This is the message sent to the snowshoe group regarding my "retirement" from organizing the WMAC Dion Snowshoe Racing Series.
Happy Holidays Snowshoe People!
Normalcy was upended a bit for me this summer. In August I had a seizure due to a mass in my
brain. It wasn’t what I thought a
seizure would be like, I just couldn’t verbalize for a few hours. This mass had been in my head for decades,
and I had been having it monitored every six months with scans for the past
three years. At some point, this was
going to happen.
On October 16th, I had surgery to remove the tumor. All went fantastic, and I was released for
home the next morning. No issue with
speech or with my right arm/hand due to the tumor causing pressure on the left
side of my brain (the worst case scenario would have been having to relearn
speech).
My plan was:
1) survive surgery,
2) get out of hospital as soon as possible,
3) get home and do whatever rehab
necessary.
My tenet was patience and
prayer. I managed recovery by sleeping
often and walking my 15-year old dog throughout the day.
I was able to return to work three weeks later (when the 18
staples came out of my skull). I was
released for local driving just this Wednesday.
K2 has picked me up and brought me home from work since August. God Bless him.
I am lucky. The tumor
was between the skull and membrane, and benign.
Things are pretty much normal.
I’ve been running with Wuzzam a bundle, and can keep up with him, ok.
As for the snowshoe series;
I am not confident I can be reliable to organize it. Last year was the 20th year of our series,
and that is a long time for one person to handle the reigns. I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but
I believe I’ve directed well over 50 races, and dozens of fun runs, demo days, etc
over the years.
I know for the first
decade PH and I would use two weeks of vacation from work to put the events
on. Truthfully, I thought last year
would be it for me anyhow, prior to the surgery. Now, with limited driving at the moment, it
is an easy decision. As the Taoist say… "...do nothing, and everything gets done."
I am planning on racing a bit this year, and saying
hello. The snowshoe group has really
made me smile for two decades, and I am blessed to count you as friends. Not sure when winter plans on arriving, but I
am certain it will soon enough. See you
in the snow…..
