The Bell Lap

For any of you who have ran a distance race, or at least watched one in its entirety then you have at least some knowledge of what I mean by the "Bell Lap". For those who haven't experienced this, I'll enlighten you.

In distance racing (a race longer than 400m, or one lap) the bell lap signifies the final lap of the race. As soon as the race leader crosses the start/finish line of his or her race, a large bell is loudly rang quickly and repeatedly signaling to the runners and spectators alike that the race is approaching completion. In some facilities where there isn't a bell, the starting official fires the starting pistol used to start the race instead, and is therefore called the 'gun' lap. If you are or were a sprinter then you probably haven't experienced the phenomena of the bell lap for fairly obvious reasons (your race wasn't long enough for one and you were thinking God for that, right?). So, take a moment and enter into the world of the bell lap.

If you read my post on the perfect race you'll remember my analogy of my chemotherapy and racing the mile. If you haven't read that post you should go read it really quickly and come back to this post. But, in short, there are four laps in a mile and four 'laps' or cycles of treatment. In the previous post, the concentration was on the third lap and it's importance. While the third lap is the most important lap, the final lap is always the most exciting.

It never fails, when you hear the ringing of the bell it does something inside of you. The tone and urgency of the ringing produces a surge of adrenaline that propels you to finish. The third lap is often times grueling and you end it many times feeling as if you are spent, not only physically but mentally. Then the bell sounds and you instantly know the race is almost complete.

It's a funny thing, that bell. I've been in many different positions when that bell sounds loudly. It never mattered if I was in the lead or in the back of the pack, it resulted in the same response, PUSH!! You do everything you can to start speeding up, gearing up for a final surge or "kick". If you're in the lead, or close to it, you speed up because you know you have a chance to win. If you're in the back you speed up not to get last, or in some cases even 'lapped' by the leader (when the leader passes the person or people in the back because they are a lap behind). No matter the case, when the bell sounds, you speed up and the race gets more interesting.

There is typically more movement of position in the final lap then in any other point of the race other than the first few meters as runners are jostling for position. Often times, there is a runner that may have led most of the race and suddenly gets overtaken once the bell lap starts.

Every runner has a race strategy. On race weeks, you could find me in class not taking notes of the lectures, rather righting down lap times or 'splits'. Analyzing as many possible situations as possible, I would think for days before the race. I would think to myself "if I happen to be in the lead from the start, I to set the pace at a solid 60-62 seconds", "if I let someone else take the lead, I can wait a lap and adjust accordingly." Although, "if I do wait, there's no telling what the pace will be". Thus, the jotting down of different split possibilities that would equal my target time for the week.

You can never predict how a race will go exactly, you can only prepare your race and be prepared to react to what may happen when you're in the moment. Most races I had were strictly for time, so I could react every 200 meters or so regardless of position. If I was on pace then I could keep going. Behind pace I knew I needed to speed up, but not too much too quickly. Ahead of pace, I could either keep on going if I felt as if I could sustain, or slow down to the prepared pace. However, in a race in which it all comes down to the end position it all comes down to the bell lap.

Championship distance races are generally like this. It doesn't matter in any way what your time is, you're simply going for the victory whether that means a National Championship or to be an All-American. I ran in 8 National Championship races in college, meaning I advanced from the preliminary round(s) to the final at the National Championship 8 times. I was fortunate to place in the top five of all of those races, finishing in the top three five times and winning one. In every one of the races besides my national title, the race was decided in the bell lap. They started at a fairly slow pace and everyone waited for someone else to make a move first. Everyone at that level knows that it takes more energy to lead than it does to follow, and in a race at that level you usually don't have much energy to spare.

Someone almost always makes a move around the middle of the race which usually separates the race into one or more "packs" of runners. Your goal is to always stay with the lead pack, whether it's on the heels of the leader or in the back of the lead pack you're still within striking distance. You have to do whatever it takes to maintain the pace of that lead pack if you want even a remote chance of winning. Once the leader, and thus the lead pack hits the bell lap the race really begins. While it usually isn't a final kick, there is a an obvious surge of energy. Typically right past the middle of that bell lap you generally see the beginning of the kick, it's literally whatever you have left in the tank. A gut check. Oddly enough, several of my races came down literally to a photo finish even though they were distance races. In fact, I was once in a two-mile race in which the officials had to watch the video of the finish over 50 times to determine the top three finishers. They decided I was second, but I think I won. Nevertheless, we had the same time down to the thousandth of a second. That race was a championship race definitely decided by the bell lap.

I could ramble on for a very long time about all of this, but I'm really just getting to my main point. I'll make it quick. I'm on the bell lap of my cancer treatments. In most of my races during my collegiate career I began the bell lap behind the leaders. In some cases a good distance behind. But I always knew that no matter if I was 5 inches behind or 50 meters behind that the race still wasn't over. And as the people cheering me on would be nervously waiting for me to make my move wondering if I would ever just turn it on and start catching everyone, I would patiently and confidently wait until I knew exactly when to go. And, whether that was before the bell lap began or 150m in, I knew what I needed to do and almost every time I did exactly what needed to be done to finish in the top places.

I had a CT scan last Friday. It was the first one that had been done since before the treatments. This morning we met with my oncologist to discuss my progress and the scan results. If you remember, or if you don't, I had a very large tumor in my lower abdomen. It got as large as 14cm by the time we started treatments. My oncologist said it was one of the largest he has ever personally seen and worked with. And although I didn't ask him, I'm sure that there is a good chance that the ones that have been larger than 14cm may have very well been in bodies that could host larger tumors. If you've never seen me in person, I'm almost 6'1" and 155 lbs, and a distance runner at that. I'm not too sure that my build could possibly have an internal abdominal tumor much larger than 14cm.

Anyways, the CT scan was good, but not perfect. It showed that the 14cm tumor is now 3cm. We were told that there's a possibility that much of that 3cm could simply be scar tissue, but it also could still be cancer. There was also some other small masses found on the CT scan, but overall there has been a vast improvement. If you do the math (which I did) the large tumor has been decreasing at a rate of over 3cm per cycle anyways. So, even if it just keeps on at this average pace then there will be nothing left.

This is what we need agreement with and prayer for. Everything completely gone. In our discussion with the oncologist this morning, he decided that we will do another type of CT scan four weeks after the treatments are complete which is roughly seven weeks from now. At that point, if there is anything left 1cm or above then they will recommend that I have another surgery to go in and remove it. We believe that discussion won't even need to happen because it will all be gone.

So, I know this has been a long one but I have a lot of time on my hands to write. I know you will continue to pray but I want to ask you to do something else. If you haven't already, spread the word of this blog. It's not hard. The icons below each post make it easy. Or you can just share the link on Facebook. I'm a believer in prayer by the masses. And, I hope that this blog will be an inspiration to the masses.

-Kirby