The Finish Line

After 15 years of having fun (mostly) at the races, it's finally time for me to hang up my running shoes. The last race I blogged about was #574, but I ran two more after that: the Ocean Isle Beach Half Marathon on October 25, 2024, and the Police Donut 5k the following week on November 2, 2024.

After the half marathon, I felt generally fine, but the following week, I began having some back pain. I managed to run the Donut 5k without too much of a problem and felt pretty good despite having to eat a half dozen donuts halfway through the race.

The day after the donut race, I took the day off since my back was hurting, and my right leg had also become painful. To make a long story short, over the next couple of weeks, I became unable to walk or even stand without extreme pain. I ended up seeing an orthopedic surgeon, who did an MRI that revealed a stress fracture in my right tibia, and a spine doctor, whose MRI showed a severely pinched nerve at L4. I ended up in a wheelchair for the next three months, followed by a month of walking with a cane, then finally getting back to somewhat normal about five months later.

It's now May 2025, and although I could probably claw my way back to running, it would be prolonged and probably not worth it, so I've decided to stop running, partly because it's time and partly because I'm now taking care of my wife, whose health is declining.

In 2021, my wife (Linda) was diagnosed with a rare neurologic disorder called Multiple System Atrophy. There is no cure for it, and little by little, things get progressively worse. 

The Cleveland Clinic describes it like this:

  • "Multiple system atrophy is a degenerative brain disease, meaning it causes parts of your brain to deteriorate. This disrupts how you move around and your body’s automatic processes like breathing, digestion and blood pressure. This disease is usually fatal within 10 years, but may have a shorter or longer life expectancy depending on severity."

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/17250-multiple-system-atrophy

Linda can no longer walk or basically do anything as far as normal daily activities, and my goal is to just take care of her and make her feel as comfortable as possible in the remaining time we have together. I could leave her alone in bed or a chair for a couple of hours while I run, but she deserves better. One of my running friends gave me their old treadmill, so now I'm just using the treadmill and doing general exercises and yardwork to try to stay in shape.

I didn't want to leave the blog with no ending, so that's the story. I've enjoyed the running journey, met great people, and had some wonderful experiences. 

With love and gratitude,

~Richard


This is Linda and me in 2017, before her health problems began. She was also a runner, having started running after she retired from teaching middle school for 30 years. She ran more than 150 races before her health began to decline.

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