Each run for the past few weeks has been nerve-wracking for me. Every little twinge of discomfort has me worried. Here's why.

A few weeks ago I decided that I should go see my chiropractor. I'd been having a little discomfort in my left thigh. It wasn't anything I normally would have done anything about--pop a couple extra ibuprofen and call it good. But knowing that I would be running hundreds of miles over the next 6 months, I decided to get it checked out.

After some questions and a few muscle strength tests, the doctor couldn't be sure of exactly what was wrong but suspected it was lower back related. He sent me for an MRI. A little over a week later I was back in his office where we went over the results...bulging disks at L4 and L5 which were pressing on a nerve causing the discomfort in my leg. The doctor's first comment after going over the results was, "I'm not going to be able to talk you out of this marathon, am I?" We'd talked extensively about it at my prior appointment. Not just about the training but also why I was doing it. I was proud that in just one short visit, my passion for what I have committed to came across and made an impression on him!

He suggested an 18-week program that combined physical therapy and chiropractic adjustments. The first six weeks required visits 3 times each week. The second six weeks 2 visits each week and one visit each week for the last 6 weeks. My insurance would cover the majority of each visit (well, 80%), but with that many visits, there was no way I could afford to pay the difference. I asked about modifying the program with less visits. He felt strongly that this was the best course--one he'd had success with in other patients. As my brain scrambled to figure out what I should do, this doctor--who I've seen on several occasions including weekly for a couple of months while I was pregnant with Cole (because of him I was able to sleep at night again!) but has no REAL connection to me--looked at me and said, "If I can make this affordable for you, will you commit to the entire process?" I told him that I would, thinking there was no way to fit this into our budget. Well, I was wrong! I will be forever grateful that this doctor saw how much this journey meant to me and is doing everything he can to ensure I get through it without further injury.

So now my weeks are filled with office visits where I'm learning all kinds of new stretches (which I know I should have been doing all along!). If I'm not stretching there, I'm doing it at home...twice a day. I also have to wear a "belt" every day. A lovely addition to my wardrobe. The whole process is a huge commitment, but one I'm going to give 100% to. When it gets to be 10 p.m. and I haven't gotten my second set of stretches/strengthening exercises in for the day and I really just want to go to bed, I remind myself how much I love to run and how devastated I would be if I had to give it up.

I'm happy to report that I already feel a difference. The discomfort in the back of my leg that led me to make the initial appointment is pretty much gone! And while each run still makes me nervous, I ran 5.5 miles on Sunday followed by another 3.5 on Tuesday and feel great!

Had my first marathon dream the other night. I expect it is probably the first of many, especially as October draws close.

I had two days to run this marathon. The course was all over the place, and in order to run it, you had to follow various strings, tubes, curly-q thingies and they all crisscrossed over each other so from the very beginning I was having trouble staying on course. The first day, I only ran a 5K. The second day I knew I had to cover a lot of ground. So I set back out following the crazy path that wound through baseball fields and a downtown area. At one point, the path I was following went into a movie theater. So I sat down and watched for a while. Then I realized that the day was half over and I'd only finished 9 miles. It was also one of those dreams where you try your very hardest to run fast, but just can't. Usually I'm being chased by something in those types of dreams. But in this one I needed to run fast in order to finish, and I just couldn't. Crazy. That's all I remember. Don't know if I finished. Hope I'm not lured into any movies theaters on Oct. 7 :)

I'm new to this blog thing, so you'll have to excuse any ramblings. I hope I have family and friends who are interested in following me through this journey, but mostly I'm blogging this for myself.

As a kid, I kept a diary for years. I still love to read back through those memories. I hope to capture many memories here, too.

Not only do I want to capture the running memories, but--because I also made a commitment to fundraising for Team Cystic Fibrosis--also the generosity I find along the way. I've already been touched by the many donations I have received. Thank you to everyone who has donated so far! And to anyone interested in learning more about my fundraising endeavors, you can visit http://www.cff.org/LWC/CandyJohnson.