The Hazel Project

Running.

Who would’ve thought that yours truly would get a kick out of running? Let alone excercise in general.

It started like this. The first week of September I found myself thinking about signing up for the L.A. Marathon. Within 2 or 3 days my landlord, Zellda, put a flier by the door to my room. The flier was just a little blurb about how the APLA will train someone like me, a cat with little running experience, to participate in the 2008 L.A. Marathon. All I have to do is commit to a fund raising goal of $1500 for the APLA.

The APLA stands for AIDS PROJECT LOS ANGELES.
They provide support services for people living with AIDS where the medical treatment leaves off. These services come in the form of counseling, meals, & rides for Doctor appointments, etc.

After a short information session and registration process; I now have a running coach, a running group, and a fund raising coach. Ah memories of fund raising. It’s been a while since I sold barrels of cheese door to door to raise money for Band Camp. I think the APLA serves a broader purpose; helping people who are unable to afford certain services for those who really need it.

It’s strange in a way because I’ve only known one person who’s had AIDS. His name was Michael. He lived in my dormitory my first year at USM in 1986. I remember very little about Michael other than that he would play this record called, “Tarzan Boy,” really loud with his door open. Also, I remember he had painted his dorm walls “mauve” with a sponge. It was the first time I had ever even heard the word, “mauve.” His dorm room looked like a Florida hotel lobby.

One day I saw Michael packing his things and asked him where he was going, and all he would say is, “I have to go home.” I noticed all these dark lesions on his face, and he was really, really thin. I asked him if he was going to come back next semester but his only response was silence. I thought it was really weird to bail on school being so close to graduation. I found out later, albeit through heresay, and cafeteria talk, he was going home to take care of his disease. His HIV had turned into full blown AIDS. I was unable to really confirm it, but I know he never came back to USM.

Other people I am training with know people personally; family members & long time friends, living with the disease.

At this point, I lose words, I’m unable to know or relate very well. All I can do is show kindness, compassion, and continue to run.

Beyond the cause, I do have a personal motive of breaking down what I perceive to be, ‘life’ barriers. I make up false boundaries to hold myself back, usually out of fear. Right now the metaphor I’m using to address this is ‘running a marathon.’

My progress so far?

I’ve been training 5 weeks. I have a group run on Saturdays and two maintenance runs on Tuesday and Thursday. Wednesday’s I do a five mile hike in the morning before work. That’s my training schedule. As of last Saturday it’s gotten me up to running 8 miles. Next week I’ll run 10.

I’ll keep you posted on my progress and how to contact the APLA on my behalf for those of you who would like to make a contribution.

Thanks for checking in.

Stephen A. Thomas

This entry was posted on Monday, October 15th, 2007 at 10:46 pm and is filed under on the path, posts & stories . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.