“A person should set his goals as early as he can and devote all his energy and talent to getting there. With enough effort, he may achieve it. Or he may find something that is even more rewarding. But in the end, no matter what the outcome, he will know he has been alive.” - Walt Disney

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Not the Post I Had Planned....

I try not to make non-running or non-Disney posts, but tonight's different, and this is not going to be the post I had planned.  Last night I was so excited about registration for the 2012 WDW Marathon Weekend opening today that I pre-wrote tonight's post - in which I expounded on the excitement of registering for yet another Disney race.

However, life, as usual, didn't go as expected.  Meet my older cat, Sophie:
Sophie has lost an awful lot of weight recently.  She'd had a bout of sickness a few weeks ago, but seemed to have recovered.  Then the dramatic weight loss started - and reached the point where it couldn't be ignored (not that I was ignoring it - I was very aware of it, just in denial, I think).  So I made a vet appointment for her.  As we sat in the examination room this morning, it finally hit me just how sick she could be, and I lost it - bring on the tears!  The vet couldn't have been better - she explained that she'd felt a mass in Sophie's stomach and wanted to take x-rays and do some bloodwork.  The x-rays showed a tumor in her g.i. tract...meaning that the only option is surgery.  However, surgery at her age, and in her condition, only has about a 40% survival rate, will likely be very painful, and probably won't completely fix the problem.  Wow.  Talk about a blow.

We're waiting for the bloodwork results to come back tomorrow before seriously discussing our options and where to go from here, but I'm afraid that the bottom line is that I'm going to lose my "Sophie-cat" (as I sometimes call her) waaaaay sooner than I ever thought.  I adopted Sophie as a kitten the summer between my freshman and sophomore years in college, and she'll be 11 in April.  She has been through so much with me, including multiple moves throughout college for co-op assignments, traipsing halfway across the country when we moved to Florida, adopting our other cat, Emma, eventually moving back to Texas, and finally moving into our current house.  She supports my running (sits on her shelf and watches me on the treadmill), and even got into the Disney spirit for me one Halloween:

It has been a really rough day.  I was supposed to run 5 miles tonight, but all I wanted to do was come home and cuddle with Sophie - so I did - no miles.  I'll post what was supposed to be today's "super-excited about registering for Disney" post tomorrow, but for tonight, I'm just sad and want to go to bed, with Sophie close by.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Leaping Leprechauns!

Wow, it has been a busy, busy, week.  I never did manage to get any of my normal runs in during the week, so my first chance to move my legs in any running-type-fashion was with my family and friends in this Saturday's Leaping Leprechauns 5K & 15K.  I only did the 5K, but my dad and my friend Jessica did the 15K.  I ended up having a great time, especially considering this was my first run in a week; Jessica was the 2nd overall female finisher, and my dad finished 2nd in his age group - they are both like Speedy Gonzales compared to me!  We had a great time running our respective races, and wore lots of green with some goofy St. Patrick's Day accessories: 
 Even Jessica's hubby and kids got in the St. Patty's Day spirit and dressed up:
  
Saturday's Race Stats (per Garmin):
  • 5K (3.14mi); 0:37:45 min; 12:01 min/mi avg page
  • A NEW P.R. for the 5K for me!!!

    Wednesday, March 9, 2011

    Fat Tuesday!

    I feel like I truly had a "Fat Tuesday" yesterday: I didn't eat well and I didn't run.  There were 5 miles on the schedule, but I ended up doing chores well into the late evening instead.  I'm also feeling a little sensitivity in my right knee and on the left side of my right foot - I'm wondering if I didn't push a little too hard during the race on Saturday...?  I'm hoping to squeeze in some time on the treadmill tonight and see how they feel, but some friends are coming over to help install the new BBQ, and I'm not sure how long that's gonna take.  My family's visiting this weekend, and arriving tomorrow, which means there's also some last-minute cleaning in our future this evening once everyone else leaves.