I Run to Stop MS

[walkerhe09]

We have a group mostly in the Philadelphia area but a participant can be located anywhere. What we do is pick a series of races over the course of the year and raise money. I usually run about 11 races for my fundraising year. Our signature event is the Philadelphia Marathon/1/2 Marathon in November. It is really a nice team. A few of the participants even have MS including myself. Our page is off of the Delaware Valley MS Society web site. Here is the link http://www.nationalmssociety.org/cha...-ms/index.aspx
Take a look - Howard Walker

[ActiveMSers]

Thanks Howard! Good luck this weekend in the Shamrock Marathon (Virginia Beach) if you are running in that one. For those interested, here are the details:

http://www.mytritraining.net/events/shamrock-marathon

And nice to meet you. We have a lot of runners on the board.

[walkerhe09]

Thanks for the well wishes Dave. I did not run the Shamrock but did run the Garden Spot Village 1/2 marathon on March 31st. It was a great run for me but my poor right shoe takes a beating because of foot drop. I have adjusted to it over the past 3 years but I go through shoes like crazy. I wear the tips of the shoe out by dragging the top of the shoe on the ground and am forced to discard the shoe once it wears all the way through.

If anyone has any ideas, I would appreciate it. I try to buy the lightest shoe possible andthat helps somewhat. In the overall scheme of things, it is minor but annoying none the less.

[AMFADVENTURES]

Congratulations on the 1/2 marathon and thanks for taking the time to tell about it. Seeing what others are up to is a big part of what keeps me going.

As to the foot drop problem, have you tried leg exercises with heavy weights? About a year ago a physiologist and professional football trainer recommended I work up to doing 3 - 4 sets of 6 - 8 reps to exhaustion of the heaviest weight I could push. I did work up to that but got to say that the first couple of times I started pushing the heaviest weight I could, I was wiped out for days afterward. It did get better though and I was able to make progress. More recently however, I have had to forgo the heavy weights in favor of a heavy training schedule for a cycling event I have coming up. I just couldn't do both. So far the improvements seem to be somewhat temporary in nature but I always expected it to take a year or more before sustained results showed up.

If you try this I hope you'll report back, whatever the results.

Good Luck in your future endeavors, I hope to read more,

[walkerhe09]

Thanks for the suggestion about the weight training of the legs. I will give it a shot for sure. Not to get all sappy but it is hard some times (even after 3 years) when you realize it is not going to get better like a muscle pull. I try not to dwell on it too much because I know there are people who have it far worse than me. I think about the times I used to run prior to my last episode and know it will be difficult to say the least to get back to them. I am trying my hardest. Last year, I was 3 minutes (2:02 vs 1:59) off my last half marathon before my episode so I am close and hopefully this year I will get there. I ran the Garden Spot in 2:06 which is a great start to the year and 6 minutes faster than last year. My next 1/2 marathon is the ODDyssey on May 26th so we will see how that turns out.

[walkerhe09]

I just wanted to write a little post about the RnR 1/2 marathon a couple weeks ago. The run for me was uneventful. I finished in 2:04 which is decent for me but slower than I had wanted but oh well. A couple things happened during the run that I thought I would share - the I Run to Stop MS group I participate in wear orange shirts during our runs with the I Run logo on it. So, I was running with my sister and we were trucking along and a British man runs up beside me and starts telling me a story about his father who was a soccer player in the Premier League in England. His career was coming to an end and he had grown to hate soccer. Then right after he retired, he received his MS diagnosis. Even though it was bad, it ended up being a blessing – he became excited about soccer again and ended up coaching the team he had played for. It also made him have a much stronger relationship with his son (the guy who was telling me the story). His father passed away last year but even though he had the disease, it made his father appreciate what he had in life including his abilities and his family. It truly was a memorable story. We shook hands and wished each other well and went on our way. A little later on (remember it is 13 miles), a woman comes up besides us and tells us she has MS. She was received her diagnosis about a year ago. We told her to join the group and last week she did. These are not the only times when the shirts we wear prompt these types of events but it never ceases to surprise me. It is nice in a way but also shows you the reach of this disease. Just thought I would share.

[milesandtrials]

I loved your race recap and sharing the stories that you encountered along the way. I have an "Erase MS" shirt that I wear that will get some nice comments about, but haven't ever worn it during a race. I'd love a "I Run to Stop MS" shirt to wear during an upcoming marathon. I'll have to look into that and see what stories I may hear along the way! Take care.

[life well lived]

Where does one order one of those shirts? I know it's too late, but I am running my first half marathon on Saturday in Annapolis, MD. this past winter, for a 15k I made a shirt which said "We all have excuses." I wanted to add "Mine is MS. See you at the finish?" to the back if I wore it again. Sadly it was ruined by being washed and shrunk to oblivion. Now I just plan on wearing the MS run/walk orange shirt from the DC even this year.

[walkerhe09]

I just looked in for the first time in a while. The shirts can be obtained through the link below:

http://www.nationalmssociety.org/cha...-ms/index.aspx

It is a group anyone is free to join. I just pick races to run during the year and ask people for donations. It is not a location specific group so anyone anywhere is free to participate even though it is based from the Philadelphia chapter. Our 2012 year is obviously coming to a close but we will be starting again in early 2013.

[AMFADVENTURES]

I want to offer my congrats on your most recent 1/2, better late than never I hope, also, 2:04 sounds awfully good to me. And thanks for relaying those uplifting stories. I've only worn my "I Ride With MS" jersey once so far and like Milesandtrials, I received a number of positive comments, but not any cool stories like that yet. However, I don't doubt that one day I will and I look forward to relaying them.

Life Well Lived, how did your 1/2 go?

Larry