The goal is very modest. I just want to do better than I did the previous year. Let's revisit a specific date: November 13, 2022. After 15 years, I completed my goal of finishing a half marathon in every US state at the Val Nolasco half marathon in Honolulu, Hawaii. Crossing the finish line that day was anti-climactic as I felt very little joy or happiness in that moment. I didn't feel much sense of achievement at the time either. It was 90 percent sadness.
After doing more walking than jogging for the previous 3 miles, I summoned all my strength to trudge across the finish line with a very slow jog. I was totally spent when I crossed the line. I had no more spurts of jogging left in me and even the quarter mile walk back to my hotel was quite a voyage. I don't even remember my time, but it was somewhere between 2:46-2:49, easily my worst ever. Especially now, I do NOT want this to be my last race. That is not the way that I want to go out! I'd much prefer to go out with a local 5K in which a final sprint shores up a sub-30 minute finish and I pass a couple of people in the last tenth of a mile. That's hardly a triumph, but it's better than what I described above.
After the disaster in Hawaii, I took 6 weeks of complete inactivity as a last ditch effort to reset my system. It didn't work. The sensitivity and extreme need for pills still remained. Nevertheless, from New Years 2023 up through President's Day, I showed some pretty steady improvement. I never got much below 28 minutes for 5K but I started out closer to 35 minutes. Things took a turn for the worse when I made a serious effort to tackle the Candida. I started with Apple Cider Vinegar and Probiotics then later tried anti-fungals, most notably Curcumin, NAC and then Zinc. I kept hoping that I could get healthy enough to try a local 5K at some point later in the year but it never happened.
Again, let's just do better than last year. That's not asking for much!
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