TOM JACKSON, Forest Lake; Age: 55; Marathons run: One
Maybe against my better judgment, I have decided to run another Twin Cities Marathon. I have had three knee surgeries in my life and three shoulder surgeries; all are sports related. Since running the TCM in 1998, I have also been diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy, so essentially I don't have much feeling from about midcalf down and my feet are mostly numb — except when it feels like I have someone sticking a knife in them. Interesting disease.
I ditched the prescribed medication and went with a cleaner diet and an (obsessive?) exercise routine. It's worked.
I lift weights every other day with cardio for the days in between. I recently started adding longish distance runs (2-5 miles) back into the cardio portion of my workout schedule and on New Year's Day morning, I started running and just kept going. By the time I reached 10 miles I felt great and it dawned on me that I could likely do 26.2 again: The only reason I had to quit was because my hands were going numb. I walked into the house and said, "I think I'm going to do the marathon this fall!" My family thought I should go for it and so here I am …
Part of the reason I have always wanted to do another one is that in '98 I strained my Achilles' tendon and had to walk up most of the hills. As a result, my time was a little embarrassing — about 5:30 — and I have always secretly wanted a chance to do better.
Lessons learned: Over the years I have seen my health go in cycles, so I've learned it's good to do things daily, but with long-term goals in mind.
1. Newton's law stating that bodies at rest stay at rest and bodies in motion stay in motion, also applies to exercise. When I decided to "do something" to improve my health and lose weight, I had to push myself to exercise for the first few weeks; I wanted to stay at rest. After those few weeks, I started looking forward to running or lifting. I have now arrived at a point where I have to push myself to take a day off. I have to stay in motion. It's funny how much the mind wants the body to keep doing the same thing and how hard you have to fight it — for good or bad.
2. It's never too late in life to work at feeling or looking your best through regular exercise. It sounds clichéd, but age is truly just a number. Even when I was playing baseball in college, I was never in as good of shape as I am now. That's saying a lot for someone who has had six surgeries since graduating from college; it's because I do some physical activity every day.
3. I've learned to work within my limits. My knee joints were bad from sports and surgeries. It dawned on me that if I wanted to run more than 100 yards without pain, I had to strengthen the muscles that support the joints, because the joints weren't/aren't great. I couldn't do a full leg squat without pain, but it didn't hurt if I only went down part way (holding onto something for support) so that's where I started. It also still makes more sense for me to do 60 knee push ups instead of 30 regular ones because of my shoulder surgeries. Modifying is a great way to start, or continue, exercising. □
