May 23rd, 2023. And much like that Mustang it can take a crazy turn and sometimes go off the road, just like my life did on April 7th 2023. This is my story.

On Friday April 7th, 2023, two days after having completed my final 21 mile run in advance of the 2023 Boston Marathon, I was feeling great about my recovery when the unexpected happened. A normal late morning trip to the bathroom was met with a surprisingly large amount of blood in my urine. Having had kidney challenges in the past (stones which are f’ng painful) I immediately thought it might be something related to that. I immediately went to the internet to look it up and Dr. Google (he/she/they suck btw. They are not a real doctor and they tell you terrible things. And they don’t take insurance!) told me that it could be runners hematuria (blood in urine from long distance running. I’m sure thats what this is) or possibly bladder cancer (no way!). I felt totally fine, no pain or even slight discomfort. I decided to call the urologist and see if they could do a urine test. Luckily I was able to get in that afternoon and have them run a test. Five days later I got the call, “I am sorry to report but we found indications of cancer in the test”. Well so much for runners hematuria.

Three days later on April 14th, I was in the doctors office getting a scope (in the most uncomfortable of locations, use your imagination but don’t linger on that thought) to locate the tumor. After requesting some extra numbing (to be clear there could never be enough of that numbing gel) they were able to locate the tumor in the bladder. It was confirmed…I have bladder cancer….mind blown.

I will spare you the long drawn out explanation of the typical thoughts and emotions that goes through everyone’s mind when faced with the big C but needless to say it was shocking. So outside of the typical, “How bad is it?” “How long do I have to live?” “Am I going to die?” questions, the one that came out my mouth first was “May I still run the marathon on Monday?” The doctor looked at me slightly stunned and said “I don’t see why not,” and thats how my journey began. One long run, one simple symptom and here we are.

There are those that say exercise can kill you, in my case it may just be the thing that saves my life.

This blog will be the stories, musings, and emotions on my drive for a cure. I expect lots of twisty roads, peaks and valleys, some red lights and hopefully more green lights. I can’t promise it will always be pretty along the way, but can promise it will be real. I hope you will be my passenger on this journey…..and don’t worry I don’t drive a Mustang…..I’m a Porsche guy!!!!!