Friday, June 1, 2012

For Mariah

I feel like a big slacker because I haven't posted about the cause I'm currently running for yet. My friend, Mariah, has started a team and is raising money for the Salt Lake City Take Steps for Crohn's and Colitis walk which is tomorrow! (Yeah, told you I've been a slacker!) I'm on her team and we've also committed to walk/run 10 miles each this week and to ask people to donate $1 per mile.  I actually ran a total of 11 miles this week so if you want to be technical and donate $11 that would be wonderful, but I'd be very happy with $10 if you can spare it!

You can do $1 a mile for me or you can do $.10 per mile for our whole team. Either way, it's just $10.

Click Here To Donate

This is what Mariah has to say about the fund raiser:
"For 12 yrs. I have struggled with U.C. and Crohn's disease, including 7 surgeries and MANY hospital stays. I have decided to take charge of my health and raise awareness for these diseases. This Sat. June 2, I will be walking for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation. My team "Guts Who??" and I will be walking 100 MILES together this week, and are looking for donations of $0.10 per mile, which is $10! However ANY donation, even $1 helps. Please log onto ccfa.org, and help me make a difference. Donations are tax deductible and go to finding cures for these diseases. You can donate under my name, or my team name. Thanks!!!"
Go to Mariah's blog to read about her journey to take back her health. She is an amazing woman. I am always amazed by her good attitude and love for life. She has 3 children, about the same ages as my oldest 3 and I can only imagine how hard it would be to have to spend so much time in the hospital away from them. She had her latest surgery in December I think and as worked up to walking/running 6 miles so far! I am super impressed by her! She also has set her sights on running a half marathon so I'm excited for her!

Click Here To Donate to help cure Crohn's and Colitis.

I don't know a ton about these deseases, but I realized it's fitting that I would get my period this week while I'm focused in on raising money for this cause. I am completely usless during my time of the month. I just want to curl up in a ball on my bed and eat cookie dough. I get severe cramps and also headaches, nausia and feel just plain tired.

According to Crohn's Online these are some of the symptoms of Crohn's Disease:
Crohn's disease symptoms may vary over time and from person to person depending on what part of the intestinal tract is inflamed. The most common form of Crohn's affects the ileum and colon. Symptoms may include diarrhea, cramping, or abdominal pain. Or if inflammation occurs in the stomach and the first part of the small intestine, loss of appetite, weight loss, and nausea may occur.

So this week maybe I got a small feel for what people who suffer from this disease go through every day. It was a hard week too and my lowest training volume in a LONG time.

Mondy I felt great, but didn't really train. I did get to hike and climb which was awesome, though!

Tuesday I did my easy run and Pilates, but felt sick the whole time so opted out of my bike ride.

Wednesday I could not get myself out of bed, ended up missing my track workout, and didn't do anything else except make cookies.

Thursday I managed to get myself out on a bike ride early in the morning, but I kind of felt like I was going to puke for a lot of that ride, and just couldn't get my speed or heart rate up.

Today was my long run, and I was determined to have it be a good one! I still didn't feel good, but I made myself get up and get ready to go. Getting out the door is sometimes the hardest part! My first 2 miles were good, I did them in 20 minutes, but I just got slower after that. I had to stop at the bathroom twice and, again, I kind of felt like throwing up for a lot of the run. It was not really fun, and I was tempted to stop at 6 miles, but I wanted to at least make my goal of 10 miles for the week for Mariah so I had to at least do 7.5 miles. I ended up with 8.5 miles in exactly 90 minutes so I was happy with that!

As I said, the walk for Crohn's and Colitis is tomorrow, and my half marathon is next weekend. I'm not officially running for any cause for this half marathon, but I will sure be thinking about Mariah a lot, and I hope you can help her reach her fund raising goal by donating whatever you feel like you can here. Thanks!

1 comment:

  1. My dearest friend's husband and his sister suffer from this as well. Your friend seems amazing and you, wonderful for such fantastic support. Good luck with your half marathon!

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