Marathon Finisher!

[tommy]

The Andy Payne Marathon is over and counts me as a finisher. :) :) :) I'll post some details and photos later (like tomorrow or the next day :rolleyes: ). For now, I simply share my joy with you. :D Thanks for all of your support these last 9 months. :)

Ya'll sleep well tonight. I know I will. Best wishes to our Iron Man Bill Cobit tomorrow. :)

[hensylee]

CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR FINISH!

Sleep and dream good dreams. We are proud of you.

[bvdr]

Absolutely wonderful, Tom! Congratulations.

[Jan]

Well Done Tom !!!

You are an inspiration too us all

Jan

[MarkU]

Congratulations!

[Les]

Alright Tom! Welcome to our small, but growing fraternity of valve replacement marathoners! Congratulations! The fun for the next couple of days will be stepping up or down a curb or stair. It's a good hurt though! Rest well my friend!

[Ross]

Congratulations! If all you guys keep it up, perhaps one day we'll see team Valvereplacement in place at the finish line! :)

[Raverlaw]

Tom-

Congratulations on your first valvathon! I am impressed and proud of the methodical, stick-to-it way you've progressed. What an achievement!

Can't wait to see the pictures and hear details.

[SJJ]

Hats off to you Tom! We all get a little rush to hear of such achievements from "one of our own." Congratulations!!!!!!
Sue

[tommy]

After I great night's sleep, I'm feeling more human. :rolleyes:

My finish time was 5hrs 23 min. I really expected to do better than that, but am very pleased just to finish (as you will see below). An event that I only started to dream about 9 months ago became a reality. :)

The course was a 2 mile "up and back", then 3 times around Lake Overholser in Oklahoma City. The weather was warm (lo 80's) :mad: , humid (mid 50's) :mad: , and windy (20-30mph) :( . The starting temp was about 70. Thankfully, the sun didn't break through until late in the race.

Perhaps my smartest move was to adjust my stride to avoid re-injurying the sore calf muscle. :) This decision proved to make the run tougher, but possible. Finishing was the priority. If the calf were to act up prior to mile 20, I would need to withdraw from the race. (After that I could walk to the finish line.) I alternated strides after 6 miles, but upon feeling the slightest stiffness a couple of times, went back to the heal stride that went easy on the calf.

My worst move was using a starting pace that was too fast :confused: . I knew better, but fell comfortably into a groove with some other runners. Clouds covered the sky, and the fear of the hot sun faded. We ran the first 10 miles at 11 minute pace. The second 8 mile lap was about 11:30 pace. I was on top of the world. :) At the 18 mile mark, I began to hope for a 5 hour finish.

At the 19 mile mark I hit "the wall" :eek: . I hooked up with another runner (Shaun), and we coaxed each other along. At the 21 mile mark we turned again into 4 miles of head winds that humbled me to my core :eek: :eek:. At 23 miles, the sun came out :eek: :eek: :eek: . We baked. My legs were fine, but I was out of gas :( . Shaun's legs were cramping, but he had youthful (25) energy :rolleyes: . We were a team. We stayed together until the mile 25 aid station. At that point I would have crawled the last mile.

At the finish, my fingers were tingling, my speech was raspy. I was probably in early stages of heat exhaustion. I was not as euphoric as I expected to be (that would come later). I walked around for a few minutes, and drank more fluids. It was done! :D

In several of my training runs I had to deal with heat. Performance always suffered greatly. I cursed the heat. Yesterday was no exception. Also, several training runs were very windy. On those days, I thanked the Lord for the extra training that may come in valuable on race day. It did. But wind and heat at the same time? Those last 7 miles were grueling.

Friday, I ate about 1 lb. of pasta, and my first Mc-cheeseburger in about a year, and a taco slad for dinner. Over the course of the 5 1/2 hour run, I stopped every 2 miles, drinking about 200 ounces of fluids and about 2500 calories of powerbars, gels and fruits. I still lost weight.

Causalty report: Stairs and curbs are not a problem, but getting in and out of a chair reminds me that I have quads. The ankles and knees are near perfect. I have three new blisters - two on the tips of toes. My toes are asking for some time off.

This morning my wife slipped a note to our pastor, who had me stand and be recognized. One friend reminded me that it was just a sort time ago that they were all praying for survival and recovery from surgery. It was a sweet moment. :) :) :) Thankfully the sermon was not about pride. I may wallow in that sin for a while.

The first picture is a salute to you, my VR.com friends. It was an attempt to make the letter "VR" with my hands. The second picture is my "game face" at the finish. I changed my avatar to who the medal.

[Abbanabba]

Congratulations Tom!!!! :) :) :)

...now if you'll excuse me, I think I need a Bex and a lie down after reading that..!! Phew!

A : )

[Glenda]

Yeah Tom!! :D :D You did it and I am so happy for you. What an accomplishment! Pat yourself on the back for me. :) :)

[McCln]

Congrats to you on being a finisher. Proves to everyone that you can do it. Take care and be good. Relax this weekend.

Caroline
09-11-01
Aortic valve replacement
St. Jude's valve

[Shine_on_Syd]

Great job Tom!! The weather conditions sound like they were less than ideal for the race.
It is wonderful to hear that you ran 26.2 miles.
I'm currently training for my second post op sprint triathlon and you ae giving me inspiration.
Jim

[Lorraine]

Congratulations Tom!

You Are Such An Inspiration! Thanks For Sharing! What An Accomplishment! Get Some Rest Now And Enjoy The Weekend! :)

[BillCobit]

GREAT JOB TOM!!!

You have got to feel great about your accomplishment! Glad to hear you were able to do the race w/o injury or w/o your calf acting up.

Be sure to take some downtime to allow yourself to recover...26.2 is a lot of trauma in one day.

Have you picked your next race yet?? ;)

[labguides]

CONGRATULATIONS!

You must be very proud of your accomplishment! Wow!

[Mark Wagner]

Congratulations Tom!

There was never a doubt that you would not finish. You deserve too walk a little taller; or since your down 'in their' Texas; sit a little higher in your saddle today! You have made us all proud. Enjoy the moment. :)

Mark

[ShezaGirlie]

Unbelieveable! Absolutely unbelieveable what you have accomplished through dedicated training and just plain ol' faith in yourself that you could do it! Boy are we proud...!

Like Mark said -- you deserve to be ridin' high in the saddle! :D

[tommy]

All right, ya'll. I'll ride tall in the saddle for a few days. It's getting in and out of the saddle that hurts! :( But it's fixin' to git better. :D

It's day 3 and my muscles are loosening up. I walked behind the lawn mower (powered) yesterday. The speed control has an image of a rabbit at one end and a turtle on the other end. I set it to "turtle". :rolleyes: Walked a mile today at a real slow pace. No problems. My legs feel much better after walking. I will continue to take it slowly. Next race is in December. I've got time. I learned a lesson 3 weeks ago (calf muscle) that almost cost me this event. I will take it easy this week.

I'm very surprised (and pleased) that my ankles and knees are perfect. They started to hurt at about mile 15. I took one of my son's naproxens at that point, and have not had any joint pain since.

I have a little trouble sitting and standing still. I'm fidgety and don't like staying in one postion very long.

I am truly thankful to be able to finish such a large task. In training and in the race, there were obstacles in my path, more than I would have preferred (of course), especially on race day. I kept asking if these obstacles were signs telling me that I had enough, or were they there to test me and make me stronger. In the end, they humbled me, made me stronger, and will make me smarter for the next one.

I share my celebration with you. Thank you again. Peace. :)

[Mary]

Great going, Tom! Saturday, I ended up unexpectedly busy, but I remember looking at the clock and thinking about you!
Mary

[Rain]

Wowzers!! That's impressive! That's gotta be a pretty special feeling crossing that finish line.... I can only imagine. Wow.

[Harpoon]

Watch that sodium naproxen (Aleve is the brand name) because it can screw with your heart AND it could be the cause that fidgitiness...


Very cool stuff. I don't think I'm anywhere near that point, maybe next summer, but I'd like to at least try the 5k thing...


Way to go. =)

[Simon Gee]

TOP MAN TOM!!

Simon

[johnbelloh]

Hi Tom

Congrats on your marathon finish ! I haven't been on the computer for the last month. We are trying to finish a big remodel job on my home. It had been put on hold when I went in for the heart surgery.

I have been running a bunch of 5K & 10K races while trying to get my heart accustomed to the new valve. I had trouble with my right lung for about 2 months after the surgery. It had collapsed during the surgery and I wasn’t getting any air into the bottom of the right lung. It is difficult to run on 1 lung. I could barely break a jog. My 5K times were almost 40 minutes. One morning during an aerobic class I coughed up a bunch of water and the right lung started working.

I can now maintain a 10-minute pace in a 5K. I need to work on my speed. My resting heart rate is down in the high 40s and my max rate won’t go over 130 BPM. I think my heart muscle slowed down from years of coping with aortic stenosis. It is probably going to take my heart at least a year to adjust to the new valve.

I have been adding a 9 mile hilly run to my training every other week. I am still running 3 days a week. I don’t want to over do it with my right knee. It still hurts from surgery I had on it 2 years ago.

I still plan on running the Air Force Marathon September 18th. I am thinking about doing the Parkersburg ½ marathon in August as a test. It should be hot and humid and the course is a hilly one. I’ll keep you posted as to my progress.

[tommy]

John,

Great to hear from you. Sounds like you are in "can do" mode despite some impediments. And it sounds like everything is getting better over time. That is terrific!

Keep listening to your body.
Watch out for the heat and humidity.

[tommy]

I had my last post-marathon "rebuild" run this morning. 4 miles. Felt real good. :) No problems or concerns. :) Putting together a plan and strategy for December marathon. Will try to improve the time, and get my weight down some more.

For the next several weeks, I'll give my joints a rest, but try to keep the cardiovascular system in reasonable tune, and build some muscles for the fall. Bicycling, swimming, walking, and nautilus weights. Will spend a week at the NC shore :) .............. Do you know why pirates go to the shore for a week or two at a time? ............. to get some Arrrrrrrrr and Arrrrrrrrrr! ;) That's me. :D

I wrote a thank you letter (with photo - crossing the finish line) to my surgeon, Dr. Mack. Got a nice response from him. Also, visited my cardiac rehab center. The same two nurses are there (3 years later). We hugged and cried. :o I thanked them and let them know that their work and their lessons pay off big time.

Had an echo done before the marathon (with results afterwards. :rolleyes: ) Results are excellent! :) I am truly fortunate. :) Ya'll are wonderful. :) :) :) I thank you for your support from the bottom of my smaller (now normal size) but more powerful heart. :)

[Raverlaw]

John and Tom,

You guys are doing great! I really backed off after I hurt my right knee several weeks ago. I've used ice to manage the swelling and heat for the pain/stiffness. I started walking again wearing a knee brace, and last week started "jogging" (I can't really call it running) again. I find that when I "jog" (don't know what else to call it - short stride keeping my weight over my knees at all times) I can get my heart rate up to where it needs to be very quickly and I don't get much pain or swelling; however, the best pace I can get with this stride is about 12 min./mile. I'd still like to do our local Pinedorado 5K over Labor Day weekend, but at this pace I'm looking at a 35-36 minute time! :( I ran 5K twice yesterday, once in the morning and again in the evening. Today I ran (jogged) 5K with a break to do my "stairmaster" - a flight of 42 steep steps down to the beach. I jog a mile to the stairs, then do 20 sets on the stairs, then jog 2 miles back home. Total time was one hour exactly. The stairs really get my pulse up there quickly, but I call it the most beautiful stairmaster in the world! What a view!

Any advice for lengthening my stride so I can pick up the pace without permanently tweaking my knee? I don't want to be going in for a TKR anytime soon. My 73 year old Mom is getting hers done in August, and I'd like to wait until I'm at least that old before I need one.

[tommy]

Bill,

Have a sports doctor look at your knee. A regular doctor is more inclined to give you the "standard answer" (stay off it) - and maybe that is what you need. :( The sports doc is more likely to help you stay in the game and also provide specific exercises. Not all knee injuries are alike. Is it muscle? Cartiledge? Tendon?

Frankly, I would lay off the 2-a-days, especially with an injury (and at our age :D ). When I kept going with a minor injury, I spent a lot more time stretching and warming up, and also alternated days. It's a bit of a dance to keep your cardio going, and keep your muscles toned, but rest the sore spot.

Don't sweat your times in your early "races". Just enjoy yourself and celebrate your ability to be active. For what it's worth, my first 5k time was 36 minutes (5 months post op). Prior to the race, I was able to jog 5 miles without pain and without stopping. I was petrified to push too hard.

I'm jealous about your stairmaster. Not many hills in Dallas. I use a treadmill at steep angles to simulate hills. Can you send me a video of your scenery? I'll pop it in the VCR and have the same view as you. :D

[Les]

Bill,
Tom's advice is based on experience...and it is good and sound. Best of luck with the knee.

[stormrev]

Just caught up on the news of your successful marathon completion - well done! Makes me envious (though I do remember some of the pain as well...)

I ran the Dallas White Rock over twenty years ago a couple of times, so wish you well for that adventure.

Your photos look great - you really have benefited from the steady exercise and weight loss. They reckon about 3-4 weeks after a marathom you feel invincible!

I'm still walking and a little cycling, and will try swimming tonight for the first time. My wounds from the fasciotomy have only just healed, more than three months on. Started back at work three weeks ago and coping better each week, though still get tired from time to time.

I've set a goal to begin jogging July 4th (I think its a celebration in your country???) and reckon that Independence Day is an appropriate metaphor for a new lease of life and hope for the future.

Kind regards

Grant

[tommy]

Grant,

Great to hear from you. Glad to hear that you are mending, if ever so slowly. I like the Independence Day metaphor, and the concept of celebrating reaching goals.

Invincible? Not quite, but close. It's hard to find one word that sums up the emotion.

Be sure to get your rest. Buld up that immune system. Make this recovery a one-way trip.

Take care.