My Comeback Chronicles: A long road back just for a short sprint

I’ve been able to run as far back as I can remember. Instead of walking my first steps, I probably ran. I’ve been fast but not always the fastest, so I’ve had to fight to win, fight to train and fight to compete, but I’ve never had to fight my body..and this fight back to the track has taken three years….and I’m not sure it’s quite finished..here’s hoping it is .

Even though we live in a society that celebrates rugged individualism and social media that loves to demonstrate our uniqueness. I believe, on the contrary, that we are not as special or unique as we think. We are closer to being the same just different iterations, more likely sharing similar or the same life experiences at one point or another. So I try to navigate in this way with the belief that something I may be going through is more likely than not something someone else has, is, or will be experiencing. So I share this story to maybe help some one else work through the same or a similar trial in their life. I hope it helps.

By now most who know me can safely say I’m not an open book. It’s my nature to move quietly and intently in the things I do. But at this moment I’m willing to share a window into my life, now admittedly at some point I may feel different about this and take this post down, but for now the light is “on” in the window, read further and take a peak if you’d like.

This piece is not for any congratulations or sympathy.  I write it so that maybe some part of it may provide some answers if you are going through the same or similar situation. In any event take it for what it’s worth.

I don’t exactly remember when but Around age 40-45 my wife made me go to the doctors for a full check-up.  Of course I had felt fine and was in great shape, or so I thought. Yikes, My test results came back with a diagnosis of stage 3 Chronic Kidney disease (CKD). My reaction was WTF!!! YOU GOTTA BE KIDDIN ME.

I’m not sure why but the doctors best guess was maybe the twenty plus years of anti inflammation medicines, in my case aspirin, a high protein diet (powders) and prolonged cycles of dehydration and stress from high intensity training. Who knows??

Anyway, the damage was done. I had to make a lifestyle change to slow or stop further kidney damage and avoid or delay dialysis (stage 5).

So I started to do the work, watching my diet by primarily monitoring hydration and minimizing harmful or difficult nutrients for the kidneys to process like phosphorus, sodium and potassium to name a few.

Life changed from eating anything I wanted to scrutinizing every ingredient label when shopping and every menu at a restauraunt. NOT FUN. No more eating with “wreckless” abandon.

Exercise was no problem, hey I own a gym and have always been active.

Up to that point I had a twenty year stint competing collegiately and on the pro and national circuits in track and field as a 60m, 100m, and 200m sprinter. My last national caliber race was at age 38.  At that point I had begun to make the transition to masters level track for athletes 40 and older. For those unfamiliar, It’s a opportunity to compete at aged graded levels in four year groupings (40-44 for example) where athletes who still have the competitive desire, maybe want to pickup a new sport, or revisit the opportunities lost from their youth. They hold national and international championship competitions all over the US and the world…fun stuff. I’d recommend it to anyone.

OK, competing in masters I did really well, winning some national and world titles, American record holder for my age groupings in 60m and 100m in particular the 40-44, and 45-49 age groups.

Now at around age 45-47 something started to happen. I could train I’d say generally as high as 85-90% effort with no indication of a problem, however when I pushed to max effort 100% my body would cramp, I mean literally seize up. What I initially thought were low degree muscle strains in the hip, quads, hamstrings and calves I later discovered were high degree, deep, bruising, cramp episodes, you know the middle of the night muscle lockup where the muscle is bruised and sore for days after. Imagine running full speed and that happening,  it’s like someone throwing a stick in bike spokes, full on muscle seizure in usually multiple areas at once….OWW!!! To put it mildly. To put it literally OWW F#$k, Sh#t, GODDA##it, MOTHAF$#KER, anyway you get my point.

At that point with my diagnosis, coupled with a growing business and slipped disc (L4 back). At forty eight everything kinda dulled my interest in competing. So I stopped.

Three years ago I decided to race again, lets say the competitive flame wasn’t burning bright but the pilot light was still on. Since then my comeback has been a long and frustrating one.  The last race I finished was back when I was forty-seven years old, I’m sixty now.  That’s thirteen years I’ve been away from track and competition, something that had been a part of my life since the age of ten.

So here’s how the last three years have gone.

Trained for US Indoor championships in New York 2023 where I cramped and did not finish my qualifier. The second US Championships in Chicago (2024) where I won my heat and cramped in the final to not finish. So very frustrating.

Just by chance I was on the plane ride headed home after the New York failure when I came across an article (thanks to the algorithm gods) about severe cramping in CKD patients. It sparked the idea of researching the  subject of nutrient depletion due to the diet restrictions of CKD. Primarily the effects of low levels of sodium phosphorous magnesium and potassium. All critical to proper high intensity muscle contraction and function ie..SPRINTING!!!.

I was determined to crack the code.

Two turning points, first I met a fellow masters athlete, coach and nutritionist Wendell Dickson at the meet in Chicago . He introduced me to a diet surrounding joint health, I was having chronic knee pain which was one of the by products of CKD. He helped set the foundation for my current diet. As I followed him down the rabbit hole, I was exposed to and began to research mitochondrial health. I’m no expert, still a student, but learning a lot.

This in turn led to my second most important development. I devised a protocol for introducing a “nutrient loading” phase into my diet seven days prior to competition in the hopes of guarding against too much depletion.

My first attempt using this method was partially successful. I made it through the heat but cramped in the final. That was at Nationals in Chicago 2024.

My second attempt was racing at Nationals in Florida this month. Success!!! no cramping, I won my heat and final for the National championship title. The difference, I adjusted loading to 10 days with a additional 72 hour saturation period. I also introduced lactic acid buffer agents. However, two weeks prior I went to the hospital for guess what? a kidney stone, can’t make this sh#t up, waited a whole week to pass it, luckily it did, one week prior to the race…whew!

I’m not 100 percent confident I cracked the code but I think I’m trending in the right direction.

More than winning it was just satisfying to compete and finish not one but two races.

There’s the saying; “my body betrayed me!”… No it doesn’t, it just finally speaks loud enough where we have no choice but to listen to it.

Anyways that’s my story to this point. The World Championships are in about three weeks (Florida). I’m headed to them, working hard, keeping the faith, fingers crossed.

Do I still got it? I don’t know, but its nice to know I have something left. Ill probably post a couple more times as I go through this experience. Stay tuned for episode #2: The Preparation.

See ya at the first issue line.

Coach Aaron