Living Life to the Fullest – Karen

Today I completed my personal 5k training. This is about the 3rd consecutive weekend I have done this. In continuation of my posts related to Lymphies who live their lives to the fullest with LE, I have to share my personal motivation.

To my family and friends, it may seem like I just took up jogging/walking out of the blue. I mean the last time I ran track was 8th grade. It was more for the participation, as I wasn’t very good. Seriously, I was mediocre at best.

Over the summer beginning in June, I met a fantastic group of people in an on-line support group. One of them was a woman named, Karen. I was on a number of threads with Karen discussing various aspects of Lymphedema, and soon I learned that she had primary bilateral lower extremity just like me. I was initially impressed by the level of knowledge she had on LE. Later she posted a picture that would forever change my attitude about running and about primary bilateral LE – period.

Now up until this point, I had been interval jog/walk training for months but very nervous about taking my speed up to 4 mph in class. I was also fearful of going any kind of long distance.

Karen obliterated my fears. Her 5K participation pictures just blew me away. I was floored. Over the summer I gradually increased my max speed to 4 mph and then 5mph in August. Last week I trained doing 4 mph for 5 solid minutes and six sprints at 6mph for one minute each. Of course walking in between sets.

If I had not seen Karen’s post, who knows what potential I may have left untapped? FEAR was limiting my progress.
Thank you, Karen, for your inspiration and for showing the world what can be done in spite of LE.