “last” run before surgery, I will have until just before midnight that next day to get back on my feet. Then, the next stage of depression will kick in, knowing that it truly will have ended. Am I prepared for this reality? No. Surgery sucks!

The New York Times suddenly ended my Wordle streak that had exceeded 200 straight solves. It looks like all my streaks are in jeopardy. Running is now at 5,435 consecutive days and counting, as I await a date for open heart surgery. I always seem to breathe better the day after my weekly Chair Yoga session, as I use the discipline of inhaling and exhaling during my strides. I still have no idea how this heart issue is affecting my performance physically and psychologically. Logically, I should have more energy post-surgery, perhaps to the point where I can start a new streak, as is the case with Wordle. I get the opportunity to start fresh, with now a 100% solve rate after this first puzzle. I was only at 99% in just over 600 attempts.

Tonight, I join a few of the Borrego Boyz at the British Open Pub, while the wives have a book club meeting. Mine got the day off yesterday from substitute teaching but got a call early this morning to come in for work. As a result, Tally and I were up early. She is sitting in my chair hoping for a golf cart ride, but I’m waiting for a neighbor to stop by. He’s taking a box of garage clutter that holds the original two, decorative, outdoor lights that were on each side of our garage door when we moved in 2 1/2 years ago. In an effort to help distinguish our home from the surrounding, similar models, we bought new ones. We were following the lead of the folks across the street, who boldly decided to buck the strict HOA policy of getting board approval before making changes. It became the talk of the neighborhood, with one neighbor who jokingly placed an insistent phone call, impersonating a Mr. White from the homeowner’s association. We really weren’t sure if they honestly might force him to restore the original uniform lights, so I kept my lanterns just in case. I think it’s been long enough now that they are no longer an issue, so I can safely pass them down to someone else. 

Tonight begins an exhausting streak of social activities that extends through the entire weekend. We’ll be dining out or entertaining each night. School is closed next week for the Thanksgiving holiday, so we’ll both get a break. Then, we’ll celebrate with a group of friends at Flynn’s in downtown Venice for a turkey dinner, kicking off the Ho-Ho-Ho season. December will tell the tale of my heart, allowing enough time to recuperate from the surgery to make the Cross-Atlantic Viking cruise in mid-March. Life goes on while streaks may not. 

I’ve had my fill of the medical world these past few weeks. The Medical Director of Max Health, their parent corporation, stubbornly denied my referral to a Tampa surgeon, despite insistent phone calls to my physician, insurance company, and numerous support folks. I could tell they were tired of my calls when a receptionist accidentally failed to put me on hold, and I clearly heard their comments in the background. The Medical Director, concerned solely for keeping the business in their network ultimately cost them the business of both my wife and me, as I immediately switched to another Primary Care Physician and Millenium Group, despite the fact that we both liked the former doctor. I will now see if this new group will make the referral or if I have to wait until January 1 when my PPO kicks in. 

The difference in professionalism between the larger hospital in Tampa and the Regional hospital in Sarasota was night and day. As a small example, I came home from the Sarasota Hospital with a crude hand-drawn sketch of the procedure they were going to perform compared to the life-size model and four-color brochure that Tampa provided. Plus, they gave me hope that the chest incision might be much smaller than the full open-heart opening that was discussed in Sarasota. This means recovery time could be quicker. The level of experience with the surgeon and staff was also much higher. I’m already grateful that my wife’s family, comprised of several Cardiovascular experts, has pushed me to the bigger city. 

The only promising news here is that my Running Streak continues on, so it’s more and more likely that I will make my 15th anniversary. After the surgery, the doctor said that it will probably be twelve weeks before my broken sternum will have healed enough to withstand the jarring of jogging. Whether I will start another streak is questionable after that long of a layoff. 

Depending on the insurance and related referral snafus, I will have this surgery either in December or January. The surgeon mentioned that if I were to live in Great Britian, it would be a year-and-a-half wait, easing my wife’s concerns about urgency. I’m having no symptoms, so there’s no need to rush into the process without gathering all the pertinent information. It also gives me some time to work out a new plan for my prostrate surgery that was originally scheduled for late next week but has also run into a snag. It’s part of a clinical study that after all these tests and visits that I’ve made with this my second urology group has suddenly found a discrepancy in my subjective answers to their questionnaires about the urgency of my symptoms that could exclude me from the study. 

I did the first questionnaire, wasting my time on similar paperwork for my first urologist, after a two-hour drive to their office. I had to make this lengthy drive because the initial local office closed after accepting me into the study, so I had to seek another group. I felt like my bladder was going to burst as I tried to fill out the redundant forms. At that point, I was also taking medication for the condition, so the answers were probably dramatically different than those I gave on the second visit while I was off the meds. I don’t understand how this paperwork could ultimately exclude me from the surgery, considering all the other tests that they ran on me.

The whole clinical test is sounding more and more like a cruel scam. If they ultimately decide not to let me continue, it will be too late to get my prostrate problems resolved before the heart surgery. This means months and months more of uncomfortable bladder issues while lacking my current mobility. My entire rehab will consist of getting to and from the bathroom without assistance. Then, it will be time to go again… and again. 

Fall is in the air, even here in sunny Florida, with cooler temperatures and subtle foliage color changes, but a far cry from the beauty of the northern forests. It’s a lot of work to clean up those falling leaves and there are already reports of snowfall, two things I definitely don’t miss. I did see a few light jackets on my run today, and I barely broke a sweat on this morning’s 2.1-mile trek. I could feel the chill in my bones and stiff muscles but gradually worked my way through it. 

I’ve continued to run despite the inevitable surgery, and my wife is right that I remain oblivious to this reality. I can’t see myself on a walker or process the thought of admiring my hideous scars in the mirror. I do know that I will miss a day of running for the first time in nearly 15-years and this will end my streak with the United States Running Streak Association at www.runeveryday.com. I will move to the list of retired streaks and have to start all over again. It’s now hard to imagine a day without running. Today was consecutive day #5,421 (14.84 years). Tomorrow I will only have time for a mile (the minimum to maintain the streak) because we’re headed to Tampa early to consult with another surgeon. 

Note: When I originally wrote this paragraph, I couldn’t come up with the word “denial.” My wife claims that I’m in denial on this whole issue – probably more like shock. Pardon the silly pun, but we were just cruising D’Nile a few months ago. Maybe I’m still there!

Yesterday was Halloween, and I had dinner with Maleficent, Scream, and a giant Garfield that looked a lot like my son. We met at Chili’s after they had gone out and collected hundreds of assorted candies. I delivered the traditional cash-stuffed cards to the grandkids that for many years had to be mailed from Indiana, Illinois, Texas, or Oregon. It’s good to be just a few miles away to watch them continue to grow up. Also, I don’t have to shovel snow or rake leaves even though Fall is in the Air!

Two minutes a mile faster! Plus, I did it with one eye shut! Soon, I’ll be setting Olympic records, especially once I’m bionic. My eye is healing but still burns. They remove the Prokera membrane on Thursday, so just two more days of being a One-Eyed Jack. Depth perception is a problem, especially trying to drive yesterday. With my wife now teaching school, I’m getting up at 6 a.m. when she does, before the sun comes up. I get a lot done while she gets ready for work including dog duties and mopping the garage floor. We can have dinner on it tonight. I now have a few minutes to write before Chair Yoga class on this busy Tuesday.

My wife has the car today and its Trash Day, so this is why it made sense to clean the garage with no canisters or vehicles to work around. I also swept my office floor and did a few games. Tomorrow, we’ll both sleep in, before two more days of substitute teaching and a quiet weekend. We’ve enjoyed a couple of game nights with the neighbors lately, including Triominos and Mexican Train that we’ve never played before. I guess that old people are into this kind of thing!

My wife is putting together a future travel plan, once Tally has crossed the rainbow bridge, if I don’t get there first. She’s thinking of renting our house for a year and exploring the world. It would probably give us a couple extra thousand a month. We would use a combination of the Marriott Vacation Club, hotel points, and the gracious hospitality of friends and family.  It sounds like a lot of work to me, but she still has the travel bug, and this may be an affordable opportunity, especially with the rental fees that people are getting here in Florida. We do have resort accommodations, a pool, golf cart, and proximity to the beach to offer.

I first have several medical issues to deal with before we can take these steps. Hopefully, they won’t interfere with our plans to go to San Francisco, Orlando, and Buenos Aires.  We’ve yet to have a game night that has involved playing cards like Euchre or Poker. On my own, I frequently play Solitaire on my phone, while my wife typically plays Bridge on Monday afternoons at our clubhouse. At any rate, life has unfortunately dealt me a bad suit of Hearts, starting with the One-Eyed Jack. 

A nineteen-minute mile is about as slow as one can go without falling over. With a bandage over one eye, I did a lot of weaving and stumbling, still fighting off the fog from days of being medicated on Xanax. The last four runs have been at the minimum mile-plus but today I tried to get back to normal. My wife had a substitute teaching gig this morning, so Tally and I dropped her off at the school just down the street. All of us got up by alarm at 6a, leaving retirement luxury behind for a day’s work. Tally is still expecting her golf cart ride to the dog park but had to settle for a poop in the field adjacent to us. I plan to go to the Chiropractor and then pick my wife up at 3:30. She’s tending to a fourth-grade class today, while I will fend for myself at lunchtime. 

Maintaining my running streak is getting harder and harder, knowing that it will soon come to an end. I find myself saying, “why not today?” There’s not much point in going on when you know that it’s just a matter of time before the one thing that you find disciplinary pride in doing cannot continue. There is a Retired Streak List that would currently place me at #155. To move up to #154 and qualify for the “Well Versed” category (15+ years) I will need to hang on until the end of this year. It all depends on when they schedule my open-heart surgery. 

I’ve made it through illness, hangovers, injuries, marathons, foul weather, work shoes, darkness, high altitude, surgeries, job interference, and travel scheduling. I’ve run on cobblestones, in airports, through dust storms, over uneven sidewalks, bridges, ship decks, sandy beaches, basements, parking garages & lots, hotel hallways, icy streets, steep inclines, creaky treadmills, and wooded pathways in 29 different states and 30 countries. I’ve fought through fog, sleet, snow, rain, high water, traffic, mud, hurricanes, tornados, lightening, extreme heat, nasty insects, and threatening animals to somehow get to the finish line every single day. They will need to knock me out and hold me down to stop this streak, as they plan to do. 

Today was #5,402 and not very satisfying at such a slow pace. I never thought I could run this slow, if you can really call it running! Nor, did I ever imagine having heart problems! A walker passed me again this morning without much effort. I used to be fast, believe it or not! Now, I’m just persistent and stubborn, hoping to make it through two miles, down from the 5k standard that even recently was my daily goal. My wife went back to work today, while my job any more is to keep running, especially on a School Day! 

Today was #5,400 in the running streak. It felt like I was both mentally and physically tired while trying to complete the 2.1-mile course. I pushed through with thoughts of the inevitable end to my precious streak and images of Frankenstein on the operating table. When I met with the surgeon later in the day, she confirmed that they would need to open my breast plate to access the area where my aorta enters the heart chamber. She recommended replacing the now calcified and leaky valve with one from a willing bovine or swine. I was impressed with her explanation and detailed drawing of the surgical plan but struggled with her lack of experience. She’s a graduate of UF and specializes in aorta repair, but she doesn’t have the expertise of a master surgeon with 10,000 hours of practice. I was warned that this would be an issue at a Regional Hospital like Sarasota Memorial. I was also not comfortable with the fact that the department head passed me off to a relative rookie. We’ll now look more seriously at Tampa and Stanford. 

I’m feeling a bit depressed and sorry for myself after years of exercise and conditioning that I thought would keep me healthy. Instead, I’m looking at a serious operation where they actually stop my heart, functioning only via ventilation, followed by months of rehabilitation. The surgeon assured me that I would feel much better in the long run, seemingly amazed at the fact that I could continue to run despite the circulation and breathing issues that I’ve faced. The deterioration in my running skills have been obvious but so gradual that I’ve gotten accustomed to the routine. I hope to keep going until the surgery and restart this daily habit in the future. At least, there’s a little bit of optimism left in me.

Tomorrow, it’s the urologist for more prostrate tests and Friday will be a preliminary Prokera insertion, a healing device made from amniotic membrane, done prior to cataract surgery. Apparently, the surfaces of my eyes are just as wrinkled as the rest of my body, so they have to smooth the ocular surface. I have yet to find someone else that has had this done but according to the doctor it is not initially painful, but “fifteen minutes after you leave my office, you’ll hate me.” I’m not looking forward to the weekend, looking through an extra layer of tissue and waiting for the next dose of Xanax. I’ll also need this pain killer to watch Michigan once again demolish Indiana in football. It’s all at least a distraction from a broken heart. 

I’ve established many habits – good and bad throughout my life. They say that it takes 30-days to start one. Brushing my teeth was probably the first, along with combing my hair, things that hopefully all of us do every day in the spirit of personal hygiene. I didn’t make daily flossing a regularity until later in life. Push-ups are part of my daily regimen, dating back to my teenage years and inspired by a grandfatherly-like figure on family vacations at the Bay Palm Trailer Park, now just a few miles down the street. I do about 90 every day, along with some stretching and crunches before my morning run. This has been slightly disrupted recently with medical procedures.

I’ve tried to add swimming to my list of good habits, but only with marginal success. Some of my many bad habits are sweets, mainly cookies, Diet Coke, and television binging. Video games on my phone, like MonopolyGO and Solitaire Cash are rapidly becoming addictive practices. The phone itself is something I can’t put down, constantly searching sports, Facebook, weather, and personal banking apps. Screen time is often shocking and continues to grow. My wife considers leaning, shuffling, and shallow breathing to be annoying habits of mine. Her list is probably too big to elaborate on. 

My biggest addiction is running every day. I’m obsessed with it from the moment I wake up, often regretting what has become a daily task. The Florida heat had me up earlier but overcast skies and cooler temperatures have kept me in bed longer of late. What was once a 7:30 start is now closer to 8:30. I was also in the habit of doing a daily 5k, but excessive heat and humidity caused me to reduce that by a mile. I just completed the month of September with only 64 total miles, and I’m also at 737.5 miles this year, with only 91 days left to reach my 1000-mile goal. For the first time in many years, I probably won’t get there!

I continue to shuffle down the street every day, doing my best to ignore stiffness, lack of balance, and awkward form. Today, was #5,390 on my quest to reach 15-years of running every single day. It is likely that I won’t make that either, with a pending heart procedure that will probably put me in the ICU for a few days. I try my best to enjoy these last days of “The Streak,” but under the circumstances, it’s hard to remain motivated. I feel like I’m running on concrete legs with a piano on my back while the slightest headwind might bring me to a stop. Once I do stop, will I be able to start another one? That’s the million-dollar question, as old habits are in this case thankfully hard to break!