Perspective The Day before 20

This week has been a little tough. Timewise it's been difficult to get in training. Work has been really long and last Sunday my step dad Bryan went to the hospital with shallow breath and a very swollen leg. Evidently he has blood clots in his body, which is scary enough, but they discovered nodules in his lungs that seem to have an unfortunate connection with blood clots leading to a scary diagnosis. He has been there all week, going through scan after test after test...and repeat ten thousand times. They came back with results showing a large mass on his liver and several smaller ones in his lungs. Wednesday they performed a biopsy and today they came back with results. Natalie and I decided to drive out and be there for the results. Chipper Sue kindly offered to stop by our house and take the dogs on a couple of walks throughout the day. It's been a while since I've felt the feeling of having a friend there for times like this. The results turned out bleak with stage four colon cancer being his diagnosis. While I was there they removed the cancer from his colon, the mass on his liver is inoperable and chemo has been scheduled for the first of October. The road it seems he so suddenly turned down seems long and difficult with big monster hills scheduled every two weeks for the next six months. I cannot even imagine facing this and I am sad my family faces it now. Cancer is sudden and stealth and horrible and the ugliest thing I've seen. Today Bryan is given news of his diagnosis and chemo schedule, and he sits and talks to me about how I will run my 20 miles tomorrow. The new perspective is at the very least interesting.