The Asthmatic in Me

The Asthmatic in Me wants you to know know a little bit about my past.

When I was 4 years old, I was told that I had Asthma. It was not hard to miss by the many moments where I just could not get breath. Have you experienced this or do you know somebody that has? Well, it is literally one of the worst things to experience. When I was younger panic would set in and make it worse. For me asthma was both exercise and allergy induced.

For me, I grew up in this mentality that I could not run a long distance or ride my bike very fast without having to use an inhaler. (Do these look familiar to any of you? thanks to google images for providing this array of inhalers.)

It was just what I lived with. I even recall missing a lot of school to get tested for "this" or for "that". A kids dream right? Not for me. It was at a time in elementary school where they were taking field trip to cool places, and I got stuck in a doctor's office. When it came time to sports, I played baseball. I was that kid that could barely make it to second base without having an asthma attack take place. But I lived with it. I should add that thanks to the help of organizations like the American Lung Association, I learned to live with asthma.

In high school, I turned to tennis thinking that it wouldn't require too much in terms of "physical ability". I still had those episodes of not being able to breath even in tennis.

The main reason that I write this is to tell you there is hope. I spent two years (ages 19-21) in Taiwan, riding a bike as my main mode of transportation. During those two years of riding a bike, I stopped using my inhaler. It was difficult at times. I kept it around as a "just in case" scenario. I weened myself off of it. When I returned to the U.S., I no longer sought a doctor's prescription to refill my inhaler. This was big for me.

A few years after that I participated in a 5K. (I used the term participated because I did not complete it running.) My sister asked me to run a marathon with her and so I began my love affair with running. It was something that was difficult for me in the beginning because I could not go very far without being extremely sore or tired. However, it was not something that asthma stopped me from doing. My lungs and legs adjusted to the distance training.

Why do I still run to this day? It is exhilarating  It is fun. I love getting up and running before the sun comes up. It is something magnificent to see the night sky give way to morning light. There are times when I just stop in awe because of what I witness.

Please realize that I had dealt with Asthma for more than half of my life. I write this to help others realize that there is hope.  If you have not experienced Asthma, great. Consider yourself lucky. Now, I am not the fastest runner, I didn't run competitively in high school. I don't run competitively now. I run for fun. I participate in half marathons just because I can. I want to break my PR's to see my improvement, not to say I can run faster than another individual. (Because there are a lot of other people that can run faster than me.)

I hope you can avoid using excuses to not run (or participate in any form of exercise).