I’ve been meaning to write about my races this season for some time now but just haven’t found any time to do it, so I’m making the time now. I managed to get 5 races in, which was 2 more than I was hoping for. I started out with two short classic races, Wm. O’Brien and City of Lakes Loppet. Wm. O’Brien was fun and it felt really good to finally try to race. COLL was tough because I fell at the start and ended up going out way too hard trying to catch back up, but I pull off a decent race anyway. I wasn’t sure if I should try to do the Birkie or not given the amount of training I was doing, so I decided to try the Pre-Birkie as a test run. Conditions were very cold and slow it was a really hard race for me. It made me think that I shouldn’t do the Birkie. I couldn’t imagine going twice as far feeling like that. But I was torn since I couldn’t really imagine not doing it either. I didn’t want to stay home feeling sorry for myself either. So I tired the Inga-Lami and felt good and had a great time. That convinced me to do the Birkie and just enjoy being a part of it. I went out very easy and was careful not to put myself under. I had just started taking Tamoxifen and one of the side effects can be muscle cramps so I was concerned about that. My legs started to twitch a bit the last 5K, but no cramping. I raced as fast as I could that day and felt good about. Not my best finish at 43rd, but I was proud of myself for toughing out the race and the whole, hard winter. It was so nice to just hang with my friends on a beautiful day.
As for the cancer treatment, I’m now in maintenance/observation mode. I’ll have either a mammogram or MRI every six months and will be on Tamoxifen, which is a drug that helps prevent recurrence, for five years. I haven’t really had any side effects from the Tamoxifen, which are most commonly hot flashes and muscle cramps. So I’m feeling really good and ready to train again. My schedule is more hectic than ever and I’m not sure how I’m going to fit training in, but I’m determined to figure it out. I’m psyched to go for it!
