July 23, 2010
I'm in between races right now, in my summer recovery period. Getting some much needed rest after my half marathon circuit, and training for my full marathon craziness this fall. Since it's way too hot to run outside today, I've decided to hide indoors in the nice A/C and reflect upon everything I've accomplished so far this year.
I'm up to mile 739, and so far I've raised $6175. Not too shabby. I'll admit, my fundraising hasn't quite kept up with my running pace, but maybe I'm just running too fast! Yeah, that's it. So many people have mentioned how inspired they are to read about my story. Either they've learned a lot more about what it's like to live with autism, or they've finally motivated themselves to get off the couch and go for a jog. Either way, it is an incredibly compliment to which I am extremely humbled and grateful.
Not long ago, I was feeling like quite a nobody as a plain old parent of autism. I hadn't had a job since right before my daughter was born 10 years ago. My whole plan to go back to work never really came to fruition after Bailey was born. My social circle wasn't exactly expanding either. Friendships, like flowers, grow when they are nutured. But when you are too busy or exhausted to care for them, they tend to wither and die. I spend most of my time at home trying to catch up on the never ending pile of laundry and my infinitely long autism research to do list. I even spent one entire evening bawling to my husband over the fact that I wasn't even Google-able. It was like I didn't exist!
Enter biomedical treatment. Suddenly, I had stumbled on to the first thing that actually seemed to improve my son's functioning. Well, you'd better believe I jumped all over that bandwagon! As time went by, Bailey got a lot better, and so did I. I started to have time to do fun things again, which meant that I actually began to be fun myself. I had so much energy and such a desire to do SOMETHING to help other families with autism find the same success that I did. Enter running.
I have never wanted to be a doctor, and I'm terrible at public speaking. I am also completely lacking in angst and anger, so I didn't feel like I'd be such a good autism activist either, because you need that to stand up to the powerful medical and governmental forces
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