A Run and A Fire Part I

Here we are almost three weeks into the New Year and I am looking forward to all this year can and will bring to me.

Many of you have followed me on Facebook and have read and or heard about my house fire at the end of November.  I am thinking about doing a post on how one overcomes such a traumatic event and the whole rebuilding that comes along with losing your house and a dear pet.  However, this post is about marathon of hope that I ran the morning after the fire.

Last January my brother Mike took ill with what he thought was a cold which turned into an pneumonia.  In February Mike and his wife Arletha had planned a trip to Las Vegas to celebrate Arletha's birthday.  Mike had been given the ok by his family doctor to go to Vegas so of they went. During the flight my brother went into respiratory distress and had to be administered oxygen on the plane. When they landed in Vegas there was an ambulance waiting for him on the tarmac and he was rushed to hospital where he spent 10 days.  During that time he went through a battery of test, Mike's insurance company had him flown home to BC where he was hospitalized for the next 6 weeks.  You can read about my brothers story on his blog http://mikeslungs.blogspot.ca/?spref=fb.  Mike eventually was diagnosed with Interstitial Pulmonary Fibrosis. Now without a double lung transplant my brothers prognosis is poor.  He spends his days in recliner and just performing the basics of care leaves him breathless and requiring a large amount of oxygen supplement.  This is a far cry from the man that he was a year ago.  My brother is a husband, father, businessman and was very active in his community.  It breaks my heart to see him in this condition struggling for every breath.

Back in November when my brother was given the news that he might not see Christmas if he didn't get a lung transplant was devastating news for all of us.  I couldn't just sit by and do nothing, but I wasn't sure really what I could do. Then it came to me, I could run.  I could do a fundraiser by running a marathon. 

It was my husbands brainchild that I run a marathon.  Having never ran a marathon in my life it seemed very daunting and I wondered if I could even do this.  Here we were at the beginning of November my brother's condition was deteriorating rapidly and there was no time to waste, so my hubby suggested I do the run at the end of November!!!  November!!!  The date chosen was only 3 weeks away, how could I do this?  The fundraising, the training, getting sponsors the list of things to do was overwhelming.  How could I do this?  My hubby took the bull by the horn and started writing letters and making calls.  Before I knew it the dates for the run were set, the destination was set and sponsorship was already being garner I was committed all I had to do now was train. I was going to run from Bowser to Courtenay BC a two day 42KM marathon of hope we called "Run for the Lungs".

As I said I have never run a marathon in my life, the longest I have ever run was 16km.  This past summer I was running almost every day but again the longest run was 10km once a week and 5km every day or every other day.  So I really had to kick my training up a notch.  I contacted my local gym and asked them if they would sponsor me, and that they did.  They allowed me to use their facility for free and provided me with some personal strength training.  I alternated my run and gym days.  I was running rain or shine, hills and the flats.  During my training I was able to get in two 20km runs and three 10km runs and the rest were 6km runs.  Oh did I mention this run was taking place over 2 days.  Yes, I was realistic, there was no way I could do a full marathon in one day, but over two days I felt would be achievable.

On November 22nd that date might mean something to some of my American friends, yes it was the American Thanksgiving and my hubby and I had been invited to some friends home for Thanksgiving dinner.  We left home by 6pm leaving our dogs Ernie and Bert in the house all comfy on their beds.  At 7:45 pm we get a panic call from my husbands father telling us that there was smoke billowing out of our house.  We were home in a matter of minutes, hubby rushed into the house with hose in hand and started to extinguish the fire.  911 had been called but living in a rural area it's a volunteer department and they got there as soon as they could,but by the time they arrived hubby had got the fire under control but it was to late the damage was done.  During the early stages when we arrived at our home all three of us ran into the house to open windows and doors to let the smoke out...wrong thing for me to do. Due to my asthma, next thing you know I'm wheezing and having a challenging time breathing.  Ambulance arrives and I spend the next 2 hours in the back of an ambulance being administered oxygen.  My father in law and husband were in and out of the ambulance also getting oxygen.  As I sat there breathing in the oxygen I thinking, how am I going to do this run in the morning?  I had made this commitment to myself and to so many others.

There was a lot to be considered and decisions to be made.......