5K!

(This is me at the start of the run...)

Today was a big day for this Army veteran. But I must go back to mid-May of 2004 to begin my story. As most of you know, I have been employed by Seattle Children’s Hospital since May 2001 as an administrative assistant in the Emergency Department. In 2003 I joined the Children’s Emergency Response Team (there is an article about our CERT group in November on this blog). As part of our medical screening prior to suiting up in our personal protective equipment (PPE), we have our blood pressure taken. If it is too high we are not allowed to put on our PPE. Well, in May 2004 mine was sky high, something like 176/113! Normal should be below 140/90…the lower the better, to a point, of course. Needless to say I was not allowed to suit up.

I immediately made an appointment with my personal doctor; during my physical he assessed me for heart attack risk by asking family history, if I smoked, if I got regular exercise, ate right, and so on. I have never smoked but my family history, exercise and eating habits all contributed to my 60% risk for a major cardiac “event” in the following five years! Talk about scaring the bejeebers out of me! He immediately put me on high blood pressure medication to begin to mitigate the situation.

That evaluation, coupled with an elevated blood glucose level (pre-diabetes symptom), has caused me to change my habits…less sugar and beer, and more exercise, for example. I started a regimen of walking on a treadmill, at least 20 minutes 3 to 4 times a week. I joined a gym near work, at a discount because I work at Children’s, and have been lifting weights and walking. The BP has come down, and the glucose is under control without medication.

Last summer my son Pete asked me if I would drive a van for one half of a team of 12 people who were running in the Northwest Passage Ragnar Relay series from Blaine, WA, just south of the British Columbia border to Langley at the southern tip of Whidbey Island, WA, a distance of almost 190 miles. I drove for his part of the team and got the bug to begin running. So, because of my son, who is a great encourager, I decided to run in the 2008 Seattle St. Patrick’s Day Dash, a fun run of 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) from the Seattle Center (where the Space Needle is) to Quest Field (where the Seahawks play). I have been training for this run for several months on the treadmill, and when the days got light enough after work, since the middle of February, continued to run outside on the Sammamish River trail, a paved mile-marked trail that used by lots of runners, walkers and bicyclists.

This brings me back to today, March 16th, was the Dash, and Pete and I ran with about 17,000 of our closest friends! It was great fun to see people of all ages together (all “Irish,” too!) completely filling the street for over 3 miles! Pete finished in about 34:10, and I took 39:09. Of the 5,000 meters, I ran all of it except for about 175 meters when both of us got caught in a bottleneck going into a tunnel and then a planned 40 meters for me as I rounded the block just before heading for the finish line. It was so exhilarating and it nearly brought tears to my eyes as I realized that I had accomplished my goal!

The moral of this story, guys, is that you are never too old to take up anything new, whether it’s a hobby or a new sport. (The last time I had run any distance was over 40 years ago as a new recruit in BCT at Fort Lewis!) So, if you have a desire or a chance to do something new, go for it!