Ten thousand miles.

I’ve always loved running but this distance always somehow seemed impossible to actually reach. I never felt this more strongly than when I was a student at NYU in the fall of 2014 and battled a respiratory infection which subsequently developed into a rare neurological condition called achalasia that led to years of dysphagia. I was relieved when my cough eventually subsided and thought I was in the clear until one day shortly afterward when I went to class with coffee in hand. After the professor started his lecture, I sipped some coffee and… nothing happened. I remember instantly knowing that this wasn’t a case of “down the wrong pipe” but instead something more serious and I quickly excused myself from the class.

The following year was a blur of visits to different specialists and testing such as an endoscopy and barium swallow with the goal of figuring out what had happened. I remember being frustrated with the lack of resolution as I was referred between specialists without any definitive answers but there’s a saying in medical school that “when you hear hoof beats, think horses not zebras” so they had to first rule out any of the more obvious diagnoses until my gastroenterologist eventually arrived at my diagnosis.

I finally knew what I was dealing with… but now what? Several of the doctors gave advice about food and drink to avoid including coffee so I didn’t drink any coffee for over a year because I would try anything that might possibly provide some relief. I also quickly identified problematic foods that I subsequently avoided for years such as pizza after feeling like I was starting to choke while eating them. There were surgical options available that might have helped but were accompanied by potential complications such as an esophageal tear so my doctor advised taking a more conservative route and we waited to see how things developed.

If you sprain your ankle, you can use crutches to avoid aggravating the injury. However, you can’t simply stop eating so every day became a tightrope act between properly fueling while navigating the anxiety of only eating certain foods that felt less likely to potentially cause choking and sporadic panic when those foods were not readily available. Additionally, the muscles within the esophagus gradually became fatigued over the course of a day which, in effect, imposed a volumetric constraint on how much food I could eat. In order to counter that, some of the foods I would eat were calorically dense with a high glycemic index because I needed to maximize the amount of energy relative to volume. However, those foods often caused blood sugar spikes which quickly placed me right back on the same tightrope.

As a result, I learned to be much more mindful about eating foods that provide steady energy and maximize satiety throughout the day. I run first thing in the morning so I always make sure to eat a robust breakfast afterward to fuel recovery. Specifically, I focus on carbohydrates usually in the form of overnight oats (Mush or Trader Joe’s), one of the Kodiak products, and a banana, as well as a protein shake using UCAN protein powder (my favorite is Cookies and Cream). I rehydrate with regular water during the colder months but I’ll add in a Nuun tablet to replenish electrolytes during the warmer months. Pro tip: add the tablet to 16oz of water in a Nalgene bottle and place the bottle in the freezer before leaving. After getting home, take the bottle out of the freezer, shake it up and you’ve got an ice-cold salty slushy! I’ve been really happy with this combo because it provides steady energy due to the complex carbohydrates from the overnight oats, fiber from the banana, and UCAN’s long-lasting, stable proprietary carbohydrate. Through the rest of the day, I primarily focus on eating whole foods for main meals without being overly prescriptive while also making sure to have snacks around that provide steady energy with some of my go-tos being apples, popcorn, greek yogurt with granola, mixed nuts and graham crackers.

Over time, that feeling that I first felt in the classroom gradually became less frequent and I now only very rarely have any issue although I think the muscles in my esophagus probably adapted rather than reverted to normal so there are still times when they don’t work perfectly, for example during allergy season. Overall though, my journey taught me valuable, hard-fought lessons about the vital importance of nutrition and reignited my passion for running which continually inspires me to learn and improve in order to be the best version of myself that I can be every day.