Big Weekend Just Got Bigger

I now have a second reason to look forward to the weekend of Sept. 8-9:  my friend Trish has put together a Giffy's Kidneys team for the Ann Arbor Kidney Walk! The walk is on Sunday, Sept. 9 at 1 p.m. You can donate on line or join the team and walk with me. :)

So that's the 5K run on Saturday and then the Kidney Walk on Sunday. The fact that I have enough energy to do both of these things -- in the same weekend -- is very encouraging.

I feel renewed.

"We turn not older with years but newer every day." - Emily Dickinson

   

Giffy by the Numbers

Here are a few interesting numbers from the last week:

14: Minutes I'm now able to run without stopping. My latest workout was 2 minutes walking/14 minutes running/2 minutes walking/14 minutes running/2 minutes walking.

2:  Number of siblings who are running with me in the Allegiance Race to Health 5K run on Sept. 8.

120:  My average systolic blood pressure last week -- exactly the number my doctor wants me to maintain.

3:  Number of times I forgot to take my meds this week. OOPS! This will definitely be an area of emphasis for the coming week.    

Why I Laugh

From Davita.com:

"In late 2006, The International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine reported that people with severe diseases, such as chronic kidney disease, have better survival chances if they have a sense of humor and can laugh easily. The study was performed by scientists from the Nor­we­gian University of Sci­ence and St. Olav’s Hos­pi­tal in Trond­heim, Nor­way, on people with end stage renal disease who were on dialysis. According to the results, people who scored higher on having a sense of humor increased their odds for survival by about 31 percent."

On Track

About a month ago, I announced that I would be training for a 5K run. Such a public declaration was a bit bold, considering that at the time I was only able to run two minutes without stopping. I've only posted once since then, so if you're thinking that I'm avoiding the topic because I'm not training, you would be..........WRONG!

I am now up to eight minutes of sustained running. My current program is a 2-minute walk followed by an 8-minute run -- repeated 3 times. It's slow and ugly, but it's working! I do this on Wed/Fri/Sun.

The 5K run is Saturday, Sept. 8, so I have another month to prepare. Race information is here in case anyone wants to run with me or come and watch. So far I think I have one fellow runner who will be by my side, my sister Denise. She has qualified for the Boston Marathon before -- so she's a real runner -- but how cool that she's willing to plod along with me for a few miles!