My surgery was September 21. I am not and never will be an ultra runner, or even a long distance runner. I am also never going to be fast. I did find I lost a lot of aerobic fitness during the period before and immediately after surgery, and that returning to gentle jogging helped enormously. I started a few tentative steps at running 3 months after surgery, and at 4 months after surgery used a Garmin 5k plan to get me back to running 5k comfortably.
I am so glad I did. Shortly after starting the programme, I got a recall from a routine mammogram and find I have breast cancer. I am convinced the fact that I was happily running 5k and wanted to continue doing so made the BC operation (thankfully a wide area excision, not a mastectomy) easy to get through, I just needed 2 weeks out of running. Next step is to decide in consultation with the oncologist whether or not to have chemo, plus I definitely have to have 5 doses of radiotherapy. I want to be as fit as possible to get through this.
So I guess my message is none of us know what’s around the corner, so if running matters to you, I probably wouldn’t keep on delaying. I know I am only running 5k slowly, but I have had absolutely no adverse effects. Quite the opposite, it’s helped in so many ways, including with the mental health aspects of what I am now going through.