A Run For Matt

So I did it in the cold. I ran 8 miles (my longest since the marathon) on Friday in "feels like 3 degrees" Philadelphia. It felt great... Even in the cold. I have cold gear under armor top and bottoms and fleece pants and a fleece jacket, gloves and head band to boot. I only had a slight chill. My pace was 10 min average, which because of the cold I'm okay with..

So the reason I ran outside in the cold instead of the treadmill, and 8 instead of 6 miles was because on Thursday I went to the wake for one of my patients. A 20 year old man, Matt, fought a year long courageous fight with leukemia and passed away last week. He fought with every ounce in him till the last minute. I was very very close, as was our whole floor, to him and his family. After the wake another nurse and I went back to their house till around midnight! We felt so included. Every member of the family came up to us and thanked us for the care we gave matt and his family. I have gotten many thanks, and comments that make me feel appreciated, but this was overwhelming. So when something started to hurt, or I got a bit cold, I thought of matt on this run and pushed on. To be honest I think about my patients a lot when I run. Its a good way to decompress from the high emotions there. When I start to hurt, their struggles help me put things in perspective, and make me thankful that I can run and hurt at all! So this is a thanks to Matt and his family.