Archive for January, 2013
Just TRI it
Posted in Uncategorized on January 30, 2013 by runmyssierunMy stomach was in knots all day. It was my first day of official triathlon training with Coach Sandy Overly. I had a really big important lunch meeting that I think went pretty well but could hardly eat three forkfuls of food!!!
See, I’m just a regular ordinary girl. I don’t have the history of athletics that the rest of these people have. My self confidence is probably large enough to fit in the palm of a child’s hand. And that’s enough to blow my time… That and an injury and just finishing the Herothon half marathon just two days ago and being off my feet for a month was probably all it took. I blew it. I clocked an eleven minute mile.
I know I’m better than that. And even though I KNOW it’s not about time, it’s still disappointing that I felt I didn’t do my BEST. Now I HAVE to do better.
There’s no room in this journey for going at it half a$$ed. That’s not what they wanted for me.
That’s not the message I want to send out in their memory either.
I must try harder.
Maiden voyage
Posted in Uncategorized with tags bicycle, bike, custom felt, cyclepaths, Felt bike, Mimi's Miles, road bike, Team in Training, tnt on January 23, 2013 by runmyssierun
The fighter
Posted in Uncategorized on January 18, 2013 by runmyssierun
Give em hell
Turn their heads
Gonna live life til we’re dead
Give me scars
Give me pain
Then they’ll say to me
Say to me
Say to me
There goes a fighter
There goes a fighter
Here comes a fighter
All Wally has to do now is put her peddles/clips on and fit me and I should be ready to roll!!!
When I walked in today to check in, I couldn’t believe she was really here. I even asked the guys at the shop to hold her so I could take this picture. I’m too scared, nervous, whatever to hold her!!!
I stupidly blurted out “It’s happening!! It’s really happening!”
And Wally calmly said “it happened”.
Here comes the fighter. Get ready. There’s no turning back now.
Never ever give up.
Beat up by a red ball
Posted in Uncategorized on January 16, 2013 by runmyssierun
Doc gave me some exercises to do today for therapy. Gotta admit.. Part of me still thinks this was part of a conspiracy of pranksters. I mean really… How is a little innocent teency weighted red ball going to work me out?!?! Come on… I run marathons for heavens sake!
Yep! You guessed it! I got served.
That little red ball you see here made me wobble, fall and had all the other patients in the office scared outta their wits. One poor man actually stopped in his tracks and clearly did not think he could survive if he got any closer to me. I think he feared for his own life and the life of the therapists that were around me and that red ball.
My exercise was supposed to help improve the little muscles in my foot that controls much of the pain I endure during my runs. But I think the muscles that got worked out most were the abdominals of all around me (and myself) from laughing so hard at me!!! Trying to bounce that ball off a trampoline while standing on one leg was quite comical.
But in true “Myssie” form, I didn’t give up and completed the challenge! I looked like a flamingo taking a sobriety test…. But I did it!!! And better yet, there were no serious injuries to the other patients being served.
Thanks Doc! Both my feet extension increased to an impressive eleven!!! What does that mean??? I have no idea but I’m supposed to get to an even higher number. Coming from a negative 3 last time, Doc seemed pleased with my progress.
Something tells me this was all the work of Donny from way upstairs!!! Can you hear that giggle?
Boogie woogie woogie
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Body Rock!
Posted in Uncategorized on January 14, 2013 by runmyssierun
I got the text from Wally at #wallysbicycles that my #feltbikes custom frame came in today!!! He’s putting her all together and should be ready to ride on Wednesday!!! He asked me what I was going to name her. My reply…
“Mimi of course. She’s the reason I’m doing this.”
Remember when
Posted in Uncategorized on January 13, 2013 by runmyssierunTook some time today to clean out and reorganize my home office and had the guts to look at some old photos and documents that Momma had saved. They were stacked up on my bench these last few months.
Did you know that we were really poor? We never really looked poor or acted poor and since I’m talking about it… I never really felt poor because we were always so happy. I mean, aren’t poor people sad all the time? I remember all those Sally Struthers commercials on TV that showed all the starving kids with tears in their eyes… They were poor. We were always smiling so that meant we weren’t poor. Right?
Did you know that I couldn’t wait to get my first little apartment in college just so I could finally have air conditioning? My windows were always open when I was growing up because we could t afford the electricity of air conditioning. I think my friends just always thought I kept them open so that I could sneak out with them. Nope. This is the real reason.
So on that note, my dad would try to make extra money playing little gigs whenever he could. We had grandpas old piano. Dad was loading and unloading it so my piano teacher helped me draw a piano on a folder so that I could practice anytime anywhere I could. All I had to do was remember the sound each key made in my head and I could play anything. She promised me. 🙂
I found that old folder.
Now I know how powerful my imagination can be. For years I practiced on that folder. I may not be a professional concert pianist now but I did perform well enough to win a few dozen pageants and a piano talent scholarship from the Miss America pageant organization.
My point of this blog entry? Momma kept this for me. Memories of times that were tough but never stopped me from accomplishing what I was set out to.
She told me time and time again…”You can do anything you set your mind to.” She believed in me. I can’t thank her enough for that foundation of my dreams.
She painted the skies orange for me during yesterday’s 10-mile run. That’s how she speaks to me now.
Call me crazy… But I know she was there with me during my mission moment. I’m so grateful! I’m still the luckiest daughter in the world!
My Mission Moment
Posted in Uncategorized with tags cancer, cure, cure cancer, jana miller, long run, marathon, mimi cardenas, mission moment, myssie, Team in Training, tnt on January 12, 2013 by runmyssierunI lost my best friend to Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma just a few months before he was to walk with me down the isle at my wedding. His name was Rodney Perez. He bravely battled cancer for 5 years. He died at age 24.
I lost my grandmother, Lorenza “Lencha” Cavazos and grandfather, Narciso Cavazos to Leukemia.
I lost my baby brother, Donny Cardenas, not from cancer but from what cancer does to loved ones and caregivers… what no one talks about, the stress that the family deals with while caring for their loved ones like financial stress and emotional stress. He felt he had to take on this burden by himself. He dealt by eating all the wrong things, drinking, locking himself up from the world. He had a heart attack at age 38.
I lost my Aunt Sissy – the woman who raised me while mom worked and went back to school. Leukemia stole her from us and her three years of retirement that she worked all her life for.
I lost my beautiful close friend Jana Miller. A brilliant doctor, fun loving and kind hearted… many you were in Junior League with her. She was diagnosed at stage IV during her 3rd year of med school. She finished, practiced and became an active member of the community. Few people knew she lived ten years with cancer. Her smile fooled everyone.
I lost my Momma. On Easter of this last year. Exactly one year after we lost my baby brother Donny. Eight months after losing her sister Sissy.
I’m sorry. I can’t talk about my Momma. It’s easier if you watch the video below or read my blog archives later about her.
I joined Team in Training because I thought that if the world and God saw how hard I was trying to do this impossible run… then maybe, just maybe, the world and God would make the impossible cure possible.
And when I ran my first full marathon in San Diego, just a couple of months after my Momma died, a woman yelled at me – when I wanted to quit – I was at mile 22 – she said “You are running for the treatment that has kept me alive! Please, don’t stop!”
Thats when I understood that hundreds, thousands of strangers for years before this had run for the treatment that allowed my mother to spend 6 more years with me, 3 more years with Sissy, 10 more years with Jana.
So I close with what I’ve had posted on my facebook over this last year…
I never ran to try to beat your time
I ran because I tried to buy my mom more time
I ran so that I could help find a cure
I ran so that I could help my mom pay for that cure
It didn’t work out the way I had planned
Now I run so that you don’t have to go
through what my mom and I did.
See, the thing is that I first thought I was running for a cure for my Momma.
I had no idea that Team in Training would be a part of MY cure.
Thank you
Footloose!
Posted in Uncategorized on January 12, 2013 by runmyssierun
I love it when doctors speak in Bob Marley!
Everything is gonna be alright!
I look back and think “I should have gone the medical school route” so that I could have understood 1/4 of what the doc said this morning.
There he was spewing out names of joints, ligaments and muscles that I vaguely recognized from that biology class that I kept dozing off in… and all I clearly understood was “You will be able to run your next two marathons”. I probably won’t PR in them… but I’ll finish.
Seems that all that yoga and dance that I’ve been doing for decades have not convinced my ankles to flex and rotate properly for marathon running. Whodathought?!?!? So, off to do some crazy funky toe and towel exercises with weights to see if I can make a difference. By golly, it will! I know it. Have no choice.
After all the medical jargon ended. He gave the old pata a few tugs, felt a few pops and remeasured. I went from a negative 3 to a positive 1. 14 more to go!
Improvement already!!!
RunMyssieRun 