2 sleeps till Fitness Ridge

Ok, here I am in Vegas and I have just run my 6.5 miles this morning in keeping with my marathon training. I can not tell you how excited Lindsay and I are for our adventure to Fitness Ridge on Sunday.

I have set 2 major goals for when I am there this year.
Firstly, I will get up the "stop sign" route in under 1 hour.
Secondly, I will get all my runs/training in as per the Running Room's training schedule.

Saturday morning, Lindsay and I are getting up and running our 26 km in the gym here at Planet Hollywood. The gym is free and terrific so we thought that we would keep on plugging so that we do not affect our goals for sub 5 and sub 6 marathons in October.

Oh, Lennie and I are in the pimp daddy suite here in Vegas. He got it off Hotwire.com. We knew we had a great spot when we opened the door and the shades automatically went up - just like in the movies. Not to mention the 3 TVs, lounge, whirlpool tub, kitchen etc. Sweet way to get ready for "fitness rehab" at Fitness Ridge.

See you Sunday.

Surgery it is

Well, we met with Dr. Nicols this morning. He said that he must take out 1/2 my thyroid in a surgery called a hemithyroidectomy. They are not able to tell if the tumor thing is cancerous until you take it out - something about needing 10 slices for the pathologist... so he will remove my right lobe but surgery can not be scheduled for 4 months - argggg I have already been waiting since April.
He said that the hospital cut their surgery time by 40% and that he triages his other surgeries first. Apparently his nurse will call me 2 weeks prior to an available date and then I will need 5 days off after the surgery to rest. The surgery takes 2 hours but I can go home the same day.
Normally, a Hurthle cell lesion is cancerous 15% of the time but with the size of mine; 3.4 cm it increases the changes to 20% - not bad if you ask me. My left lobe is normal according to the ultrasound.
So, if it is now July and I need to wait 4 months...November it is.

PS, Fitness Ridge in 12 days!!!!!!

Biopsy results are in

I finally heard back from the ENT doctor surrounding my thyroid biopsy of April 22nd. The pathology report says the lump/mass is a Hurthle-cell lesion - what the hell does that mean? I have an appt. to see the ENT on Monday the 19th to explain this all to me but when you Google "Hurthle cell lesion" it seems quite serious.

Maybe this the answer to many things for me. Maybe this is why my metabolism is so whacked. Maybe this is why my joints hurt.

Lennie and my mom are going with me to the appt. next Monday so that everyone can hear answers and ask questions. What a pain in the butt right now as I am 2 weeks from Fitness Ridge. I am assuming I will need more tests and will have to ask to get them done asap before I leave for 4 weeks.

Stay tuned for more answers next Monday after I see Dr. Nicols.

Yes, my plan worked perfectly

Yesterday was awesome. We had a 16km planned for our marathon clinic and my best bud Megan; who is running in the 10km clinic had 11 planned so we decided we could run together as we would run the 5km route from the Resolution Run. She would run 2 loops, I would run 3 and then 1 extra trip around the park for the extra km. As we are finishing the 1st loop, Megan says that she thinks she could do the 3rd loop and complete a 16km too. I was shocked as she has never run that far before but like I have told everyone, you can run forever if you do the 10:1s. So we ran it and she completed it!!!!

It was awesome to run with her because when we were done she said that she could see herself completing a 1/2 marathon. I told her that it would have been just 1 more loop of our route today and sooooooo we came home and registered her for the Toronto 1/2 marathon!!! Yahooooo, so September 26th we will run together in Toronto. My plan worked - taking her to Cincinnati to watch and help us run the Flying Pig was to inspire her to start running again and now here we are 4 months later and she is doing awesome and pushing herself to run the 1/2 - yahooo - her first medal is only a couple of months away.

1 year Crohns free!!!

Happy July 4th to all my American friends and to all my Crohns disease sufferers. I am so happy today to be celebrating in Seattle with my brother and his family the 4th. But, also today marks the 1 year of me being in remission from Crohns disease. I remember last year at this time, Megan drove me to the hospital for a colonoscopy (Lennie was on his annual Michigan golf trip). I had the colonoscopy because I hadn't been feeling well and had been taking the Remicade infusions since Jan 07. Well, turns out the reason why I wasn't feeling well was because the Remicade worked, I didn't need it anymore and now was in remission - so exciting for me and my family.
I am also thrilled that we are less than 100 days till Chicago and less than a month to Fitness Ridge. I am getting pumped for the cross training and the final push that it will give me for the marathon. Lindsay and I have booked our shuttles from Vegas and have our suitcases on stand bye. Right now, all I am thinking about is being able to complete the "stop sign" route in less than 1 hour, getting back to eating smaller portions and seeing all our Utah friends.
Off to run a 10 miler here in Seattle around Greenlake - something I have always wanted to do since coming to Seattle for the first time in 2002 for my brothers wedding and now, here I am able to run and do the cool loop of the lake like all the other cool runners here.
Smiles to all.