It's now the closing week of January and Ironman still hasn't picked its list of special exempt Kona participants. I don't believe that there's any chance they won't pick me, but it sure will be nice once they officially do. I'm training, working to stay motivated, and working around the cold I picked up in Utah last week. But I don't think anything will light a fire in me more than getting the official word that I will be traveling to Kona. Knowing that I will have the opportunity to be the first heart transplant to ever cross that finish line will carry me further than anything else. Well, that, and the many people that I continue to meet at UCLA's heart transplant clinic.
This week I was there to give blood (for whatever reason my body is now metabolizing my rejection meds faster than before so my drug levels are being adjusted) and I met an older man who just had his transplant six weeks ago. In talking to him, and sharing with him my Ironman goal, I found out that he actually competed at Kona four times - winning his age group in 1994 at the age of 60. I can't imagine what it must have been like to go from being the world's most fit 60-year-old to being a man in need of a heart transplant to save his life.
But he persevered, stayed strong, and now he has his heart. He told me that his IM days are long gone, but he can't wait to get back on his bike. At 74!! I'm half that age.
Call it irony, good fortune, fate, or something else, it was a great lift to me to meet this man who knows what I've gone through as a heart transplant patient and knows what I'll be going through as an Ironman hopeful - albeit in a different order than I'm doing things.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Friday, January 9, 2009
Nine Months Out
Tomorrow, January 10, we will be exactly nine months away from the Ironman in Kona. And I am struck with the thought that if a human fetus can grow enough in nine months to form an actual living and breathing person, then I can grow enough in the next nine months to get myself 140 miles in one day.
Nine months away, and the training now begins for real. I am no longer getting in a run here and bike ride there, but I am actually going to begin a designated training schedule that has one end goal as its conclusion: crossing the finish line on October 10.
I was also reminded this week that it will be far from easy. It's not easy for anyone, heart transplant or not - immuno suppressed or not. But it will be extra hard for me. I picked up a stomach bug at the beginning of the week and at the end of our holiday trip to Michigan and I have been paying a dear price all week. On the bright side, I've dropped about seven pounds. Another 10 to 15 and I'll be at my optimum IM weight. But it's probably not the healthiest way to lose weight. And I can tell you for sure that it's not a fun way to drop the extra pounds.
When I get a cold, or an infection, or a virus of some kind, it sticks with me. In an effort to keep my body's immune system in check and in stand-down mode in regards to the new heart, there is a trade-off. When I get a cold, or an infection, or a stomach bug, I have virtually nothing in my arsenal to fight it. That's what's been happening this week. In the grand scheme of things it won't come close to derailing my IM plans. It just means that as I begin my training in earnest I'll do it a little weaker than I had been a week ago. A minor setback at most.
Nine months away, and the training now begins for real. I am no longer getting in a run here and bike ride there, but I am actually going to begin a designated training schedule that has one end goal as its conclusion: crossing the finish line on October 10.
I was also reminded this week that it will be far from easy. It's not easy for anyone, heart transplant or not - immuno suppressed or not. But it will be extra hard for me. I picked up a stomach bug at the beginning of the week and at the end of our holiday trip to Michigan and I have been paying a dear price all week. On the bright side, I've dropped about seven pounds. Another 10 to 15 and I'll be at my optimum IM weight. But it's probably not the healthiest way to lose weight. And I can tell you for sure that it's not a fun way to drop the extra pounds.
When I get a cold, or an infection, or a virus of some kind, it sticks with me. In an effort to keep my body's immune system in check and in stand-down mode in regards to the new heart, there is a trade-off. When I get a cold, or an infection, or a stomach bug, I have virtually nothing in my arsenal to fight it. That's what's been happening this week. In the grand scheme of things it won't come close to derailing my IM plans. It just means that as I begin my training in earnest I'll do it a little weaker than I had been a week ago. A minor setback at most.
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