Breaking Barriers Blog

I was disappointed with my finish at the Surf City 10 miler last Sunday.  Since I am officially training for Boston in April 2012, I know I am being extra critical of myself.  Do you ever do that?   Well, I excel at self-criticism, so this gives me an opportunity to practice at looking at the “glass half full.”

I got to run a beautiful course in Huntington Beach, California along the ocean and even though the wind kicked up and it started to rain at mile six, the weather cooperated for most of the race.  I’ve been suffering from a hamstring pull and I have taken two doses of a three-week remedy prescribed by my homeopathic doctor which is allowing me to continue to run without taking time off—that’s amazing.  I had an opportunity to do an important training race to build up speed at just the right time in my training.

Okay, my goal was to run 8:30 or 8:35 minute miles.  I accomplished that goal up to mile seven and then lost it.  My final time was 1:31:00.  So I averaged 9:05 minute miles.  There were 121 women in my age group and I came in 6^th.  That’s not bad!

My next training race is scheduled for January 7^th—the Southern California Half Marathon.  The last time I ran a half marathon on May 2, 2010, I ran 1:50:21 and came in third in my age group.   Okay, the challenge is on!

The point is—I am training for Boston.  That is a dream come true.  Whether I run it fast or slow, I will complete my dream race for the second time in my life.  Life is good.

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Would I have achieved my life-long dream of running the Boston Marathon for the first time in 2009 without homeopathy?  The answer is a resounding NO.

I know what some of you are thinking—homeopathy?  You’re kidding.  That’s hoodoo stuff.

I have a close friend, an avid runner, who has been suffering from plantar fasciitis for at least 2 years.  Like most obsessed runners, he cannot stop running and runs through the searing pain.  He’s tried various medical and alternative procedures such as, special foot inserts, running barefoot, running on his toes, taping his foot, massage therapy, acupuncture and even electric shock, blood transfusions and drinking cranberry juice before a run (yes really).  Nothing helped.  But when I mention homeopathy, he looks at me like I still believe in Santa Claus.

Yes, being open to homeopathic medicine is a paradigm shift—a total departure from how we view medical healing in our culture.  So what is homeopathy?  According to Homeopathic Medicine at Home by Maesimund B. Panos, M.D. and Jane Heimlich, the fundamental law upon which homeopathy is based is the law of similars, or “like is cured by like.”  The law of similars states that a remedy can cure a disease if it produces symptoms in a healthy person similar to those of the disease.

For instance, a person develops a fever with chills, flushed face and dilated pupils.  The homeopathic doctor searches for a remedy that produced all of these symptoms, under controlled conditions, in a healthy person.  When the sick person takes the remedy, the symptoms disappear.  The law of similars enables the doctor to select the one medicine (the simillimum) that is needed by matching the symptoms of the individual to the symptoms the remedy induces.  The remedy stimulates our immune system (vital force) to cause healing.  All homeopathic remedies are derived from plants, animals and minerals from all around the world.  They are FDA approved and completely safe. **

Yes, I can see you looking at me like I’m crazy.  Maybe I am, however, this form of medicine has been around since the 1700’s and is the first choice of treatment of such people as David Beckham, Whoopie Goldberg, Paul McCartney, President Clinton, Martina Navratilova, the Royal family of England, and me.  After all I am a runner who is getting faster in my fifties.  Now, that isn’t normal and I’m convinced homeopathy is one factor in my success.

When I trained for the Kansas City Marathon in 2008, I suffered a knee injury.  It wasn’t critical enough to strop training and I “ran through” it in typical obsessive fashion.  When I crossed the finish line in Kansas City and realized I had broken the magic 4-hour mark (after trying unsuccessfully the previous 10 years), of course, I was thrilled.  But when I realized later that I had qualified for the Boston Marathon for the first time in my life at the age of 54, I was—well—beyond thrilled.

It was October 2008 and I had six months to train for Boston.  Of course I could have just run the marathon slow for the joy of running it, but give me a break—it was Boston!   I wanted to run strong.  I knew I wouldn’t really enjoy the experience unless I could run at my potential.  So I wanted to train hard enough to run a strong race.

Despite the pain and stiffness, I ploughed into training.  But when my weekly training miles exceeded 40 miles a week, I could no longer run through the pain in my knee.  Icing helped bring down the swelling and I wrapped a bandage around my knee to support it, but alas, I was losing the battle.  The pain was too much to bear.  The Boston Marathon was only 3 months away.  I started to despair.  It was inconceivable that I would give up now.  So decided to see a doctor…but not the kind of doctor you may think.

I had already established a relationship with a homeopathic doctor, Dahlia Shemtob H.D., CCH, when I had started to suffer from the lovely symptoms of pre-menopause and sought out a safer alternative to manufactured medications such as Estradiol and Premarin which are linked to heart disease and breast cancer.  For more information about the Women’s Health Initiative, a long-term study on the effects of hormone replacement therapy, follow this link:   http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/whi/.

I started seeing Dahlia (yes, I call her Dalia) in 2004 for help with pre-menopause but found I was healing from chronic sinus issues and long-term anxiety attacks.  I even got help dealing with the emotional trauma of divorce.  As I was purging issues that were causing me emotional distress, my immune system was getting stronger and I was healthier.  I was getting fewer colds and feeling more energetic.

It was an easy decision to consult with Dahlia when I could no longer run with my knee injury.  I wasn’t sure what to expect because my work with her up to that point was to boost my overall immune system, but I had read that homeopathy was also effective in treating acute injuries and illnesses as well as chronic ones.

Dahlia was not interested in a diagnosis.  She was only interested in how the pain felt and how it affected me.  After I answered her probing questions she prescribed a remedy for my injury, Anacardium.   I took the two pellets she prescribed and put them under my tongue.  They were tasteless and odorless.  Then I hoped for a miracle.  The result was nothing short of amazing.**

The next day, I went out for a run.  No, I didn’t feel the pulling sensation and the stiffness had diminished somewhat but, more importantly, I felt no pain.  I ran a 15-mile training run that day with no pain.  I was amazed but mostly overjoyed.

I improved over time even though I was running over 40 miles a week at that point.  As my training increased to 60 miles a week, I wondered if the injury would surface, but it didn’t.  I still felt no pain.  I ran my first Boston Marathon in April 2009 in 3:53:42—the fastest marathon of my life at the age of 54.

Now I have officially started training for my second Boston Marathon and I am, again, training to run a strong marathon.  This time I have been living with a hamstring injury since before I ran my last marathon on May 1^st (another PR at the age of 56 by the way).  It has progressively gotten worse and I cannot run without pain.

This time I consulted Dahlia before I was not able to run at all.  She prescribed the same remedy, Anacardium, and I am recovering amazingly fast.  I am confident my training will proceed as planned.  If you want a faster alternative to conventional medicine, consider homeopathy.  Boston—here I come!

**For a more detailed description of homeopathy, homeopathic remedies, the function of a homeopathic doctor, and a comparison to allopathic medicine, see my Premium Content.

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It’s 2003 and I’m in love again.  It was one of those situations you read about in a romance novel.  Mike walked into the room and our eyes met.  That was it.  I fell hard and fast.  Mike was handsome and outgoing, an entrepreneur, my age and a runner.  He wasn’t obsessive about it like I was, but enjoyed exercise.  We loved travel, music and we laughed.  It was a whirlwind and I got swept up in the hurricane-force winds.  Before I could catch my breath, we had bought a house together.

Even though I was excited about my new life, something inside wanted to put on the breaks.  But I didn’t listen to my intuition.  I know what you are thinking…it’s a bad idea to jump into another relationship so quickly.  Try telling that to someone who is clearly on the rebound.

Perhaps I was trying to fill the void I felt from my recent divorce or I was denying the guilt I felt from breaking up the family.  Looking back, this should have been a time of reflection and healing.  But I wasn’t ready to face my anxieties so I jumped into a new relationship.

A word about new relationships…it is true, we often become someone else when we are in the throes of falling in love.  It’s not until later that we start to become who we really are.  Then we look at each other and wonder, “Why have you changed?”

We moved in together, with our own expectations of how to co-habitat.  We tend to get set in our ways over time, right?  I knew there was trouble when he refused to put the toilet seat down or put the cap back on the toothpaste.  We think it’s the little things that irritate us, but it’s all of those little “straws” that are breaking down a relationship that is dysfunctional at the core.  What happened to all of those similarities I thought we had?  Now add the condition termed “hormonal” to the list, and life became even more challenging.

I had a clue that my hormones were not in balance when I experienced the tough time I had with my pregnancy.  I began to have daily multiple hot flashes and to wake up in the morning looking like I had just finished a long run.  I started snapping at anyone who dared to look at me—especially Mike.  But, when I started gaining weight, even though I was running high mileage, I couldn’t stand it anymore. It was time to get help.

My grandmother was a pioneer.  She was a firm believer in herbal medicines and maintaining health through eating right and supplementing with vitamins, minerals and herbs.  She lived to her late nineties, without the trauma of disease.  I carried her beliefs and was already taking a multitude of vitamins and herbs daily.  I had a deep belief that our bodies have a tremendous ability to heal themselves.  I didn’t buy into our healthcare system, which mostly treats symptoms, not the cause, with toxic chemicals that cause side effects.

Especially in the wake of the Women’s Health Initiative trial, which was stopped in early 2002, and concluded that women taking the pharmaceutical estrogen (Estradol and Premarin-made from horse urine) and progestin (Prempro) caused a higher risk of breast cancer, heart disease, stroke, and blood clots.  For more information about the Women’s Health Initiative, a long-term study on the effects of hormone replacement therapy, follow this link:   http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/whi/.  I looked for an alternative way to solve my hormonal issues.  I quickly found out that my options were limited.

My research, however, brought me to homeopathy.  Homeopathic medicine is a natural, holistic system of treatment that originated in the late eighteenth century and is practiced widely today in other countries.  It is a practice that focuses on enhancing overall health—both emotional and physical.  Emotional issues manifest into physical ailments.  For instance, repressed anger can cause stroke or heart attack or stress can cause ulcers and headaches.  Therefore, depending on the state of health at the time of treatment, the process may be long-term.

The fundamental law upon which homeopathy is based is the law of similars, or “like is cured by like.” The law of similars states that a remedy can cure a disease if it produces symptoms in a healthy person similar to those of the disease.

For instance, a person develops a fever with chills, flushed face and dilated pupils.  The homeopathic doctor searches for a remedy that produced all of these symptoms, under controlled conditions, in a healthy person.  When the sick person takes the remedy, the symptoms disappear.  The law of similars enables the doctor to select the one medicine (the simillimum) that is needed by matching the symptoms of the individual to the symptoms the remedy induces.

I began to work with a homeopathic doctor, Dr. Dahlia Shemtob H.D., CCH.  I admit that exploring homeopathy was a paradigm shift but Dahlia (yes I call her Dahlia) was very nice and I felt at ease.  Homeopathic medicine is so completely different from Allopathic medicine that it took a leap of faith to participate.  But participate I did and though I didn’t receive immediate benefit for my hormone imbalance, I began to experience relief from the chronic sinus problems and anxieties that had plagued me my entire life—a welcome benefit.  I invite you to check out my Premium Content for an in-depth discussion of homeopathy and its benefits—especially for sports injuries.

I continue to use homeopathy over allopathic medicine whenever possible.  Homeopathy has been a major factor in increasing my overall general health both emotionally and physically.  Homeopathy has been instrumental in my ability to run well as I age.

But back to my hot flashes—I did discover another natural alternative.  As I began to get relief from my hormonal issues, I realized I could not blame “hormones” for the state of the relationship I jumped into.

Next—Bio-identical Hormones and My Retirement Marathon

Training Report

I am tired as I write this!  I logged 65 miles this week—the highest weekly mileage I have ever run.  I am at the height of my training.  My long run was 22 miles on Saturday followed by a 9 mile run on Sunday.  I look forward to decreasing my weekly mileage…

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Happy New Year!  For many of us, moving forward into 2011 is an effort to shed the devastating effect of this lingering recession with hopes of a brighter future.  If you are a runner, perhaps you are training for that first race of the year.  I am.  I have officially started training for the Lincoln (Nebraska) Marathon on May 1^st.

I should be training for Boston because I qualified for the second time in my life last July at the San Francisco Marathon.  I was thrilled to qualify for the second time since it took me 11 years to qualify the first time and I wanted to kick start this blog while training for Boston.  But it wasn’t meant to be.

Registration opened on October 18, 2010 and sold out about 8 hours later.  I was devastated.  After the shock wore off a few days later, I decided that I would focus on the positive.  I did qualify and I could use the extra time to train for Boston 2012.

Sometimes things happen for a reason…

I am a big fan of Bikram Yoga.  If you haven’t heard about it, I highly recommend it to maintain flexibility and range of motion.  It is the same 26 postures each class and takes place in a room heated to 105 degrees.  I like it because the heat allows the muscles to stretch and it is detoxifying to the body.  In addition, I can gauge my progress as time passes.  As a runner, I will never be as flexible as I can be, but it will help me to continue to run as I age.  I try to do a class once a week.

About a week before Thanksgiving I was rushing out of the dressing room to get to a yoga class on time.  It was ironic that I was so rushed as I was going to a 90 minute yoga class (considered moving meditation).   The door was ajar to the dressing room and was held open by a door stop.  I rushed through that door with great determination and speed.  I caught my little toe on the door stop.

I heard my toe crack.

I stumbled to the bench and took several deep breaths as the pain pierced through my body.  Intellectually I knew I broke it but I was in denial.  I hobbled to the class and exposed my broken toe to 90 minutes of 105 degree heat.  Not the smartest thing to do.  Nope, I couldn’t balance and simple movements took great effort.

I am happy to say that I was running again in a month, not at full speed, but running.  I am also a fan of Homeopathy and took Arnica 30c, 3 times a day for 2 days to alleviate the very big bruise on my foot.  I also took Comfrey (sometimes called Knitbone) to encourage fusing of the bones.  Check out the article “Homeopathy: A Safe and Faster Alternative to Healing Sports Injuries” in the Premium Content section.  It describes the miraculous healing benefits of homeopathy in more detail.  No, I did not go to the doctor.  What can they do for a broken toe?  Not much.

My training for Boston would have been cut short by my injury, so it is a blessing of sorts that I wasn’t able to register.  I’m excited about training for the Lincoln marathon.  I will run with my bother Danny and his wife, Amy, who will run the half.

I’m looking forward to a great year of economic improvement and running adventures.  But most importantly, I am looking forward to sharing my story with you over the next few months and hope to encourage and inspire those of you who are approaching middle age—or are already there.  Share your goals on this blog.  It is the first step to achieving them.

My goal is to run the Lincoln Marathon and finish strong in under 4 hours—which  would qualify me for Boston a third time.

Happy New Year!

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