Cancer just another low hurdle for Brewer
Jess Brewer is my oldest masters friend and original inspiration. This Canadian scientist, now 59, posted the original piece that drove me to start the Masters Track & Field Home Page in 1996. But his conquering of prostate cancer may be his biggest victory yet. And this past weekend, he competed for the first time in several years.
Jess sent me the news in the form of a poem, which he titled âOde to my 200.â
He wrote:
If you can compose a plausible time
consisting of three twos, a point and a nine,
and if the result ainât particularly fine,
then the chances are good that that bad time was mine.
A world-class M45 hurdler a decade ago, Jess may not have run 22.92 for a world M55 record, but his indoor mark of 29.22 at a University of Washington indoor meet on Feb. 13 was smashing enough. He was 79th out of 80 sprinters in that open meet. But few have endured so much to run so fast.
Today he offered some details on his recent triumphs and travails.
On his 200-meter dash:
âActually I did have lane 4, randomly assigned; it was great, especially with the horseshoe-shaped 200m on a 307m track, we actually got about 30m in the straight for the start! And for once I HAD a decent start out of the blocks; but it wasnât enough to compensate for tying up in the last 50m. And I thought I was in shape. Well, lifeâs for learning.â
On his being a cancer survivor with bad legs:
âOnly one bad leg, and itâs been OK for the past few months. Iâm short of excuses; I think itâs just a matter of not running for 14 months and starting back in slowly. I hope so. But look at it this way: my post-cancer PB is going to be easy to improve upon! I look forward to at least a year of regular PCPBs.â
On his poem:
âDo I get to make corrections? I misspelled âparticâly.â Throws off the meter if you sound out the whole word (like no one ever does).â
On his injuries and ailments of recent years:
â2000: pulmonary embolism in June; 2nd in WMA regional (Kamloops) in Aug.
â2003: News of prostate cancer in Feb; chemo & androgen ablation Apr-Aug (actually they stopped the chemo a month early on account of they overdosed me because the dosage is in mg/m^2 surface area and they use a [wrong] universal formula in terms of height & weight to calculate your surface area, so all athletes get ODâd); tore my meniscus in June stupidly trying to stay in competitive shape on chemo; radical prostatectomy 9 Oct; regained marginal bladder control by the end of the year so I could go back to work.
â2004: struggled back to almost normal bladder control; knee (torn meniscus) âscoped July 31 (it was cool, I got to watch on TV!); able to run again (after over a year off) in Sept; ran with the UBC gang all Fall.
â2005: got back in with Kajaks and the rest is history. Or will be soon.
âThink of me as Lance Armstrong without the bike or the talent.â
On why he runs track:
âWell, (a) Iâm not dead yet; (b) watching TV sports I donât do myself has absolutely no appeal to me [whatâs the MATTER with people who watch but donât DO?]; (c) I couldnât stay awake at a baseball game; (d) football and hockey make about as much sense as signing up with the Army to go to Iraq for the excitement of warfare; (e) basketball wrecks your knees; (f) balls are for producing sperm, not for playing games with and calling them âsportsâ; (g) my skin canât tolerate chlorine; (h) I donât like fighting, whatever you call it; (h) thereâs a limit to how far I can get from natural human activities without bursting into laughter. So whatâs left? đ Hopefully I have insulted everyone but fellow athletes with that. Oh wait, I forgot the âfitnessâ folks.â
Jess concludes:
âSome people work out to look good; others work out to feel good; I work out to BE good. (Doesnât always work.)â
Good on you, Jess Brewer.
Godspeed in your comeback season.
One Response
You know, with an attitude like that, the SOB will probably live forever. Here’s hoping!!!
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