Race day started off as one of about thirty runners with no ride share to the start from the hotel. We scrambled and 3 of us managed to get a ride to the start just as the National Anthem started. One of the guys that got in the car noticed I had “IBDAthlete” on my bib and turns out he is Trent, The Marathon Man. It was a serendipitous and adrenaline filled pre-race!
Me and The Marathon Man
I was having a great run, right on track with my plan, but some funny heart rhythm at mile 17 almost sent me into a tailspin. I used run/walk method to stay calm and keep trucking. I'll write more about the entire run in the next few days, but I wanted to get something posted, because your (50 year old) boy is a marathoner!
When I set out on this adventure I looked for other stories of people with an ileostomy and only found one woman who wrote about it. This was a challenging course with literal and emotional highs and lows and I ended up finishing about 20 minutes over my goal time. I’m incredibly proud of this achievement and ran through moments of sheer amazement at how far I’ve come and feel lucky to be a positive story about running a marathon post-full colectomy.
