An Announcement RE: Boozing and Whoring

An Announcement

Hello everyone. Some of you may remember my Boozing and Whoring blog post where I shared with my readers some of my health struggles. In that blog post I talked about how my doctor found some irregularities in the shape of my neck and spines and that they were compressing my nerves which causes me to have tingling in my legs and sometimes not have feeling in my legs. I have been working with a chiropractor to work on the shape and curvature of my neck and spine. After going to the chiropractor three times a week for intensive treatments he was able to fix the curve in my neck by 50%. Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be anything that can be done about my back at this point. The discs in my lower back are compressing or collapsing on each other and it is very painful in addition to causing the tingling and lack of feeling in my legs. 

So I am having what I call a "mid-mobil life crisis." You may recall from Boozing and Whoring that I talked about what counts to me as "living life to the fullest" and that I don't measure my life by the number of drinks taken or marathons run, etc. Well. . .  I may take that back. . . . 

I have registered to run my first half marathon. And before everyone becomes a doctor I want you all to understand my reasoning. 

I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, type III. It is an extremely painful disorder and I am in constant pain. I have a difficult time performing everyday tasks such as holding a hair brush, opening the refrigerator door, opening a car door, holding a phone, etc. Everything hurts. So the past several years I have been focusing on doing mild things like swimming, etc. But guess what? Nothing actually makes the pain go away, it just doesn't  make it worse. So no matter what I do I'm going to hurt at the end of the day. So, if I'm going to hurt anyway I want to hurt because I did something! 

I know that this will be a very painful experience for me. But I hope in doing this that I can teach my children to do something and follow through to the end no matter how much it hurts and how much fun it ISN'T. I will be bringing my children with me to Ireland and they will be there at the finish line. They are already watching me train by observing the change in diet as well as being troopers and staying in "childwatch" at the Y so I can run. 

I decided to do this in November and have been training since then. I am going to run the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in Dublin, Ireland. When I do something I go all out. If I'm going to spend the better part of a day just running around I'm going to do it somewhere that's pretty to look at ;)

I am seeking advice from runners about anything and everything. Diets? Excersize plans? Shoes? Clothing? Encouragement! Anything! I know a half marathon may not seem like a big deal. but to someone with my disorder it will take a lot of time and training will mean a great deal to me and my children.

Please feel free to follow my journey at I made other plans.

And the best part, my mom and dad are running with me.