Finished

Had my (hopefully) last chemo treatment EVER yesterday.  It was rather uneventful itself, with no fanfare or celebration, because there’s still a week of side effects to suffer through one last time.  And even then, I still have a month of radiation treatments coming up – I meet my radiation oncologist for the first time on Thursday – and another PET scan and some more tests to see what kind of permanent damage chemo has done to me.

But on Sunday, I guess I did have a little early celebration in the form of completing the toughest Half Ironman in the country.  I’ll post a full recap later this week, but here’s a taste of what it was like:That’s me with the handsome legs there on the Westernport Wall.  Go ahead and stare.  And yes, that’s several people in front of me who’ve fallen over on their bikes because the hill is so steep.  And that’s Abe over my right shoulder who had someone fall in front of him and was forced to unclip and walk the rest of the hill.  And for the record, yeah, I had to unclip and walk to the top too.  Turns out I needed more gears than a 39-25.  Here’s a comical video of lots of people struggling more than I did:

But, I finished.  And as my oncologist commented, most people just wonder if they can continue working while undergoing chemo.