All runners have had moments in races or workouts where catching a breath is difficult. But for Mandy Anderson, 37, running used to be intolerably painful, since her airways were obstructed.
to build up her stamina gradually. The steady progress has paid off: Over the past year, she has increased her weekly mileage from 10 to 20 miles per week, and dropped her 5K time from 37 minutes in 2011 to 31 minutes this summer.“I think they’re amazed I can do it at all,” she said. “The main thing they’re concerned about is that I’m not tiring myself out too much and that I’m getting enough
, because people with CF are often malnourished. I make sure to take a healthy amount of walk breaks and eat a lot.” This year, she set a new challenge for herself: finishing the Bismarck Half Marathon on September 21., but once I started running more, I wanted to try,” she said. “Every day in my journal, I wrote down, ‘I am an energetic half-marathon runner,’ which helped keep me motivated to train.”To train for the race, Anderson—who owns a consulting company in Bismarck—covered between 15 and 20 miles in four to five runs per week, including a long run that ranged from seven to 10 miles.
“My hardest runs were the ones longer than seven miles,” she said. “I would have to focus on recovering for the rest of the day. My lungs wouldn’t usually hurt, but I would feel totally drained of energy. People with CF generally use more energy to run than regular people.”, “I am an energetic half marathon runner,” to herself during particularly challenging parts of the race—such as mile 11, which was already the farthest she’d ever run before.
“It felt really good to cross that finish line,” she said. “If you asked me seven years ago—when I had tiny, weak calves in the hospital—if I could run a half marathon, I would have said no. But there was never a point in the race that I wanted to quit. I just kept myself that I could do it, that I’m strong enough.
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