Anyone ever made a comeback after something serious?

Hey cancer guy, are you keeping a blog or anything like that where a person can check in and see how you're doing, offer encouragement, etc?

I don't have too much to contribute, but I just want to say good luck and I hope everything works out for you!

kibitzer wrote:

Didn't have cancer, but had a career-ending running injury that crippled me at age 20. Walked with a pronounced limp for some years.

can you be more specific? what kind of injury caused you to stop running and have to walk with a limp?

ksdmlf wrote:

can you be more specific? what kind of injury caused you to stop running and have to walk with a limp?

Pain at the insertion of the peroneus brevis (lateral arch of the foot). Not a Jones fracture--beyond that, it was never successfully diagnosed or treated.

I fell 50 feet down an elevator shaft at work landing on my face. I underwent brain and facial reconstruction surgery. I had several more surgeries following. A year and a half later I improved my marathon PR from 3:14 to 3:07 at age 43. I also ran a 1:24 half and broke 5 min for the mile. Best I've ran since I was 38. I wish you luck!!!!

Open heart surgery while in college. I'm out now and I look at it like this: The only pr's I consider are times I've run since surgery. Look at it like a running rebirth and you get to experience the excitement of breaking 17 again... (like it was for me the first time when I was 15).

Best of luck for you. Keep your head up, roll with the punches, and enjoy every run.

I have SI joint&sacrum sh*t going on. been a rough 7 months so far but going to keep on trucking and hopefully beat it soon

I've never gone through anything nearly as serious as you have but when I read your post it reminded me of a feature that Runner's World did a few months ago called "Outrunning Cancer."

http://www.runnersworld.com/topic/0,7122,s6-243-588-0-0,00.html?cm_mmc=Mag_URL-_-2011_July-_-outrunningcancer-_-Outrunning_Cancer_Topic

There were several stories of runners who have ran successfully after cancer. I hope this helps. Good luck!

I had the opposite kind of cancer. Had symptons for 10 years. Firt they were very mild and after a few years they became worse. After the surgery I got healthy again. Didn't need chemo or radiation. It was a benign tumor, but it was hormonally active and completely messed up my hormones.

common wrote:

Hey cancer guy, are you keeping a blog or anything like that where a person can check in and see how you're doing, offer encouragement, etc?

You'll have have to sign up and be approved by one of us. If you do just say you read about it on letsrun:

On a side note I checked into EPO and my oncologist warned me that, if you are cancer free, which I am at the moment, taking EPO significantly increases the risk of recurrence. Since I can do transfusions and avoid this risk, that's precisely what I will do. I've gone through too much to give it any chance of coming back.

I am lucky enough to have had no experience of anything like the hell you have been through, but want to throw in an idea from off at a tangent here...

If you're too weak to jog at the moment, I would suggest investing your very limited 'energy budget' in working on basic movement patterns and easy strength exercises.

IMHO there is no point worrying much about the speed of your runs until you can do, say,

- 5 good, deep, controlled split squats with no weight

- 5 deep squats with no weight

- 5 pushups with really good form

- some kind of pull (inverted rows)

- 5 calf raises on a step on each leg

- hold planks (front, back and both sides) for, say, 30sec

- walk up stairs 2-at-a-time in slow-motion with a good running action (remember Six Million Dollar Man?)

We're literally talking about a 5 minute exercise circuit where you don't break sweat, or the odd 1 minute throughout the day. Work in your comfort zone: if you can't do a pushup off the floor, do one off a table for a week or two, then a chair, etc.

Google "easy strength". There is a great deal of evidence that a little-and-often approach throughout the day, at least five days a week, and never going anywhere near a maximum effort or fatigue, builds strength up faster than doing things which are more stressful.

Also, the stimulus will hopefully be good for your testosterone and growth hormone levels, rebuilding muscle and generally making you feeling more energetic. It's probably something the doc will be more likely to agree to.

You'll know within a couple of days if it's boosting your energy levels and it might help you back into some jogging.

Finally, this sounds facile, but "don't run before you can walk". It may make sense to start a formal program of brisk walks, then maybe uphill walks on a treadmill, then alternate walk-jog cycles, keeping a diary.

There was this one time, where people were at a funeral for their Mom and everyone was in a real serious mood. Someone said something somewhat rude to me, and they were real serious. Well, you should have heard the comeback I made to them about their Mom.

I had cancer the winter of my Junior year in college. The previous spring I ran 4:03 in the 1500, and I came into the XC running really well. Sadly I was probably overtrained & underweight, and didn't run great in the fall. Or that could have been a symptom.

Chemo took 12 weeks in the spring, where I was able to bike & run as much as possible. My hemoglobin count dropped to 8, and I could barely do 3 miles.

It took me until my 5th year to get back down to 3:57. It's definitely possible to get back into it, but it takes patience.

Good luck.

comebacks? well you had to be good to "comeback" but im trying to get as close as possible to age 19

at 19 ran 2:46:20 at BAA in 79, on reasonable but not great prep. 4:48 miler also decent but inconsistent work. Its also on record I was 2nd in the college division at the Chicago Mayor Daley Marathon in 1978.

Turns out I was born with a bad aortic valve and had it replaced at age 40(2000). I just never felt right after that. Best mile in 7:25 until having a second open heart surgery to replace that failing valve in Jan 2011(age 52). Did a 7:10 mile last Saturday, but also ran a half marathon in Kauai on 9/6 and was 269 of 1048 finishers. Not great but respectable.. had trained only 25 mpw, and sat in sun for 3 days before with no intention of running that hilly hot race. Goal is to get to top 100 in that Kauai race, then top 50 following year in 2013 and easily qualify for BAA at CIM in Dec of 2013 for the 2014 BAA. Im pretty on track for that I think. I think i can get to a 6:20 mile by next summer and I'll be ready already

Hey man, that is some serious s-h-i-t. I hope that the cancer stays away completely. I came back at the age of 30 after 7 years of no races and ran 2:18 for the marathon 3 years after that, but I only beat calf strains and achilles troubles....nothing as bad as what you have conquered!

I advise you to strengthen your body with a lot of WALKING, weight lifting, bicycling and slowly work the running back in. I advise you to work out twice a day, even if one of the "workouts" is a 90 minute walk.

Jason

I haven't read the whole thread, but here's my input.

When I was 17 I was diagnosed with lymphoma. It's far from the worst cancer to get, but I was still very sick from chemo for a long time. I was pretty much bed-ridden for about 8 months (as in, walking up a flight of stairs would be the maximum physical activity I could handle).

When I finally finished the hard phases of my treatment, I started running again (I was now in my maintenance phase of treatment and only had chemotherapy once a month, and had some daily meds). It's now been 2 years since I was diagnosed, my last chemo treatment was 2 weeks ago, and I finish taking my daily meds tomorrow. It was hard starting up again (I would honestly throw up a couple times on my runs), but I've managed to stick with it, and while I'm not fast, I'm in about 22 minute 5k shape (in hs i had a 19minute 5k pr, so im not too far off where I was before I got diagnosed).

You're situation may be worse than mine, but I know how hard it can be coming back after being physically destroyed. If you're still receiving heavy treatment, perhaps you should lay off running for now. If you're off treatment and are still having trouble, give it some time. It took a while, but things got better for me...I sincerely hope they do for you. Keep the faith.

geoff tate wrote:

I fell 50 feet down an elevator shaft at work landing on my face. I underwent brain and facial reconstruction surgery. I had several more surgeries following. A year and a half later I improved my marathon PR from 3:14 to 3:07 at age 43. I also ran a 1:24 half and broke 5 min for the mile. Best I've ran since I was 38. I wish you luck!!!!

Are you from MN? I think i read a newspaper article about you.

You've had training setbacks when you were healthy, this one is just more major. I started running again halfway through chemo and couldn't make it a half mile. Start slowly and be patient with yourself. Draw strength and energy from the what you have been through. You will get back into if you decide you want to, for right now, know that you can. Good luck.

Miguel Lozano from Mishawaka High School in Indiana. Had testicular cancer as a sophmore and is now a senior running sub. 16:00 min. 5k's. Won his sectional race the other night in 15:53.

http://www.southbendtribune.com/sports/sbt-20111012sbtmarsb-01-05-20111012,0,2958021.story