Special Holiday Edition: Focus On Health

Good news from Dave! He has no recent major issues and no surgery planned.

Mark just had surgery yesterday and should be home by now. He is expected to make a complete recovery over the next few weeks and should be running again before January is over.

I had a small funny looking growth on my leg called a seborrheic keratosis (which is doctor-talk for a small funny looking non-cancerous growth) removed on Monday. It is being biopsied and the expectation is that the biopsy will be negative (which is why the doctor called it what she did). While I was at the dermatologist I had some other stuff looked at that I didn't have any real concerns about and it turns out that I should have been concerned. I have growths called actinic keratoses on my head. These things could become cancerous so the treatment is to attempt to kill them now so they fall off before they have the chance to morph into cancer. The treatment is to put a 5% solution of fluorouracil (a chemotherapy drug) on my head for the next two to three weeks.

Its a good thing that, like Coach Truce, non of us are getting old.

Coach Truce is a Hall of Famer!

Congratulations to Coach Gary Truce.

Reindeer Run 5K (literally)!

Deer joins runners in reindeer run!

As my final race of the season, I entered the 17th annual Medaille College Reindeer Run 5K.  Apparently the highlight of the race was a live deer that makes his home in the cemetery which hosted 2 miles of the 5K course.  With about 300 meters to go, my wife was yelling at me about something, and I later learned that an eight point buck had joined the race for a while, and was off to the side (see photo)!



We heard from other runners that this deer seems to like the 5K races, and also joined in on a spring 5K earlier this year, also held in the cemetery.

Raybuck gaining.......

On the more mundane side, I finished 15th overall out of a record crowd of 745 (many of whom were walkers), but here's the shocker.......only 2nd in the 50 to 54 year old age group with a brisk time of 18:28 (5:57/mile)!  The age group winner was 17:56!  And 3rd place was just behind me in 18:35 (still sub 6 pace), with 4th place in 18:56, and 5th in 19:10!  I would have actually won the 45 to 49 year age group.  These 50 year olds seem competitive!! Maybe it represents the baby boomers, or the running boom era runners?

In summary, I was pleased with the outcome, as I have had a goal this year of breaking 6 minutes per mile in the 5K (18:38), and I had a secondary goal of sub 18:30.  Splits were 5:52, 11:55, so the last 1.1 miles was run at a 5:55 pace.....fairly even splits considering the first mile was flat and straight, the 2nd mile wound through the cemetery with sharp turns, and some slight hills.  The 3rd mile was also in the cemetery with one more uphill.

OK, Mark, relax your face!

I'm done racing for the year, probably until Spring or early summer.  If the weather holds out, I could possibly try a mile time trial on the track next weekend, but the forecast is calling for colder and lake effect snow!  Full results can be found here!

Ridiculous sprint to the finish!