My Mom and the Marine Corps Marathon 10K

For her 90th birthday celebration, my Mom asked that all nine of her children would participate with her in the 10K race associated with the Marine Corps Marathon.  So we were all there, most of us participating.  The race was October 28.  My Mom had a training injury with her foot a few weeks earlier, and we were concerned that she wouldn't make it.  But she did, and she made it the whole way.  She didn't set any records, but she made it.

Amy and I did run and fast walk the whole way.  We also did not set any records, but we did get an aerobic workout that helped our brain health.  Because of problems with my back, I had not run for many years, but it was refreshing to really run again.  (I very fast walk at a 15-degree incline on the treadmill every day.)  But by the time we got home, my sciatica had returned.  So I went back to my orthopedist and took up my McKenzie exercises again.

All seems to be well now, but I missed more than a week of good exercise due to the trip and some issues with my left hip.  I definitely believe that my cognition declined as a result of this sedentary period.  I've gotten back into good aerobic exercise, and my sense is that my cognition is going back to where it was not long ago.

This experience (subjective as it is) suggests that my brain is much more sensitive to variation in the amount of aerobic exercise I engage in than I had previously believed.