A few months after my son was born, I was contacted by an old friend, asking if I would be interested in participating in an 82-mile running relay. It would start in the St. Louis area and end in Hermann. And it would be “fun.” I quickly said yes, basically because I'm crazy. Those that know me know that I ran for most of my pregnancy last year, waking up and running before dawn during the coolest time of the day. I quit running at 36 weeks of my pregnancy, two weeks before my baby was born. It just became too uncomfortable at that point, but I continued walking in the evenings. Because I was so active and felt so good being active, I underestimated how long it would take me to recover from delivery and start running again. My OB told me I could run one month after delivery. I thought to myself, “Good deal! I'll just take a month off and be good as gold.” It wasn't that simple. I tried to run one month postpartum and was plagued by hip pain. After a few painful attempts at running, I decided to continue walking and wait another month. Two months postpartum the pain was better but still lingering. It wasn't until three months postpartum that my body seemed to FINALLY reach an equilibrium where I could run regularly without pain. Yeah. Clearly I'm an impatient person. It was around this time I was contacted about running the relay and I figured, “Why not?!” If I can run three miles, I can run 18! It’s hard to say if my professional career complements my running, or if it's the other way around. Either way, there's lots of ways my profession prepared me for this test of endurance, strength, or pure stupidity. Below is a list of ways veterinary medicine prepared me for this relay. 1. Keeping low expectations. I think a lot of veterinarians, mainly veterinarians in rural practice, have to become the MacGyvers of the medical world. It's hard to carry everything on your truck, and sometimes people’s facilities can leave much to be desired. After a few years on the job, you can throw a makeshift pen/holding area with a couple of cattle panels, some bailing wire, and maybe even your vet truck. You can make a tourniquet out of almost anything. Basically, I've learned to do more with less. When I envisioned our relay team riding around and following the runners around on the course, I pictured the van being a lot like the milk delivery vans my father-in-law drove. I always coined these vans “kidnapper vans.” I'm not trying to be offensive; I just don't know how else to describe an unmarked van without windows. I pictured myself crouched on the floor of such van (because it obviously doesn't have seats) pumping in between each leg of the race. I was prepared and brought my AC adapter for my pump as well as a battery pack for backup. When I arrived at the hotel the night before after introducing myself to a few of my teammates, I checked out the van. Turns out our team captain, Beth, had rented a legit, fancy Toyota van. It was complete with comfy seats. The back windows even rolled up and down, with extra drop shades. Beth said to me, “It even has an outlet in the back for your breast pump!” I could have hugged her. Everyone on our team had been warned I would be pumping in the van. I basically told them that was what was going to happen. Five out of our six runners were mothers, so they were cool with it. Either way, sometimes in veterinary medicine or in life, you get pleasantly surprised by your life somehow being made easier, like when a farmer has an alleyway with a 2x4, a client that sounded sketchy over the phone turns out not to be an ax murderer and turns out to be very nice and even pays you, or just having a van with seats that doesn't smell like rotten milk. 2. Competitive drive- Admittedly, I was competitive long before I became a veterinarian. However, most veterinarians you meet are competitive, type A personalities. It's hard to get into veterinary school and survive the academic challenges without being that way. I have always been competitive when it comes to school and running. Part of what makes a successful professional is a desire to be better than you were the day before, the ability to dust yourself off when you do make mistakes and learn from them so they don't happen again. A successful professional can learn and excel at new skills and set goals. That same competitive nature is what pushed me in the afternoon heat when I wanted to stop. Seeing a guy ahead of me and knowing I can catch him and pass him keeps me going (and can cause me to run past my exchange zone as you'll read below). I once ran a six minute mile for the last mile of a half marathon because I saw a girl in front of me with a “Runs on Plants” shirt and decided it would be a cold day in hell before I got beat by a vegetarian. In college, a girl lifted me up and shoved me into a bush during a cross country race. I caught her running uphill and raked my spikes down her calf. I admit that was a little overzealous, but that same competitive drive has got me through a lot of races, all-nighters, and finals weeks. You can't push your body to its limits of strength and endurance without being competitive (and slightly crazy). Being an overly competitive jerk keeps me going, and there ain't no shame in that (most of the time). 3. Rolling with the punches- There are times in this job that things don't always work out the way you would hope. Sometimes owners have financial limitations for treatment, sometimes animals don't respond to therapy, a patient has a surgical complication, or much more. These things can eat away at you and you can spend many hours thinking of what you could have done differently. It's good to reflect on these things, but with experience you learn not to let the small things frazzle you. The same goes with running. During the first leg of my relay, I felt good and I was maintaining a good pace. A young man had zoomed past me at the beginning of the leg and he maintained a decent distance (but still within eye sight) for most of the race. With about two miles to go, I noticed the distance getting shorter. I really like passing people, especially men. I really knew he was in trouble when he started looking behind himself (at me) about every ten seconds. “I'm gonna get ‘em” I thought to myself. Having a target ahead of me is a big motivator and, as it turns out, also a huge distraction as I started closing the gap. My phone dings with my mile markers and I was maintaining 7:30 miles at the end of a long run, which I hadn't done since before the baby was born. I passed my target guy with ease and kept going. I had hit 7.2 miles, close to the end of this first leg. I started looking ahead on the trail for the crowd of runners. I got a little further and I saw a few runners running the opposite direction. I asked one of them, “Did I pass the exchange?” The guy said, “Yeah. I did the same thing. You have to turn around.” Turns out the turnoff for the exchange was not well marked and this happened to many runners. I cursed a little bit as I turned around. I ended up running two extra miles on that first leg. I figured I was probably distracted about passing the guy ahead of me. Luckily, I still arrived at the exchange on time because I told my teammates to anticipate a slow pace. It can be disheartening when you get lost and have to run farther than you thought, or an unexpected emergency throws a wrench in your entire schedule, but you learn to suck it up and deal with it. 4. Fortitude- Having courage or persistence through pain or adversity is a necessary skill in this job, from running from angry momma cows to listening to that client talk about their cat's bathroom habits for thirty minutes. I get it; I have vividly described my son’s bowel movements and a harrowing diaper change to the checkout girl at the grocery store, so she had much more patience and fortitude than I’ll ever have. I very much needed this skill during this relay. My longest training run for this race was seven miles. I would be running the longest legs of any teammate, a total of 17 (now 19 due to my mishap) miles. I was relying on a lot of muscle memory. My second leg of the relay was the most challenging. Temperatures were in the nineties and I was starting my leg (a 7.5 miler) at 2 P.M. Even worse, this was a section of trail in the river bottoms without shade. My legs were somewhat dead from overdoing it on leg #1. I rarely run “plugged in” with music, but I decided I could use the distraction. Every part of me wanted to walk, but I kept telling myself, “Slow down as much as you need to. But whatever you do, DON’T WALK!” I knew if I started walking, I would never get going again. Luckily, they had a couple of stops with water and sponges soaked in cold water. It was all I could do not to grab ten of the sponges and shove them in my running singlet. I am not a fan of running in the heat. After suffering from heat exhaustion during my first marathon in Nashville, I vowed I would travel north for every marathon. I managed to survive the afternoon run. I handed off the tracker bracelet to my teammate, turned to our team captain, Beth, and said, “I hate you so much right now.” I was in a much better mood after slurping down some ice cold glacier freeze Gatorade (the best Gatorade flavor IMO). 5. Staying humble- One of the many things running teaches you is you're not invincible. Muscle cramps at the end of a race can take you to your knees. There will always be someone faster, stronger, or more fit than you. I experienced similar things in my quest to be a veterinarian. I went from being one of the top students at my moderately sized college to being thrown in a class with some of the smartest people in the state or even the country. I had never felt so average in my life, and it was a very humbling experience. Even worse, I was getting B’s on my tests in veterinary school. B’s!!! That quit bothering me about two weeks in, but I learned I wasn't as smart as I thought I was. I guess I could say the same thing after passing the exchange zone during the relay. During veterinary school, I also learned it's okay to admit when you don't know the answer. Even if I don't know the answer, I have confidence in using my resources to find it. Bottom line, in running and this profession, it's okay if you're not top dog. There's a lot to be said for being the best that you can be. I've redirected my competitive drive to be competitive against myself, or maybe just the guy or vegetarian in front of me during any given race. You can accomplish a lot with a foundation of hard work, persistence, and sheer will. Stay humble and don't take yourself too seriously. The last leg of my run was only 2.5 miles. I finished cheering on the rest of my teammates, met my husband and baby at the finish, and enjoyed some brats and wine in the finishers tent. Hard work and celebration! I've been a runner much longer than I've been a veterinarian, but for me the two go hand in hand. I can run off steam from a stressful day, have goals and hobbies outside of work, and burn calories because I really, really like tacos. There’s nothing like the feeling of accomplishment after a long, hard run….or delivering a 100 lb calf.
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Jessica Stroupe, DVM
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August 2017
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