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Martin Jarry dreamed of running a marathon someday.
But after being diagnosed last year with an incurable muscle disease, the 47-year-old Montrealer had to settle for Saturday’s 10-kilometre race instead.
“The 10K,” he said before the start of the Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend event, “will be my 42 kilometres, because it’s really demanding on my muscles.”
Jarry has inclusion-body myositis (IBM), which causes inflammation and loss of muscle tissue. IBM is more often found in men than women and is rarely seen in people younger than 50.
Early signs of the disease include difficulty standing from a seated position, weakening grip and frequent falls, as affected muscles at the front of the thighs, hips, fingers, wrists, upper arms, shoulders, neck and back atrophy.
Diagnosed with a type of leukemia at age 43, Jarry later began to experience some weakness. He had trouble climbing stairs, holding a towel behind his back after a shower to dry his hair, and getting in and out of a car.
He went back to the doctor, underwent a battery of tests and was diagnosed with IBM on April 12, 2016. You don’t forget a day like that, he says. When his doctor revealed the diagnosis, Jarry described slipping into a fog. The doctor was still talking, but Jarry couldn’t hear a word he said.
“You just want to go back to your car and cry.”
There are several forms of myositis, some of which are treatable and curable. But not Jarry’s.
His immune system is misdirected and attacks his body’s own normal, healthy tissue.
After five years, he’ll need a cane. After 10, a wheelchair. The long-term prognosis is not good.
“If all the muscles are affected, you’re not able to breathe, you’re not able to eat, you’re not able to do anything,” he said.
For now, what he can do — with the help of futuristic leg braces manufactured in Quebec — is run.
Jarry uses the Keeogo, a walking-assistance device designed to help people with mobility challenges.
The leg braces, which he wears over his running tights, have six censors that analyze his movements and assist him as needed.
“I decide what I do and it gives me assistance, if I need to climb stairs, I just have to make the movement and it’s going to help me to lift,” Jarry explains.
Some people might think it’ll help him run fast and leave others in the dust, but that’s not quite how it works. These aren’t robot legs. It’s still his effort that propels him. The device just helps him and makes running gentler on his weakening muscles.
Without it, his quads would kill him after a 10K run, he said.
A Quebec provincial police constable whose first posting was in Gatineau, Jarry is unable to work. He’s undergoing both chemotherapy and immunoglobulin therapy. His immune system is compromised, so he can’t risk being exposed to a virus.
He trains alone, sometimes twice day.
Jarry got his $45,000 Keeogo device in April. He hasn’t yet reached a point that requires him to wear it every day. He wants to keep his muscles strong for as long as possible “because I don’t want to lose (muscle) too rapidly.”
“If I don’t do all this, I’m going to die.”
His fingers and arms are already affected, making it hard to tie shoelaces. Pushups are out of the question.
Jarry used Saturday’s race as an opportunity to raise money for and awareness of Myositis Canada, a non-profit, volunteer agency that’s trying to improve the lives of people affected by myositis.
He personally raised more than $22,500 for the charity, making him the highest individual fundraiser in Race Weekend’s Scotiabank charity challenge (The Myositis Canada team has raised more than $33,000).
“I think it brings hope to people who’ve got this illness,” Jarry said. His 16-year-old son, Loïc, will run beside him, while wife Carole, and daughter Mia, 11, cheer them on from the sidelines.
Unlike some runners, Jarry was not racing against the clock on Saturday or trying to set a world record. He was assigned to the last corral and hoped to complete the 10K in one hour and 15 minutes (his final time was 1:19:44).
“I’m there for a different reason. I want to enjoy this.”
Go Martin. Man who lives with myosotis crosses the finish line with his dermoskeleton. #ottnews pic.twitter.com/FTxCnFQ4W3
— Matthew Pearson (@mpearson78) May 28, 2017
Saturday’s five-kilometre race was Solomon Haile’s first.
The 17-year-old arrived in Canada last year from Eritrea and hoped to finish in a speedy 20 minutes (he came close, finishing with a time of 22:19).
Haile ran with a special Ridgemont High School class that caters to newcomers such as he. Many of these students have had their schooling interrupted by war and, eventually, ended up in Canada, said teacher Nadia Gandhi. The two-year program helps to accelerate their literacy and acclimatize students to a new country.
A special Ridgemont High School class that caters to newcomers was among the 115 people signed up to run for the Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization (OCISO) on Saturday during Tamarack Race Weekend. Solomon Haile is in the back row, third from the right.
Gandhi’s class of 16 students between the ages of 15 and 19 took up running. Gandhi says she wanted to help them build resilience and set an achievable goal — to complete a five-kilometre race.
They’ve been training since February, and, along the way, have discovered how running can calm and focus the mind, ease stress and wipe away worry.
“It makes me feel better, feel focused,” said Mahdi Alwes, with a wide grin. The 18-year-old arrived from Syria in February 2016.
Saturday was also the first day of Ramadan, which meant some of the Ridgemont racers were fasting all day, Gandhi said.
The Ridgemont group were among the 115 people signed up to run for the Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization (OCISO). Together, the group raised more than $19,000 for the organization, which has served the city’s immigrant and refugee community since 1978.
On Sunday, the final water station was about 40 kilometres from the starting line, just before the marathon route bent to the west over the Pretoria Bridge and down the Queen Elizabeth Driveway homestretch (it was the 20-km mark for half-marathoners).
Diabetes Canada volunteers began arriving before 6 a.m. to fill thousands of orange cups with water and line them up in neat rows. They also set up two hoses to douse runners in a cool mist.
Melanie and Pat at 40k Team Diabetes water station. Pat has been at this water station for 11/13 years. #ottnews pic.twitter.com/JweJWO7pST
— Matthew Pearson (@mpearson78) May 28, 2017
Some began trickling by just after 9 a.m., but the deluge hit a few hours later, as runners aiming for a four-hour marathon finish caught up with those hoping to complete the shorter race in about half that time. Orange cups soon littered the pavement, which was wet from cups being thrown, dropped or dumped overhead as a runner flew by.
“Everyone says, ‘Thank you for being here,'” said Melanie Mayer, who coordinated the water station’s 70 volunteers. “These runners are dying and they’re still saying thank you. It’s humbling.”
Manners certainly persist here, despite the obvious exhaustion. Some people say “sorry” if they knock a cup out of a volunteer’s hand or bump into another runner.
But even after the rush has died down, the water station and its volunteers remain until every last person has passed it.
“As a runner, I know the appreciation of a water station,” said Pat Perry, who cheered runners with a megaphone and even ran alongside a few for encouragement.
He’s volunteered at this exact water station for 11 out of the past 13 years.
“This weekend is a part of my life,” he said with a smile. “I wouldn’t miss it.”
mpearson@postmedia.com
twitter.com/mpearson78
查看原文...
But after being diagnosed last year with an incurable muscle disease, the 47-year-old Montrealer had to settle for Saturday’s 10-kilometre race instead.
“The 10K,” he said before the start of the Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend event, “will be my 42 kilometres, because it’s really demanding on my muscles.”
Jarry has inclusion-body myositis (IBM), which causes inflammation and loss of muscle tissue. IBM is more often found in men than women and is rarely seen in people younger than 50.
Early signs of the disease include difficulty standing from a seated position, weakening grip and frequent falls, as affected muscles at the front of the thighs, hips, fingers, wrists, upper arms, shoulders, neck and back atrophy.
Diagnosed with a type of leukemia at age 43, Jarry later began to experience some weakness. He had trouble climbing stairs, holding a towel behind his back after a shower to dry his hair, and getting in and out of a car.
He went back to the doctor, underwent a battery of tests and was diagnosed with IBM on April 12, 2016. You don’t forget a day like that, he says. When his doctor revealed the diagnosis, Jarry described slipping into a fog. The doctor was still talking, but Jarry couldn’t hear a word he said.
“You just want to go back to your car and cry.”
There are several forms of myositis, some of which are treatable and curable. But not Jarry’s.
His immune system is misdirected and attacks his body’s own normal, healthy tissue.
After five years, he’ll need a cane. After 10, a wheelchair. The long-term prognosis is not good.
“If all the muscles are affected, you’re not able to breathe, you’re not able to eat, you’re not able to do anything,” he said.
For now, what he can do — with the help of futuristic leg braces manufactured in Quebec — is run.
Jarry uses the Keeogo, a walking-assistance device designed to help people with mobility challenges.
The leg braces, which he wears over his running tights, have six censors that analyze his movements and assist him as needed.
“I decide what I do and it gives me assistance, if I need to climb stairs, I just have to make the movement and it’s going to help me to lift,” Jarry explains.
Some people might think it’ll help him run fast and leave others in the dust, but that’s not quite how it works. These aren’t robot legs. It’s still his effort that propels him. The device just helps him and makes running gentler on his weakening muscles.
Without it, his quads would kill him after a 10K run, he said.
A Quebec provincial police constable whose first posting was in Gatineau, Jarry is unable to work. He’s undergoing both chemotherapy and immunoglobulin therapy. His immune system is compromised, so he can’t risk being exposed to a virus.
He trains alone, sometimes twice day.
Jarry got his $45,000 Keeogo device in April. He hasn’t yet reached a point that requires him to wear it every day. He wants to keep his muscles strong for as long as possible “because I don’t want to lose (muscle) too rapidly.”
“If I don’t do all this, I’m going to die.”
His fingers and arms are already affected, making it hard to tie shoelaces. Pushups are out of the question.
Jarry used Saturday’s race as an opportunity to raise money for and awareness of Myositis Canada, a non-profit, volunteer agency that’s trying to improve the lives of people affected by myositis.
He personally raised more than $22,500 for the charity, making him the highest individual fundraiser in Race Weekend’s Scotiabank charity challenge (The Myositis Canada team has raised more than $33,000).
“I think it brings hope to people who’ve got this illness,” Jarry said. His 16-year-old son, Loïc, will run beside him, while wife Carole, and daughter Mia, 11, cheer them on from the sidelines.
Unlike some runners, Jarry was not racing against the clock on Saturday or trying to set a world record. He was assigned to the last corral and hoped to complete the 10K in one hour and 15 minutes (his final time was 1:19:44).
“I’m there for a different reason. I want to enjoy this.”
Go Martin. Man who lives with myosotis crosses the finish line with his dermoskeleton. #ottnews pic.twitter.com/FTxCnFQ4W3
— Matthew Pearson (@mpearson78) May 28, 2017
•
Saturday’s five-kilometre race was Solomon Haile’s first.
The 17-year-old arrived in Canada last year from Eritrea and hoped to finish in a speedy 20 minutes (he came close, finishing with a time of 22:19).
Haile ran with a special Ridgemont High School class that caters to newcomers such as he. Many of these students have had their schooling interrupted by war and, eventually, ended up in Canada, said teacher Nadia Gandhi. The two-year program helps to accelerate their literacy and acclimatize students to a new country.
A special Ridgemont High School class that caters to newcomers was among the 115 people signed up to run for the Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization (OCISO) on Saturday during Tamarack Race Weekend. Solomon Haile is in the back row, third from the right.
Gandhi’s class of 16 students between the ages of 15 and 19 took up running. Gandhi says she wanted to help them build resilience and set an achievable goal — to complete a five-kilometre race.
They’ve been training since February, and, along the way, have discovered how running can calm and focus the mind, ease stress and wipe away worry.
“It makes me feel better, feel focused,” said Mahdi Alwes, with a wide grin. The 18-year-old arrived from Syria in February 2016.
Saturday was also the first day of Ramadan, which meant some of the Ridgemont racers were fasting all day, Gandhi said.
The Ridgemont group were among the 115 people signed up to run for the Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization (OCISO). Together, the group raised more than $19,000 for the organization, which has served the city’s immigrant and refugee community since 1978.
•
On Sunday, the final water station was about 40 kilometres from the starting line, just before the marathon route bent to the west over the Pretoria Bridge and down the Queen Elizabeth Driveway homestretch (it was the 20-km mark for half-marathoners).
Diabetes Canada volunteers began arriving before 6 a.m. to fill thousands of orange cups with water and line them up in neat rows. They also set up two hoses to douse runners in a cool mist.
Melanie and Pat at 40k Team Diabetes water station. Pat has been at this water station for 11/13 years. #ottnews pic.twitter.com/JweJWO7pST
— Matthew Pearson (@mpearson78) May 28, 2017
Some began trickling by just after 9 a.m., but the deluge hit a few hours later, as runners aiming for a four-hour marathon finish caught up with those hoping to complete the shorter race in about half that time. Orange cups soon littered the pavement, which was wet from cups being thrown, dropped or dumped overhead as a runner flew by.
“Everyone says, ‘Thank you for being here,'” said Melanie Mayer, who coordinated the water station’s 70 volunteers. “These runners are dying and they’re still saying thank you. It’s humbling.”
Manners certainly persist here, despite the obvious exhaustion. Some people say “sorry” if they knock a cup out of a volunteer’s hand or bump into another runner.
But even after the rush has died down, the water station and its volunteers remain until every last person has passed it.
“As a runner, I know the appreciation of a water station,” said Pat Perry, who cheered runners with a megaphone and even ran alongside a few for encouragement.
He’s volunteered at this exact water station for 11 out of the past 13 years.
“This weekend is a part of my life,” he said with a smile. “I wouldn’t miss it.”
mpearson@postmedia.com
twitter.com/mpearson78
查看原文...
