Like, Totally Tubular, Dude...

It's super hot outside today. We suddenly got this blast of warm air and a hot breeze along with it. I woke up at 3:15 am. Why, I don't know. But after trying to go back to sleep unsuccessfully, I decided to get up and get my run in. I wanted to get 15 miles with a tempo run of 5 miles, so I made coffee, and headed out to the Power Trail just as the light was filling the sky.

I have been working on more business stuff today. I finished the practice display for my booth at this weekend's Pink Boa 5K.

I am staying plenty busy, it seems like each week I look ahead at the following week and the calendar is clear, but by the end of a week, the coming week is jam-packed. That's a good thing. I will be ready for a break in July when I escape to Badwater and then later in the summer when we go to Manhattan Beach.

This morning I started out slow and stiff but after a few miles I was feeling good, so I proceeded south along the Power Trail and got a hair over 5 miles in 39 minutes and change, just under 8 minute pace again. I did 11.2 miles, so I need another 4 or so.

I need to finish running easy this afternoon so I'm waiting for the temperature to peak in the 90s, I need that heat training.

The neighbors behind us are replacing the fence between their yard and ours so I'm having to keep the girls in today, which is fine because they wouldn't want to be out in the heat.

I finally took a break and got some food, ate, and decided to check the mail. All junk, except for one thing.

The colonoscopy report.

I didn't get any phone calls, so that's a good thing. I had that little flutter of dread and fear in my gut that I always have after a mammogram, regardless. I opened the letter, hoping it would say, cleared for 10 years.

Denied!

Dammit. But I am still off the hook for 5 years. As long as I have no symptoms, that is.

The little polyp they removed was a tubular adenoma, those are the most common type of polyp, and they do have the potential to become cancerous. But it's out of me, and I can continue doing what I do, and eat lots of fiber, and go back in 5 years and hope there are no more polyps. They say that these polyps are more likely to be trouble if they grow to 2 cm or more. My little polyp (and I say that affectionately) was 4 mm.

This just confirms the importance of getting these screenings done. If that polyp was in there, and who knows how long it has been, and I didn't know about it, even at 4 millimeters, who knows how long it might take to grow to 2 cm, or larger. Who knows how long it might take to develop into cancer?

I could be walking around with colon cancer in a few years if the right set of cellular or molecular circumstances or triggers happened. Or maybe not. But I'm glad that thing is out of me, cute little polyp that it was, maybe I should give it a name. If it, or another one of it's buddies, wants to cause trouble, it will have to start from scratch.

As much as I found drinking the magnesium citrate to be the worst part of the whole experience, even worse than pooping a gazillion times in 12 hours, worse than having an impossibly sore butt for several days, I would gladly do it again in 5 years if it means I get to avoid colon cancer.

And it's another reason why YOU should not put off screening. Done with my public service announcement soapbox.

Back to running, I am planning to run with two different friends tomorrow, I should get lots of miles in. I run with Emma first thing in the morning and then with Cat at 9. I can still feel those hills from Horsetooth last weekend. The soreness is almost gone but it sucks to get out of the habit of doing hills. Next time I'll do some Rock Repeats, hopefully no rattlesnakes.

Time to go out and run. It is officially 90 degrees.