Before the beginning...

One of the best compliments I ever got, was from a race announcer as I ran that last few yards of a super sprint Triathlon, the Duckathon in Lodi, WI a few years ago.  I was the final finisher, and as I sprinted toward the finish line he said the words that I had to memorialize on a photo from that day, "There is no quit in her"

I don't find myself to be particularly special and I certainly know a lot of runners who have overcome far more than I have.  But I still find it surprising, looking at the entire span of my life, that I ever became a runner/triathlete.  I came so close, so many times to "There is no Start in her"

I have been the final participant in more races than I can remember, and I've also been mid-pack...either is fine with me. Here's why.

Going back to the very beginning.  I was born with a turned in foot that required a cast to correct, and shallow hip sockets. When the pediatrician noted it my parents were sent to Iowa City to a specialist to have me treated.  I've looked at the history of this condition, and in cases like mine sometimes people chose not to treat...I will be eternally grateful that my parents did not choose that option.  The long-term outcome for many, historically, was sometimes debilitating osteoarthritis of the hips.

The treatment was awkward. Something called a "pillow splint"although I'm sure it had a more technical name. I remember many years later my Aunt saying to me at a family gathering that she could not believe how I had taken up running because in her mind I was still a little tiny one learning to crawl and walk with the splint.  The link  below is a video of me doing just that...so you can see what she meant.

 Suellen with the splint

Fast forward to college.  I was a theater major. Every year we did a children's production, and this particular year it was "A Carousel of Tales" which was a compilation of children's stories from around the world.  One of them included a dragon...which in our staging was made up of several people...I was one of them.  When the dragon was slain, we disconnected and did a safe theater-fall from a platform a few inches tall.  One night in rehearsal I executed my fall fine but didn't roll away fast enough to be missed by the person behind me.  My right knee was twisted, but I could walk and it was better in a few days, but from time to time over the years, my knee would swell up and ache.  Many years later, in my 30's, the flare ups became more frequent and I ended up having surgery.  Apparently I had injured some cartilage in my knee and there had been a build up of scar tissue.  Luckily I had a surgeon who believed in the minimal approach when the common treatment was much more invasive.  My knee was much better, and the flares became far less frequent and painful.  But the idea of running seemed ridiculous.

Then in my mid 40's the chronic low back pain I had had on and off for years got really bothersome and an MRI revealed some spinal stenosis.  My doctor told me that I would, "more than likely never walk more than half a mile without pain."  The PT in his office was more encouraging however. But no on there suspected I would ever do a marathon...which I did a few years later (see photo below).

I used all of these physical issues and more when Glenda and Melanie tried to convince me that I needed to come out and trying walking or running with them.  "But my back...my knees...I probably wasn't meant to...."

History is not destiny...and when I was ready I did start. And there is no quit in me. A few years back,  I even had a second surgery on my knee and did a super sprint triathlon just short of 8 weeks later!