I don't know where to start

13 months ago, I was preparing to try to finish my 30th full marathon.  12 months ago,I had just gotten out of intensive care.  Six months ago, I could barely get myself to standing without help.  Today I completed the New York City Walk and Roll.

I was a little concerned that I would fall apart this morning.  Not the running  walking part, I'll get to that later.  I didn't know how I was going to handle meeting other people with my condition.  Except for a passing moment in rehab I have not met anyone with Guillain-Barré Syndrome, Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy, or my new current diagnosis of Acute Motor Axonal Neuropathy. (I Kinda like the name of the new disease I have.  It is abbreviated AMAN.  So I could say "I have a man".)

I was really worried that when I saw the other people in wheelchairs and walkers that I was totally lose it.  But I was fine, some of them confided in me that they lost it when they checked in.  But I met other survivors walking around just like regular people.  I guess that's what I needed to see.  It was also really good to meet people who I had never met in person before.  Emails and Facebook can only go so far.  And I decided this morning that I want to spend more time with them.  I'm going to find ways to be more involved in the community that I wish I was not a part of.

The distance was a little short on this because Gary made
the classic mistake of pausing his Garman when I rested.
Pausing it is okay only if you remember to restart

I was pretty much ready for this event.  I've been training with my new little Rowley Walker in Prospect Park and they told me it was gonna be flat.  Theye also gave me the impression it would be a mile.  Notsomuch.  I realized that the moment I got to the starting area.  I had been to Ally Pond Park before.  A couple of years ago I ran a three hour race with the Broadway Ultra Society in the same place.  There really is no flat there.  Also, I don't want to fault amateurs for trying to organize a running/walking event, but if you tell someone to walk a mile by following marks on a roadway, you can not tell them to turn around at 1 mile.  Because you still have to walk a mile to get back.

So when everything was over I saw the representative from the foundation trying to figure out how to disassemble the tent that they had borrowed for today's event.  I told her to put me in the loop six months before next year's event.  That in my old life are used to organize running events every week.  I hope I did make a promise I couldn't keep, but I told her that next year I can get her tents, chairs, tables, a finish line structure and an actual flat course.  She told me she would email me this week.

So I have to realize that if I help, I'm not organizing a race.  The fact that there is no starting line, finish line, definitive course or clock is okay.  Everyone can do their own thing at their own pace. Just like my recovery.

The mad dash for the finish line