it's been a year since I last posted, and I'm not surprised. I've had a busy year with family, running and work. I knew I wouldn't be regular or consistent with this blog, but I think about it from time to time. I use to have a journal when I was younger, but like this website I wasn't constantly writing in it, though it always felt good to put my emotions down on paper.
I've always stated the reasons I run as being that I love it (which I do), and to promote a healthy lifestyle for my children. There is another reason, which is tied into promoting the healthy lifestyle; heart disease.
This all came to a head today at work when I informed a colleague that my uncle had passed away from heart failure last week, his brother is here this week for a procedure (on his heart), and my father will be here next week for the same thing. This colleague knew my uncles growing up, along with their oldest brother who had a bypass done years earlier. I was walking down the hallway, when the reality of it landed on my shoulders, and I started to have a panic attack. I called my wife and we talked about it, and despite my family history (it's extensive with my uncles and aunts on my dads side), she reminded me that I can and am fighting it.
I went out at lunch and got a run in, despite it being 5 degrees and raining. I had to clear my head, and running is my release. Much like the creator of the website The Oatmeal, I too run from my own blerch, genetic heart disease.

 I'm not a fighter, I'm a runner, but this is one enemy that I will fight to it's death, and not mine.