Day 43 - Two Are Better Than One

Today's scheduled run: 4 miles

Today's completed run: 4.07 miles
Pace: 8:30 (avg.)

It's a beautiful day in Baltimore - sunny and warm for December, though a bit windy. I forgot how many tourists would be out downtown today. Oh well. They'll just have a runner in a lot of their pictures around the Harbor. Inadvertent photo-bombing.

My mom gave me a heads-up this morning that the Today Show did a segment on Alopecia. It's embedded below. I find the hair restoration featured really interesting, and it seems like a great alternative to a wig for kids who want to be active. Who wants to worry about their wig falling off or getting wet when playing with your friends? Also, 1-in-50 people have Alopecia. That's crazy. That means I'm probably not the only one you know. I know I'm not the only one I know. I can think of three other people off the top of my bald head. (Pun intended)

I also really appreciated what the doctor said about how you can help someone with Alopecia. She is right in saying that it can be psychologically devastating. Since hair loss doesn't limit a person physically, it's hard to know how to help. It's not like bringing a meal to a person on bed rest or cleaning for a person recovering from surgery. But being there is greater than any meal cooked or bathroom cleaned. I'm so thankful for friends and family who support me in this, especially those who supported me in the early days, when my hair was still falling out. We need people to help us remember who we are, who God has created us to be, with or without hair.

"Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow." - Ecclesiastes 4:9-10a (ESV)

Video from the Today show:

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Day 33 - That Bald Thing

I realize I haven't written much about the bald girl part of bald girl running. It's not for lack of wanting to, because it is a pretty important part of the blog and my life. I find that I often don't know exactly how to talk about it. I am naturally inclined to humor; it's how I deal with serious stuff a lot of the time. I'm thoughtful about things, but I try to avoid making my life more dramatic than it needs to be or really is. I can only be serious for so long before I have to throw some levity in the mix. But I don't ever want to sound insensitive or as if I'm making light of something that is really a big deal.

Losing your hair is really hard. It's an incredibly stressful time, whether you know it or not. What I mean by that is this: I didn't realize how stressful it was until it was all over. While I was living it (for 11 months, from Sept. 2010 - August 2011), it was life, and I tried to ignore it. Now that I'm on the other side, with all of my hair gone, I realize how much time the process of losing my hair stole from me. Or maybe how much time I let it steal from me.

I was always thinking about it. There was hair everywhere, all the time. It was hard to ignore the receding hairline and forehead that was quickly become a fivehead, then a six head, and so on. Even my dramatic comb-over was failing to cover things by late April. I transitioned to wide sashes, purchased on Etsy, and then to scarves that completely covered my head. Then there were the questions: Will it stop? Will it all go? What's making this happen again? Why now? And, of course, what do people think?

Some of these questions are moot now, like will it stop and will it all go. Others don't have answers that I can know, like what's making this happen and why now? And that last pesky one, well, I can be content knowing that it doesn't really matter what they think. Shortly after it all fell out, the questions of when will it come back and will it come back lingered nagged. That's not a question I ask anymore, though.

For now, I'm bald. But I'm also healthy and blessed and grateful. And I'm still Leslie, just with a shinier head.

Day 18 - Why You Have Eyebrows

Today's scheduled run: 3 miles

Today's completed run: 3.05 miles
Pace: 7:56

Before I say anything else, don't be too impressed by that pace. The street crossing gods were against me today, so I had lots of stops and starts, which may have contributed to lots of sprinting.

All in all, though, it was a good run, especially since I did it on 4 hours of sleep. Yes, folks, it's coming up on finals week here at the University of Maryland School of Social Work. I had a policy brief due this morning, which was an interesting but very challenging paper to write. Regardless, I made it out of bed and onto the streets for a wonderfully sunny but cold run. The Harbor was stunning, as always.

Now, let's talk about the title of this post. The majority of you have eyebrows and eyelashes. Or at least I think you do. I, on the other hand, do not. This is one of those "You don't know what ya got 'til it's gone" moments. I mean, really, I didn't know all of the things eyebrows and eyelashes kept out of my eyes until they weren't there anymore to do the keeping out. Primarily, on runs, this means sweat in my eyes. Sweat, when applied directly to the eye in large doses, burns. Like crazy.

I wear a hat while running, which absorbs quite a bit of sweat, but some still gets out, or in, rather. I have yet to figure out a solution, especially because I probably can't rock the cotton sweat band around my forehead and still show my face around Baltimore. Hello, Richard Simmons.

Moral of the story: be glad for your eye-related facial hair. I won't ask you to be glad for that stray chin hair that pops up every now and then, though...