When it comes to being athletic I am no longer to be called athletic. Back in high school I was a great athlete and even up until I was out of college. But now I am overweight and also have a stoma. So being out of shape and struggling with my weight I decided to work on making a change. My wife was nice enough to join me in the idea to run a 5k. Having an ostomy I checked with my doctor who told me to start small and work my way up, but that It was not going to be an issue as long as I did not overdo it. So this advice did me well and I began my journey to running a 5k.
This all started with the idea that I should start to lose some weight. I know I am overweight and the fact that covid-19 is going on right now made the journey a bit harder. I would normally go to the gym and do less strenuous activities but since those are all closed down my options are limited. I was not able to use an elliptical to lower my weight, or a treadmill to soften the blows on my knees and ankles. So I ha
Not luckily I have a great amount of paths and sidewalks around where I live and some lead through a nice park too. This gave me lots of options of places to go and that really was nice. I had done lots of running in the past and even done half marathons and tough mudders. That was 15 years ago now and the thought of doing those things was simply gone. So I decided to start slow and my wife had a great idea on how to do it.
My wife found some running apps and we downloaded one that seemed to fit our need. This one had a long slow process to getting you up to the ability to run a 5k. It was a fantastic model for what I needed in my life. I needed to start slow and this one began by jogging for a minute and walking 1.5 minutes. Then each day it would go a little further or have you walk a little less in between jogs. I could see myself going further each day in the neighborhood and that was really helpful.
Now with an ostomy the slow start helped my body strength at the right timing. I still used elastic belts and bags with loops to keep the bag against my body more firmly. Granted I am a bit squishy myself so it still moved around some as I jogged. But I did not give up and neither did my wife. We signed up for a 5k and within a month we were at the starting line. I will admit I was nervous to run in front of all those people, but I had no issues. My stomach was great and I was able to finish with my wife in 35 minutes. For me that was pretty darn good and it was a bunch of fun. We took many selfies while running too so the documentation was great.
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