The Week in Review

It was actually OK?

It’s been a weird week.

I didn’t get to go to Boulderthon, which was a bummer for a whole bunch of reasons.

Instead of spending the weekend in the mountains being a running hype girl, I was home. Just me, Ellie (my dog), and my pulmonary emboli.

And it wasn’t terrible.

I expected to hit some seriously low points over the weekend, but I was OK. I had my moments, but I stayed just busy enough that my brain didn’t go to any particularly tough places.

I spent Friday up at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, where I underwent a whole bunch of tests. Nothing invasive, nothing particularly stressful — just an echocardiogram, an EKG, some labs, and a lower body CT to check for Deep Vein Thrombosis (clots in my legs). It was a long day of hanging out in waiting rooms and being poked, prodded, and scanned, but it all went fine. Everything came back normal. Not having clots in my legs was a big win!

For the rest of the weekend, I went for walks with Ellie, I cleaned the house, I purged stuff, I organized stuff, and I fall-ified the house. I lit my favorite fall candle, I cooked, and I genuinely enjoyed cleaning out my refrigerator. (Why do I have so many bottles of soy sauce?)

Then, on Sunday, my wonderful, witty, kind, generous, gorgeous friend Conor arrived from NYC.

He was always planning to come up, but the plan was to come up to be my support person for Chemo Round 6.

Then, those pesky clots pushed chemo by a bit. So I gave Conor the out: “You don’t have to come up if I’m not getting chemo.” Secretly, though, I was eager for the company.

And because he’s a Best Friend Ever, he still came, and we’ve gotten to hang out all week.

We’ve worked during the day and watched Ted Lasso at night. Conor came to Back to School Night at Annie’s school and was the guest of honor at our weekly Wednesday Girls Night with my friend and her daughters.

It’s always nice having quality company.

It’s especially appreciated when there’s a chance of hanging out at Rock Bottom. I didn’t get there, though. I didn’t even come close.

Along the way, Cousin Jackie launched a GoFundMe for my family and me.

I still have a lot I want to try and articulate about that. I’m working on it.

Mostly: an insane amount of gratitude for all of you and your immense generosity. It’s hard to make sense of the goodness that has come our way, and it alleviates so much stress and anxiety that I’ve felt over these past few years. So thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.

In addition to gratitude, I felt a lot of guilt. Guilt for receiving such an outpouring of kindness, but also guilt for having the platform and access that I have knowing there are so many people in more dire circumstances who don’t have the reach and community that I have. I knew I wanted to pay this all forward somehow.

I shared those feelings with my friend Caroline, and because she is who she is, she leapt into action. We decided to see what we could raise for Undue Medical Debt, a nonprofit that helps erase medical debt for those in need. (A lot of people have asked me to explain how, exactly, that works. I’ll direct you here for all the As to your Qs!)

Because of all of you, we have raised more than $26,000 — and counting — with additional pledges from members of our communities offering to match donations. Thousands of people donated, and the average donation amount was $8, proving that any amount truly adds up. Ultimately, we will help erase more than $3 million of medical debt through Undue Medical Debt.

(Our country is broken. This shouldn’t be a thing. But it is, and you’re helping tremendously. Thank you.)

The world has felt particularly dark for a while now (since, roughly, Election Day 2024, I’d say). I often feel really powerless and defeated in a lot of that.

Getting to help find a way to give back this week felt really, really good.

Thank you all for being the good.

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This week on the Ali on the Run Show:

• Georgia Hunter Bell, Olympic Bronze Medalist & World Championship Silver Medalist: I love Georgia. This was such a fun conversation!

• Meghan Howard, On Running the Berlin Marathon with Harry Styles: Meghan is awesome for a bunch of reasons. While she may have had a tough day at the Berlin Marathon thanks to the high temperatures on race day and getting pushed and shoved early in the race, ultimately it wasn’t the worst day: She ran the first 17K with Harry Styles. I was giddy during this part of our chat.

Heading to:

• Boston! I’m picking up my wig today. (I got it at The Salon at 10 Newbury.) I don’t know yet how I’ll feel about wearing a wig, or how often I’ll want to wear it. I’m telling myself that sure, I’d rather have all my hair on my head, but let’s use this as an excuse to play dress-up! (My hair continues to fall out by the handful daily. I am shocked there’s any left on my head.)

• Chicago! I’m on blood thinners, I don’t have clots in my legs, my labs are stable, and my oxygen levels (I got a little device to test them daily at home!) are just fine. So I got the OK from my oncologist to fly to Chicago (wearing compression socks, getting up to move around on the flight as often as possible) for marathon weekend. I’m hosting a live show on Friday, October 10, with Eric Jenkins (FUN!), and it’s sold out, but you can get on the waitlist here. Then, I’ll be at the finish line bringing in runners on Sunday afternoon.

Listening to:

• What do you think? Happy Life of a Showgirl day!

On the cancer front:

• Ideally I wouldn’t have blood clots in my lungs (a “close call,” my oncologist said…yikes), and wouldn’t have needed to alter my chemotherapy schedule. But my oncologist’s decision to hold off on treatment for a bit while we let the blood thinners do their thing isn’t terrible: It means my next chemo infusion will be on October 14. So I’ll be feeling as well as possible in Chicago, and then my next infusion will be right after the New York City Marathon (instead of right before). So hey, we’ll call that a win!

• I had a long call with my oncologist earlier this week. We talked a lot about acceptance, and about me needing to accept my diagnosis and prognosis while also learning how to live with it. Easy peasy. (Still in denial, honestly. But we’ll get there.)

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SPONSOR SHOUT OUTS

I am so grateful for the wonderful brands and partners I get to work with on the Ali on the Run Show. Supporting them = supporting me!

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• Oofos: Click here to make your feet happy!

And so…

Take good care of yourselves. Take good care of each other. Be the good.

(You’ve got this. You’re doing great.)

Love,

Ali