From the bottom of my heart...

In my short twenty-seven years I have come to realize that people are shaped just as much if not more by the worst days of their life as they are by the best days of their life. This story is about the worst day of my life and the year that followed it. But it is not a story of despair. It is a story of finding hope when all hope was lost and renewing that hope every morning when I open my eyes.

October 6, 1994 was the worst day of my life. I remember October 6, 1994 like it was yesterday. October 6, 1994 is burned into my memory like a bad dream you never forget. In my brief fifteen years of life I had never felt pain like I felt on that day. I didn’t know it at the time, but October 6, 1994 would shape me into the person I am today like no other day that came before it and like no other day that has come since.

On October 6, 1994, when I came home from school I found my mother and father in our living room holding each other on the couch, collectively crying. Immediately I knew something was terribly wrong as I had never seen my father cry until that day. He is a man of many words and many strong opinions, but not many tears. The raw emotion elicited both from my mother and father could be seen from a mile away. It felt like ice water flushed through my veins as I braced for the horrible news I was about to receive.

My mom, Jan, composed herself long enough to utter the words “the doctor found a lump on my breast and they think its cancer”. I had never thought about my mother or father’s mortality until that day. I had so many questions that I needed answered but couldn’t find the strength to vocalize a single one. My mom, being the ever so strong woman that she has always been, wanted my normal routine to be completely uninterrupted even on October 6, 1994. She demanded I go to swim practice just as I would have on any other Thursday evening. So I went.

I remember this swim practice more vividly than any other swim practice I attended in my entire life. 200 swim, 200 kick, 200 pull, 200 swim, followed by a main set of 500 free, 400 IM, 300 back, 200 breast, 100 fly. I never felt a drop of physical pain as my body had never been more numb than on that horrible night. I was so overwhelmed with emotion that I cried in my goggles during the entire workout while speaking to a total of zero teammates. The only thing I could think of during practice was “mom is going to die”.

I knew nothing about cancer in 1994, and to this day still know very little as my coping mechanism was an “out of sight out of mind” philosophy to my mother’s ordeal. Looking back I should have been much stronger for mom. I owed her my strength considering it came from her. I failed her in this regard and have tried to repay this debt ever since.

I passively watched my mother’s health degrade before my eyes. Chemotherapy is hideous. It is so hideous that the treatment is oftentimes worse than the disease. I passively watched as a woman so passionate about her life, her family and her work became frail and violently ill for days on end following each chemotherapy treatment. The cruelest part about a chemotherapy schedule is that just as you start to recover from one treatment they give you another one only to suffer the same awful fate each time around.

I passively watched as my mother had her mastectomy surgery. I was so frightened to be in the hospital room with her out of my own selfish fears that I hardly spent any time with her following her post-op recovery.

I passively watched as my mother had a bone marrow transplant. It was not a successful bone marrow transplant surgery. A complication in the transplant caused her to form a rare condition called Veno-Occlusive disease. Basically, the body’s organs, especially the liver, don’t want to cooperate anymore. My mom slowly withered away during the summer of 1995. The doctors told my father to remove my mother’s life support system as her condition was hopeless. In classic Howard Lisnoff fashion, he told them all to “eff” themselves. Like I said, a man of many strong opinions!

I do not believe in miracles, but it sure felt like one happened in the summer of 1995. To every doctor’s utter shock and awe, my mother awoke from her comatose state. The ventilator, which kept her alive all summer was eventually removed. The tube, which was down her throat for months, caused substantial scarring to her vocal cords. Her voice to this day is not the same as it was before the tube went in. Believe it or not, I can not remember what her voice sounded like beforehand. This memory lapse is a bizarre anomaly I can not explain.

Eventually my mom was released from New England Medical Center and came home. Eventually her atrophied muscles regenerated. Eventually her jaundiced skin returned to its regular color. I passively watched as my mother regained her life.

Fast forward nearly twelve years from the day I thought my mother was going to die and she is just as healthy today as she has ever been. Her diet and exercise regimen is flawless. She is the embodiment of a healthy lifestyle as she knows just as well as anyone that tomorrow is not promised.

Tomorrow is not promised. The events that occurred in my life between October 1994 and September 1995 define me to the core. Looking back on those days of my life, I recognize that my maturity at the time was shameful. But just as everyone should do, I learned from my mistakes and I grew from them. There is nothing passive about my upcoming journey.

July 22, 2007 will be another life-defining day when I compete in Ironman Lake Placid. But it means nothing without those whom I love. Without them all it would be is a very long and expensive day of exercise.

This journey of Ironman represents a revitalized view of my health as well as a tribute to those who make my life complete. So this journey is not just about me at all. The question I’ve asked myself is: If Ironman is not just about me, how do I appropriately pay homage to those who mean the most in my life?

In conjunction with competing in Ironman Lake Placid I have decided to raise money for a charitable organization that is near and dear to my mother’s heart: The National Breast Cancer Coalition Fund.

Breast Cancer is the most common form of cancer among women in the United States. The National Breast Cancer Coalition is a grassroots advocacy effort that works to increase federal funding for breast cancer research and collaboration within the scientific community to implement new models of research, to improve access to high-quality health care and breast cancer clinical trials for all women, and to expand the influence of breast cancer advocates in all aspects of the breast cancer decision-making process.

Between October 6, 1994 and July 22, 2007 Janice Lisnoff will have lived 4,673 days. In honor of my mom and all other breast cancer survivors my goal is to raise $4,673 to support the mission of the National Breast Cancer Coalition Fund. Please join me in the fight to end this disease once and for all. I encourage you to visit my Janus Charity Challenge web page, which is listed below where you can pledge your support. Also listed below is a link to the National Breast Cancer Coalition website if you are interested in learning more about their work. If you know of any family, friends or co-workers who might also be interested in donating their support, please forward my mission along to them as well. From the bottom of my heart, thank you so very much.

-Jeremy

http://januscharitychallenge.kintera.org/lp07/jeremylisnoff

http://www.stopbreastcancer.org/

Philadelphia Distance Run Race Report

The Philadelphia Distance Run half-marathon is in the books and was a definite success! The morning started out beautifully…mid-60’s without a chance of rain in sight. I have never participated in a race with a field this massive. 11,000+ people crossed the finish line. It took me five minutes just to get to the starting line! The field was so enormous that throughout the 13.1-mile race, you never really saw the road for more than 50 yards in front of you. All you saw was a sea of humans. Having never experienced this before, it was a powerful sight to behold. 11,000+ people sharing your philosophy on health and pushing your boundaries. I couldn’t help but smile the whole way through just for being part of this experience. I can only imagine this feeling will be infinitely amplified when my toes touch Mirror Lake next July!

After the five minute walk to get to the start line you run about a mile on the Ben Franklin Parkway to City Hall followed by a series of sharp turns until you hit Market Street. Silvia and I ran together for the first mile and a half. She is ten times the athlete I have ever been or will ever be. She basically agreed to sign up for the PDR and Philly Marathon so I could have some company for my run training in preparation for IMLP. How cool is that?

Things slightly opened up on Market Street but the congestion was still heavy. But a right turn on 4th Street followed by a quick turn onto Walnut Street made for a huge traffic jam. Maneuvering through the sea of people is definitely a skill I’ll have to keep working on. After about 8 blocks on Walnut I hit Mile 3 feeling great. With a goal of breaking 2 hours, I checked my watch and seemed to be right on pace. After a right on 16th Street I made my way back to the BFP to head out onto West River Drive. I followed fellow tri-blogger Bob Mina’s PDR race report advice and tried to run the tangents as best as possible. Hurricane Bob managed to crush his half-marathon PR, so make sure to give your kudos to him! With all the twists and turns through the first four miles, I really felt like this strategy made a big difference.

The first aid station to have a sports drink was between miles 3 and 4 on the BFR. Unfortunately, the race director opted for Amino Vital. Maybe I just have a sensitive palate, but I thought Amino Vital tasted worse than vomit! After my first sip I decided it would be water for the rest of the way for me. Looking back, I think I only managed to consume about 10 ounces of fluid throughout the race, which is a pretty crappy nutrition strategy compared to my plan of drinking fluids every two miles. I think 13.1 miles is short enough to have a bogus nutrition strategy and still physically hold it together as long as your pace isn’t crazy fast. This won’t fly in the Philly Marathon and especially not at IMLP. My problem at the aid stations was that they were so bogged down with people, it was incredibly hard to get a drink. If I were to hydrate properly throughout the race I think I would have lost about 3 or 4 minutes. At the Philly Marathon I fully intend to walk through the aid stations and hydrate properly.

The spectator crowd was briefly thicker when I hit the fifth mile out by the Art Museum. West River Drive was pretty desolate in terms of fan support, but the shaded road and thousands of runners were a great help. Miles 5 through 9 were pretty uneventful…just lots of winding, shaded roads. At Mile 9 you reach Falls Bridge. I thought the bridge was only a slight incline, but lots of people on course made a big deal about it. When I was crossing the bridge I drew strength from the crowd, but I drew most of my strength when I thought of my mom. Her struggles go so far beyond a road race. My next blog post will delve into this in greater detail if you don’t have the context for this comment yet.

After you cross the bridge it’s basically a four mile trot back into town on Kelly Drive. Once I hit Mile 10, my split indicated I was going to finish right around 2 hours. My last 5k felt solid. I really drew a lot of energy off of the crowd in the final mile and managed to finish in 1:59:13. Certainly no world record, but I beat my goal time by 47 seconds!

PDR was a huge confidence booster for the Philly Marathon in 8 weeks. I have plenty of long runs to still get in before November 19th, but my endurance at this point is starting to feel solid (for me, at least). My pace was remarkably consistent throughout the race. I was 28:06 at the 5k mark (9:04 mile pace), 56:23 at the 10k mark (9:06 mile pace), and 1:31:11 at the 10 mile mark (9:07 mile pace). My splits ranged from no lower than the 8:50s to no higher than the 9:10s. 1:59:13 is 9:06 mile pace, so I basically held even the entire way. At no point did I feel like I was really blowing a gasket. If this was my “A-Race” I would have approached it much differently in terms of my training and race pace. I can’t complain at all about my results. Just a steady pace, beautiful race day conditions and some good chats with fellow runners (including a guy dressed in a head to toe Cow Suit who I managed to pass after about 8 miles!). All in all, just a terrific long “training” run.

I felt like I could have kept the pace up beyond the finish line but I’m not sure for how long. I haven’t established a time goal for the Philly Marathon yet, but based on my half-marathon results, I’m thinking I should try to shoot for roughly a 10-minute mile pace. But similar to the PDR, as long as I cross the finish line, my primary goal is accomplished.

One final thank you note to Silvia. Having you with me for the half-marathon made the day so much more special! You make these accomplishments infinitely more meaningful. Ohh…and one final final note…happy birthday to me (three days ago). To further confirm how awesome Silvia is, she decked me out with gobs of tri gear. A new Profile Design aero drink bottle, GU bike mount and shiny new heart rate monitor…How cool is that? I’ve never had any of these “toys” before and can’t wait to starting playing with them.

T-Minus...

...5 days until the Philly Distance Run
...68 days until the Philly Marathon
...313 days until the day that will change my life forever

Looking back to May of last year when I couldn't even run for 5 minutes without stopping, if you told me that on September 12, 2006 I'd be counting down the days to my upcoming half marathon, marathon and IRONMAN I'd tell you you're nuts. My health, physically and more importantly psychologically has changed so dramatically in the past 16 months because of my lifestyle change.

As my beautiful wife Silvia can attest, Lake Placid dominates my thoughts day in and day out...but how can it not? How can someone commit themselves to a challenge this massive and not be consumed by how'll they'll get the job done on their day of reckoning?

To segment my IMLP training, my two run races have given me some excellent short-term goals to shoot for in terms of building up my long run endurance. I'm really looking forward to the Philly Distance Run this Sunday. The great part about being an endurance sport rookie is that every time you race you get a PR! Sure it would be awesome to break 2 hours on Sunday, but at the end of the day if it doesn't happen life will go on. For now, crossing the finish line is the real victory regardless of what the clock shows.

The past week was a success by my standards in terms of my run volume. Here's the breakdown if you're interested:

Monday was my version of a speed workout. 5X1 mile with 1/4 mile cool down in between mile runs
Mile 1 : 8:25
Mile 2 : 7:42
Mile 3 : 7:32
Mile 4 : 7:36
Mile 5 : 7:20

All in all, with the 1/4 mile cool down runs in between it was a 6 mile workout, which lasted for 55:18.

Tuesday was a treadmill run. Lasted for one hour and managed to get 6.7 miles in.

Wednesday and Thursday I rested and caught up on the pile of work on my desk.

Friday I went for a swim. I'm not sure who told Captain Boring to write this workout, but it was pretty monotonous. 60X50 meter on 1 minute.

Saturday was a beautiful day to do a bike/run brick in Valley Forge. 1:31:59 on Cookie Monster followed by a 4.17 mile run, which spanned 38:22.

Sunday was hard. Sunday was really hard. To get over the psychological half marathon distance barrier, Silvia and I went for a 14 mile run. 14 miles is not short run. 2:28:27 is not a short run. But then again, 14 miles is nothing compared to 140.6 and 2:28:27 is nothing compared to 17:00:00. A little perspective helps every now and then!

Not a bad week at all for that guy who couldn't run for 5 minutes 16 months ago. A few training milestones reached this week worth noting. First week of 5+ hours of run training. First week of 30+ miles of run training. I am no gazelle, but I'm starting to think I can actually get across the Philly Marathon finish line in 9 weeks.

Here are the hour totals for the week:
Total Swim: 1:00:00
Total Bike: 1:31:59
Total Run: 5:01:57 (30.87 miles)
Total Workout Time: 7:33:56

Next post will be my Philly Distance Run Race Report. That's about all for now. Thanks for reading!

Ironmanifesto

On the morning I registered for IMLP I sent an e-mail to friends and family titled "Ironmanifesto", which summarized my motivations and desires to step up to the plate next July and attempt to redefine possible. After receiving an overwhelming amount of positive feedback regarding the letter I've decided to post it on my blog for the rest of the world to see. Hope you enjoy...

Hi everyone. I want to let you all know that at 9:21 this morning I registered for the Ironman Triathlon, which will take place on July 22, 2007 in Lake Placid, New York. For those of you not familiar with the Ironman, it is a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike and a 26.2-mile run. The cut off time for completing the race is 17 hours.

You might ask why I would subject myself to such an insane endeavor. To give you a long-winded answer, I’ll give you some background information on me that you may or may not already know. Growing up in Rhode Island and during college my existence revolved around a pool, a pair of goggles and a swim suit. When I graduated from college I was completely burned out from training and competing. I basically quit exercising cold turkey. What was originally planned to be a short hiatus from exercise turned into nearly five years of complete and utter lethargy. Some facets of life have a strange way of passing you by when you’re not paying attention. When I moved to Pennsylvania in June of 2005 I was in frighteningly poor physical health. Something had to change.

I have never been the type of person who just exercised for the good of my health. I have always exercised because it was mandatory for race preparation. For whatever reason, I need that overt, tangible motivation to keep me going. Triathlons seemed like such a logical answer for a former swimmer who didn’t want to do the full-time Speedo routine again, wanted some variety in their exercise regimen, and wanted to participate in an activity that they would have at least some prior background in.

I will begin my Ironman training plan shortly after Silvia and I run our first marathon together in November. My training days will be long and exhaustive, but what in life is worth doing if it’s not a challenge? The challenge - this is the answer to the question of why I would subject myself to such an insane endeavor. Not just the challenge of completing a 140.6-mile race, but more importantly the challenge of reversing far too many years of complacency regarding my health. Every lap in the pool, every pedal on my bike and every stride of a run will be working towards crossing the Ironman finish line under the 17-hour cut off.

I’ve created a blog to serve as a training diary for my progress. Come along for the ride at http://jeremylisnoff.blogspot.com

-Jeremy

A Trip North and the Week in Review

So the week in review is coming one day late because Silvia and I went to visit my parents in Western Massachusetts for the holiday weekend. The weather up there was a bit dreary, but it made for a terrific long run on Saturday.

Here's the run down:

Monday: RUN: 5.97 miles/58:02/9:43 mile pace - This was my first Monday workout in weeks. I normally take Monday off to recover from my typical Sunday long run, but since the previous Sunday was sans long run I decided to go for a good neighborhood hill run.

Tuesday: RUN: 6.74 miles/1:00:00/8:54 mile pace - Had to do Tuesday's run at the gym on the treadmill since it was pouring buckets in PA

Wednesday: REST

Thursday: RUN: 5.03 miles/45:00/8:57 mile pace - Again...raining buckets...2nd treadmill run for the week.
SWIM: 30:00 - This was a cooldown post-treadmill run. Continuous swim for 30 minutes, but didn't bother to count distance.

Friday: REST/Drove north to the sticks of Western MA

Saturday: RUN: 2:01:33 - Silvia and I went for a beautiful long run in my parent's neck of the woods. I have no idea what our distance was for the run as the GMAP Pedometer basically just shows a green blob out by their house so I can't manage to map out the run. Regardless of the unknown distance, the run was terrific. It was really nice to be able to run in a different setting for a change. Not that I don't really enjoy running my usual long run trail, but a change of scenery helps once in a while.

Sunday: REST/Drove back to PA in record time! (4 hours)

All in all, I thought the week went well in terms of my run volume, but I think I shouldn't have rested on Wednesday considering I couldn't get in workouts on Friday or Sunday because of travel. I was a bit disappointed to not get in a bike ride during the week. Bike rides will comprise a major percentage of my total training time once I finish the Philly 'thon in November, so I need to start getting used to it now.

Anyhow, here are the time totals:

Total Run: 4:44:35
Total Swim: 0:30:00
Total Time: 5:14:35

That's about all for now. Thanks for reading!

They must think Ironman races are for wimps

Just when I thought my future Ironman race was about as insane of an endeavor as someone could possibly undertake, I stumbled upon this ridiculous race when I was meandering around the American Triathlon Calendar website...the Virginia TRIPLE IRON triathlon (http://www.usaultratri.com/welcome.html). 7.2-mile swim, 336-mile bike, 78.6-mile run. Are you freakin' kidding me? To drive the athletes to the brink of their sanity, the bike course is 67 5-mile loops, and the run is 39 2-mile loops! Can you say deja vu? The part that I find most amusing is that the race institutes a 60-hour cutoff. If you finish in 60:01, do you get a DNF?