Overcoming Life's Challenges: A Father's Fight Against Cancer

The length of this race is tbd. I am currently signed up for a half marathon but we will see.

Keuka Lake Duathlon was a race I won’t ever forget. The memories built for this event were second to. First, I was able to meet friends I have been friends with on Facebook that I hadn’t ever met in real life, then on top of that I was able to see friends that I met at other races that I really only see at races. This event was my last day of normalcy in a long time.

One of the best parts was my best friends and family were able to be there to watch me race.

Word of caution when you sign up for a multi-sport race make sure you know what the distances are. lol. So, I was assuming that the race was a shorter run on each end of the bike however, it was a 5k run, 13 mile bike, 5k run. I was burnt after the 5k run.

The first 5k I was ok. I adapted my run walk plan as the 5k went and I really felt the drain on me from chemo and not exercising as much as I have in the past. It, was what it was but I completed the first 5k.

The bike was slightly better. It felt nice to be out on the bike and going. I wasn’t as fast as I would have liked to have been but honestly I am not upset about it either. I love my bike and being in the aero position I feel like I am flying when I am. At the turn around there is a large up hill and honestly had I been as trained as I was last year I would have attempted it however I was having mechanical issues with the bike in my lower gears they were jumping around and I really just didn’t feel like fighting it sow I walked the hill. Coming into transition my hand was going numb and I realized we need to make some fitment changes to the bike. A plus to the bike is I did pass people who were doing the duathlon and was able to set myself up so I wasn’t the last person to finish it if I could hold them off during the last 5k

The last 5k was rough. I fought with myself to keep going. My run intervals got more and more varied, and my walks became longer and runs less. Finally, with a mile left I saw Emily and Larry and said fuck it and just walked with them the last mile into the finish line.

I’m not one who typically takes pride in getting a medal for being 3rd out of 3 for an age group in an event. However, this race doesn’t do finisher medals and all things considered this medal means a lot to me as it was the last race prior to surgery.

I have zero regrets with this race and I am extremely happy I went to it. As I said it was my last sense of normalcy I have had since surgery.

This is an event that I say every year I am not going to do again because of the number of people who race it and typically it is extremely hot. Again it was a race where I was supposed to do the half marathon and due to cancer reached out to the race directors and downgraded to the 10k.

Before the race I was cold due to the weather and spent a large amount of time sitting on the floor in city hall. That is a nice feature they have here at this race is city hall is open. As it neared the start time I moved out to the group I was supposed to start with and started being more social. I learned a lot during this event about how everyone has their own challenges and you never really know what someone else is going through. Also you never really know what one views as a challenge. So, stay your lane and focus on you and get through what your working on.

I started this race way to fast as usual. I got to my mile 1.5 mark and I had slowed down to a more comfortable pace and started to dial things in. This is a large race so I had people around me and passing me the entire event. Around mile 1.5 we started to get a very lite mist in the air.

This being a relatively flat course at around mile 3.1 there is the only real hill to the course which is an overpass for the canal. This is where the fatigue and the rain started. Going up this hill I gave up trying to run. I acknowledged that I just needed to moving but I didn’t need to run the hill.

Mile 4 I really started to slow down. I haven’t been running at home, and I haven’t been training combine that with cancer and I really just needed to be content with walking more and getting through it.

Mile 4.5-6.2 became very challenging keeping the run up and it got worse and worse as the event went on. It really showed me that after surgery I really need to keep active and keep going. While I understand I need to give myself grace I can’t let my fitness go away.

The finish at this race is always amazing as there is always a crowd of people cheering and it is always great hearing the announcer say your name. The crappy part of this race is how far you have to walk from the finish to get back to those people who came to support you during the race.

Overall I am glad I attended this event. I left saying I will never race another Ottawa Tamarack Race weekend however, I think we both know I will.

Speaking of pivoting in an instance. This race was supposed to be a half marathon race for me. This was always a race that would be a great day of running as it is a flatter course. Cornwall is close to home, and I see a lot of people I know usually racing it.

While I had reached out to the race director and explained my situation to which they agreed to downgrade my race to a 5k. Race morning they had no record of this conversation. Recapping it and showing them the email they asked “what race do you want to do”. I very quickly told them if they had an extra bib I would actually like to do the 10k as I felt good enough to do so that day.

The weather for this day was kind of not pleasant due to rain and temperature. The event started off great regardless. I had a good pace as I normally do due to starting out way to fast. I headed out with the intent of splitting my run/walk as 5/1 and throughout the event I slowly decreased my run pace as I felt the wear due to the chemo throughout the event.

The main pack of the race quickly went out in front of me and I got dropped by them fairly quickly. I did separate myself just as quick from a handful of people behind me so I was kind of out there by myself. I focused on keeping motivated and I just kept reminding myself I’m doing this and worst case I walk but I am not going to give up and stop.

A 10k is really easy to break out into sections. For me, I break it out into 1/4’s so 1.5 mile, 3.1 mile, 4.6 mile, and then finally done. As I approached the first 1.5 I felt great. I felt like I was pushing nicely and I wasn’t feeling tired. I felt strong. As I approached the turn around I felt strong however, I was slowing a bit and this is where I started to add in walk intervals more frequently. Mile 4.6 I really started to feel tired and saw where everything going on was impacting me and my endurance I had built.

In the end I set out to cross the finish line and I achieved my goal. I accomplished what I set out. It wasn’t my best 10k and it wasn’t my worst. I did it though.