Hippo\u2019s run faster than humans on land, they swim faster than humans in water, so the only way you\u2019re beating a Hippo is during the bike portion of the triathlon. One of my friends has done the Iron Man triathlon three times and this had to be his motivation. I cannot think of any other reason a rational human being would put themselves through a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bicycle ride and a marathon 26.22-mile run, raced in that order. At the time he was an avid biker, more supporting evidence he wanted to avoid a hypothetical encounter with a hippo. When he was doing the Iron Man as a normal entrant by the time they finished the bike portion he was in the middle of the male professional pack of athletes. I was watching his progress online and decided to head down close to the finish line. Watching an Iron Man is like the worst parade ever, all you see is people going past in what can only be described as various amounts of misery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A lot of people think I\u2019m in misery going through chemo. I\u2019m really not and I\u2019m starting to think I\u2019m like an Ironman athlete going through my cancer treatment. There are definitely bad times but it\u2019s really ups and downs. I imagine my mindset has to be similar to going through the Iron Man. The average finishing time for the Iron Man is about 12 hours and 35 minutes. You can\u2019t think about the entire race for over 12 hours, you have to focus on the time and task at hand. Right now I\u2019m going into the 5th round of 8 in the first phase of treatment. I feel I\u2019m basically half way through the marathon, 4 months of chemo are half done. Then it\u2019ll be on to 5 weeks of radiation followed by two surgeries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are a few sayings that sum up my mindset. \u201cEmbrace the suck\u201d, \u201cLean into the discomfort\u201d, and \u201cBe the Bison\u201d. The first two are self explanatory, the third I heard from a friend at work. The story goes that in the plains, when the storms come over the rockies, some animals will run away from the storms. But when the Bison see the storms coming they know if they run into the storm, the time they must endure the storm is shortened. I don\u2019t view the entire treatment plan as the storm. That\u2019s too much to think about running into and it also won\u2019t shorten the time anyway. But each step that\u2019s uncomfortable, I lean into it and think that it\u2019s only temporary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beth has been an invaluable resource during this time. She is really my gold medal logistical olympian. She\u2019s always getting everything ready the night before for the day of chemo. She wanted something to organize it all so I let her use one of my empty ammo boxes. She calls it the chemo caboodle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, after this round. Only three more rounds. That doesn\u2019t sound so bad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hippo\u2019s run faster than humans on land, they swim faster than humans in water, so the …<\/p>\n