Pay it forward

On Saturday I got back into the pool for the first time in a few weeks. The GPS watch that also tracks laps said I had a faster 100 yard split and my previous efforts, but it sure didn't feel like it. I ended up only swimming 1,500 yards and there were more breaks than I'd like to admit. After the workout I thought back to my high school swim career. We would routinely swim 5 - 6,000 yards a practice. During the longest workouts we'd top 10,000 yards (that's over 5 and a half miles). Needless to say I was in much better shape back then.

Charles "Chuck" Lendrum

Thinking about those workouts also made me think about my old swim coach, Chuck. Chuck was great. He knew just how to motivate a bunch of high schoolers and find the best in them. My sophomore year he led us to the team's first Conference Championship in school history (we ended up repeating as champions and then coming in a very close 2nd my senior year). Chuck has probably coached hundreds of kids, all of whom have gained from knowing him. And now Chuck has cancer. More specifically, non-hodgkin's lymphoma, a blood cancer not all that different than multiple myeloma.

As with too many people in this world, Chuck needs help paying for his treatment and making ends meet. That's where you come in. That's where I come in. That's where we all come in. If you can, please help Chuck by giving to the fund his brother has set up: Coach's (Charles Lendrum) Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Fund.

Thank you.

-Andrew

Double positives today!

Mike got good news from his oncologist today that his multiple myeloma remains stable which means no treatment is needed yet. Happily, he also received a call from Rep. Cathy Nadeau that on Friday she will speak on the floor of the Maine House to announce a Joint Resolution signed by EVERY members of the Maine House and Senate, recognizing March as Multiple Myeloma Awareness month. Now that's what we call positive! Thank you Cathy for your efforts to raise awareness on behalf of all those fighting this rare cancer. Cathy has invited us both to be there for her speech. We are blessed!

My Adidas

In November of 2011 I managed to tweak my back. Despite going to a chiropractor, giving up running and generally trying not to make it worse, by May 2012 things had deteriorated enough that I had an MRI and was diagnosed with "severe spinal stenosis." In other words, a severely herniated disc in my back. A few months and two cortisone shots later, I was back in business, as long as business involved doing nothing more than a brisk walk. Over the winter of 2012/2013 I gradually was able to build strength in my core and back to the point of being able to run on a treadmill for 30 seconds to a minute at a time. I had pretty much given up any hope of really being able to enjoy running as a sport again.

However, we had already started ME Against Myeloma and had some long-term goals of getting out there and raising money. By the end of the 2012/2013 winter I had resigned myself to the fact that it was going to be a long, long time until I could really run a road race and set a goal of doing a sprint triathlon in August. I figured that was far enough away for me to slowly build up to being able to run five kilometers without shooting pain in my lower back and legs. 

In order to help motivate us, we had signed up for Runner's World magazine. We kept seeing advertisements for a shoe from Adidas that would "change the world." So right around this time last year we took a trip to our local running store. It was as if the engineers at Adidas knew of my injury and were doing their best to design a shoe to help.

And help it did.

The first time I put on the new Adidas boost shoe was the first time I could run without pain in over a year (the difference was almost freaky). These shoes quite literally changed my life. No longer was I confined to brisk walks outside or "running" on a treadmill (by running I mean holding on to the railings the whole time). I could now go for a run outside. And run I did. In the past year I have put over 470 miles on my Adidas boost and another 30+ miles on a pair of trail shoes, topping 500 miles total.

Thanks to my Adidas I have been able to go for beautiful runs with my wife and kids.

Morning run at Niagara Falls, Ontario (American Falls in the background)

Thanks to my Adidas I have been able to show my kids one way to live an active and healthy lifestyle.

Thanks to my Adidas I have been able to compete in multiple races, including my first triathlon. 

Thanks to my Adidas I have been able to raise awareness of multiple myeloma.

So to the team at Adidas that invented the cushioning of the boost that makes it so different from other running shoes, I say thank you 500 times over (and counting).

L.L. Bean 4th of July 10k

The fastest four minutes in sports

The Beach to Beacon 10k road race is considered by those in these parts as the fastest four minutes in sports. Well, at least the registration is. In 4 minutes and 32 seconds all 4,000 spots filled up (besting last year's record by almost half a minute).

And we got two of them. 

As spring approaches we're filling out our race schedule and will update you on when/where we'll be racing over the coming months. Stay tuned!