tbarton's profile   



Gender: Female
Age: 59
Current Weight: 58.1 kg
Goal Weight: 56.7 kg
Location: Terre Haute, IN
About me: 
I turned 42 this year. I have four kids and right now I stay home for them, which is great because it gives me lots of time to run! I'm married to the guy that took me to my senior prom (though we split up in college and got back together years later ... on Valentine's Day 1992. LOL! ) Brad and I have both come through life threatening illnesses over the past few years and now we are finally both healthy again.
Why do I run: 
I run because it makes me feel strong. It makes me feel whole again and not that sick person who couldn't walk from the living room to the bedroom without having to take a break in the hallway. I run because it makes me feel like the person I was starting to be before heart failure interrupted. My oldest son had just joined the cross country team and I had just started to run again after 20 years or so. We had just signed up for our first 5K when I found out I was pregnant and the complications began. I run because I can! :-)
Why I started running: 
Long story -- I had just started to run when I found out I was pregnant, developed complications and then found out my husband had an aggressive form of leukemia. When my daughter was born, I developed a viral form of cardiomyopathy which caused my heart to enlarge and not be able to pump very well. I went into congestive heart failure and ended up spending the first week of her life in the ICU. Long story short, the first cardiologist told me I'd never be able to run again. My heart EF (ejection fraction) was only 35%. Finally 3 1/2 years later it crept up to 42% and the second cardiologist cleared me to run. (Though I don't think she realized what *I* meant when I said I wanted to run!) I'm sure she thought I might run a mile or two on a nice treadmill in an air conditioned gym. Instead I signed up to run a half marathon. :-)