Recovery Run

This running in the evenings is getting old fast! It truly is difficult to get yourself motivated to run after you’ve spent an entire day at work, mowing grass and running a weed eater all over creation and back. I push mowed weeded 5.15 miles at work today, and the temperature when I finished was a cool 90 degrees, so coming home after that go go run - forget it!

Fixed dinner, changed, helped Tina get the youngest ready for soccer practice, and then I sat around and drank lots of water. I cooled off, took popsicles to the kiddies at soccer practice, and decided that I should run. I keep hearing about these “recovery” runs that are a good idea shortly after a really long run - I don’t usually do them - so I went for a recovery run. Set out to do 3 - 4 miles, and that’s pretty much what I did. 3.18 miles with a 9:13/mile pace, which, considering what I put my body through today and the heat, I’d say that was a pretty decent run.

To completely change subject, I’d like to focus a little on autism and why I am running.

It is currently estimated that, in the U.S. alone, there are between 500,000 and 1,000,000 individuals with some form of autism. There are roughly 306 million people living in the U.S. right now. I am by no means a math genius, but that seems like a pretty high percentage. Imagine how many people come in contact with someone with autism on a regular basis, how many families that deal with autism on some level each and every day. I’m sure I said it before, but I will repeat it often. My wife and I are fortunate to have Noah. Yes, he is autistic, but he is on the very high functioning end of the spectrum. There are families out there with multiple autistic children at varying degrees of severity. We have it pretty easy compared to some, yet even on our best days we struggle some.

Some have found that changing the diet has made all the difference. For people like us, changing the diet didn’t seem to change anything. Some families are seeking alternative medicine treatments with great success. Others are finding that traditional means (i.e. doctor, psychologist, prescription medicine, etc.) are working to their advantage. We are stuck. While we are slowly making a little progress, that slowly is more like creeping. The point here is not that we have been unsuccessful in finding the right treatment(s) for Noah, but that the spectrum is, well, it’s bizarre! Some treatments work for some and not for others. Some treatments may actually make matters worse, but we have to keep trying.

So, when you see a car with the autism ribbon on the bumper; or when you see someone with an autism t-shirt, or when you see a show on TV, etc., etc., etc., know that there are many people living around you that could possibly be somewhere on the autism spectrum. Do your part to learn, and find out what you can do to help. While you’re at it, help a runner raise money for research - every dollar counts!