Today marked a really great day in our post-cancer world. Six months after finishing his last chemo treatment, Chuck ran the Healdsburg Half Marathon in 2:48, an awesome time by any measure, but really amazing compared to the last half he survived (you can’t really call it running) last May. Our friends Valeria and Maureen ran it with us providing humor and moral support the entire way (thanks, guys!).
The weekend started out great; we drove up  north on Friday hitting no serious traffic and stopping at Del Taco for an early lunch where we indulged in chicken burritos. We arrived in Geyserville (where we were staying as by the time we got around to making reservations there was no room left anywhere affordable in Healdsburg) around 7pm so went to a local place for a light dinner before heading back to the place we were staying (the Geyserville Inn, a great, reasonably priced and very well located place right off the 101). Before we headed to dinner Chuck had a mild case of, uh, Montezuma’s revenge, and when we got back from dinner it was worse. But then he seemed okay. My stomach was rumbling but seemed okay. And by the time we went to bed, Chuck was fine, so we thought nothing of it.
The next morning (the day before the race) we went for a short run, then showered and had breakfast then headed out to do a little wine tasting. We were in the tasting room and everything was fine and all of a sudden I knew I was going to puke. So I hightailed it off to the restroom and, well, I won’t go into details. We had some water in the car so I went out to get a bottle while Chuck continued, obliviously, to taste and promptly puked again in the vineyards (fertilizer!). When he came out I explained what had happened so we headed back to Geyserville where, about 1/2 a mile from the inn he had to pull over so I could puke yet again. By this time I was actually feeling pretty good, so we continued back to the inn where we were meeting friends for lunch. Needless to say, they ate and I didn’t. I was fine the rest of the day, and we continued about our day shopping in Healdsburg, going to the race expo then later out to dinner where I drank a bottle of Coke (the universal cure for stomach ailments) a LOT of water and a little food. We went to bed really early and I went to sleep wondering how my bout of food poisoning (because we realized it had to be the Del Taco chicken burrito – let that be a lesson to us for indulging in crappy fast food) was going to affect the race.
The day dawned overcast and cool (around 50 degrees) and stayed that way through the entire race – Chuck’s favorite running conditions. He enjoyed himself like he hasn’t on a run in, well, many months, and finished strong. I ran with him and felt fine (a bit lighter than usual) and we spent the day hot tubbing, wine tasting, napping and generally feeling pretty pleased with ourselves. For the first time since
finishing chemo, I think Chuck realized that he is better and is doing great. The very hot late summer we’ve had in So Cal has made every training run a test of our heat endurance, and he hates running in heat on a good day s0 he was pretty anxious about how this race would go. So having the weather cooperate was the icing on the fabulous cake that has been this day.
Pics of the day are here.
So proud and inspired by you guys. I have my half marathon this weekend and am feeling a bit nervous, but triumphing over food poisoning and chemo gives me that bit of hope that I’ll be fine!