Running For My Life

At the start of this year I was diagnosed with diabetes. There was no other way to put this mildly. My brain instantly clamped shut into a denial state. I tried to con myself into calling it a borderline condition. I rationalized it by showing normal blood sugar readings as fast as I showed bad ones. I tried all sorts of tricks just to exempt myself from falling under the “sweet” category. But like the good doctor said at the Toronto Diabetes Rehab Center, myself and everybody else diagnosed with the “silent killer”, were, are and will be in Sugar Land. So shut up because I apologized already.

Six months through this wonderful program, I graduated with flying colors. We were told at closing that our team (peach) had finished with the most weight loss, cardio-pulmonary stress test improvements by two levels, body fat level decrease and overall physical condition and the rest that came with it improved by as much as 20 to 35 % and some even at 50%.

My thanks and gratitude goes to the whole staff of the center. I not only have become educated, informed and smart. But they also armed me to the teeth to live and maintain a healthy lifestyle through diet, exercise and medication. Today I am my staunchest advocate, made appointments with myself to show up religiously for my daily exercise because whether I choose to believe it or not, what happens to the rest of the days of my life is totally in my hands.

A little over 10 years ago, I fell in love with running. I became the nut you saw running around the city in the middle of a blizzard or a rainstorm. I progressively joined short 5k and 10k races about town. I was enjoying it so much I started running to and from places I would normally take “the bullet” for. Fate would be unkind it seems and I was diagnosed with having a blocked artery after passing out on a running errand to the video store.

God does work in mysterious ways. But our mind works in self-deceiving ways. I stopped doing any physical activity after that. Fate became the dumb excuse of course but lets not kid ourselves. Junk food rules!

Yesterday was somewhat of a celebration of my escape from Sugar Land. I joined my first race at the Waterfront 5K with my 2 sons after over a decade of absence from physical activity. It was a beautiful day for running. Needless to say I got smoked, but a win-win situation nonetheless. Sprinted and crossed the finish line at 40:30. A far cry from my personal best on track, but you know what? I’m not running after time here…I’m running for my life!