January is a time of reflection, and I’m no different in looking back at the year that was. It is common while you go through cancer treatment to feel like ‘it’s all a blur,’ so I’m glad my notekeeping habits let me review what happened.
First…
2024 by the numbers:
- 66 medical appointments
- 25 EBRT radiation treatments
- 11 blood draws
- 6 chemotherapy infusions
- 5 CT scans
- 4 neutrophil-boosting injections
- 4 vaccines
- 2 mammograms
- 1 brachytherapy treatment
- 1 thyroid biopsy
- 1 ultrasound
- 1 surgery
While not the usual rundown of miles logged and race results, it is the ‘plan’ that let me keep up with intentional movement throughout. Despite being in active treatment for most of the year, there were only a few weeks where I wasn’t either in the gym or outside—the immediate week after surgery, and a couple of weeks during chemotherapy when I just didn’t have the energy or concentration to commit to training.
There were a few races
I certainly didn’t race for time results in either the spring or fall season, but I did finish two key races:
Running on Native Lands: In March I walked my first 5k distance on the mountain post surgery. It coincided with the fourth annual Running on Native Lands, and the added layer of reflection about my own health gave deeper meaning to acknowledging the history of the trails we enjoy and the resilience of the indigenous communities that are the original stewards.
Toronto Waterfront Marathon: I had hoped to race the Montreal Marathon in September but it turned out the be too soon, both mentally and physically, after finishing chemotherapy. I didn’t have enough miles in my legs, nor the mental discipline needed. Instead, I signed up for the Toronto Waterfront Marathon and completed it virtually while I was going through radiotherapy.
It was an exercise in rebuilding a consistent running base, and a means to distract myself from the grind of daily radiation. I broke it up into 10 x 2.6 miles during the first two weeks of my treatments, and saved the .2 miles to run outside on race day as a way to celebrate—that segment of my run felt like a sprint at an 11:20 min/mi pace, but the satisfaction was in running, and feeling like the future could hold longer distances at a faster pace.
And a rest …
In the first week of December, I saw my radiation oncologist for my 4-week followup. It marked the end of active treatment and a transition to this next phase—monitoring every 3-4 months for the next 3 years, and then every 6 months for years 4 and 5.
Survivorship is a different space than being a cancer patient, and it takes adjustment. I talk about it as my brain catching up with what my body went through in 2024. I’ll be processing for awhile … and to that end, I’ve not really run from mid-December until now.
Usually, I take the holiday season as downtime from training, and this year that break included spending time in Nova Scotia with my family—which filled my cup after not seeing them in person for almost three years.
Looking ahead
This week, I laced up my shoes three times for short workouts to test how my body feels and where my fitness is. While it’s going to take some work, I’m signed up to race in April for the 21k de Montréal. I picked the 5k distance because while I’m confident I can train through the spring, I want to test speed over endurance and I like that the course is contained between Île Sainte-Hélène and Île Notre-Dame.
So follow along with my training, and periodic health updates. I’m going to use this space for weeknotes to summarize mileage and any test results that influence my plan.
Running from hysteria 
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