Treking for four

Thursday was a hard day, Mark and I had the final meeting with Isaac's neuropsychologist to receive the results of Isaac's testing. We have been concerned about Isaac's progress in school since he was in JK, he struggled to attain fundamental skills related to literacy and numeracy despite his efforts. By grade 2 he was significantly behind his peers academically.  Learning disabilities are common diagnoses for kiddos with DMD, the dystrophin that is missing in his muscle cells also plays a role in the brain. We learned during our appointment that Isaac has a learning disability and likely also an expressive language disorder. He has ideas and is capable of being successful in school but because of the learning disability and language disorder he can't express his understanding and knowledge. We see the effects of both of these challenges not only in Isaac's academic progress but also in his frustration level. Imagine not being able to communicate you thoughts and i...

  My children are a major influence in my running, I run both to model for them a healthy lifestyle that includes being physically active and taking time to care for yourself.  I also run because being a parent is hard and running is an opportunity to escape some of that stress and take time for myself to renew.  I thought I would share a little about each of my children in the next couple of posts (with their permission).  My oldest is Luke, he is 11 and in grade 6, he is my serious child, from a young age he was asking big questions and thinking deeply about the world around him.  At home Luke is quiet and thoughtful, at school he is a bit of a class clown.  Luke's passion is soccer and he has worked hard to play for one of our local rep soccer teams, Norval Croatia.   Luke is a wonderful big brother and excitedly welcomed each of his siblings, when we were expecting our youngest Evelyn Anne, he told his Nana that he loved her already even thoug...

  Today is day one of training for my Fastest Known Time (FKT) on the Thames Valley Trail, in 25 weeks I will be heading out on the 110 km trail with the goal to finish it in under 12 hours ( actually I would really like to finish it in 11 hrs and 30 mins but that feels scary to say out loud). Why am I starting on this very long training cycle to run a pretty long distance? There are several reasons, the one that is most important to me is to do something big in honour of my son Isaac and his trek with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.  This run and the journey to it, is my opportunity to share the experience and impact of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD).   DMD is a neuromuscular disease that causes all types of muscle cells to be weak and breakdown when used because their cell membrane is missing an important structural protein dystrophin. Over time the muscle is destroyed and cannot be repaired, it is replaced by fat cells and water.  DMD primarily affects boys a...