Damn

Most of you know that I started with Team In Training because we lost my uncle to myeloma, a blood cancer. Sometimes I get bored of the grind of fundraising. And sometimes it feels like trying to raise money to find a cure is spitting into the wind.

Last week, Steve learned that his honored teammate from the Tuscon team had lost his battle with cancer. Yesterday, I found out that, Roy, a friend and former coworker died of cancer also. When I started my job 5 years ago, Roy was a big help to me. He didn't meddle, but he gave me good counsel and generally kept me out of trouble. He was diagnosed with late stage cancer last fall.

Losing anyone is tough, even someone you don't see or talk to everyday. Sometimes you just like knowing that they are in the world and on your side. I was chatting with a friend and she explained why I'll miss Roy better than I can. She said, "He saw my potential when I couldn't." That is a truly fine quality in friend.

A Photo of Someone Much Cooler Than Me

Sorry. I've been a bad blogger lately. I've also been a been a sub-stellar friend, dud girlfriend, a lame daughter, sister and aunt. If you're one of the people I've dissed lately, then it's not you, it's me. Work has been pretty all-consuming for the last few weeks and I'm behind on every other thing in my life. Sorry.

Now that we've discussed why I'm a big ol' loser - lets talk about someone who kicks butt. Kicked cancer's butt and kicked the Boston Marathon's butt. I got an email today to let me know that Julie a 3 time cancer beater, Team In Training marathon mentor and LiveStrong runner has added Boston Marathon finisher to her list of accomplishments. She's also running San Diego and Seattle with our TNT team. Three marathons in three months? That's my kind of girl!

Here is her photo from Boston.com

Did anyone hear how Coach Happy did at Boston? Update: Happy finished Boston too! A very good day for the TNT Purple People.

New Challenge

You all know that I love Team In Training, right? Then it should come as no surprise that I want to contribute some time and effort to make the TNT experience awesome for other participants. I volunteered to become a mentor for our Peak Performance team.

Peak Performance is a special team for dedicated people who want to have their best marathon, triathlon or century ride (or for people who just want to increase their overall strength, explosiveness, flexibility and balance). It's several nights a week of training at different training facilities in San Diego and it's run by excellent coaches, trainers and a nutritionist.

As always, TNT isn't about endurance sports. It's really about raising funds to find a cure for blood cancer and for helping patients and their families. My donation page is on-line, if you're inclined to donate.

Did I Ever Tell You You're My Hero?

Dear Heavens this is an ambitious goal.

Nick Hollon, a high school senior, is going to run 3,000 miles in 10 months to raise money to cure blood cancers. Like many of us who raise money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, blood cancer his touched his life.

Three thousand miles in 10 months is a great goal, but he decided to make it even tougher. Next Saturday, he's running 100 miles. In. One. Day. I can do 26.2 in one day and it's tough. He's doing nearly 4 marathons in less than 24 hours.

Visit his website www.3000forthecure.org to hear more about his run. I'm planning to join him on the track and run a few miles to keep him company if he needs some support.

I'd Like To Thank - My Mentor, My Teammates and My Helmet

Saturday's bike ride was, well, unfun. Cycling is one of those things that when things start to go wrong, the wrongness just keeps building on itself.

The short version is -

• My bike saddle was too far forward; therefore, my leg stroke was inefficient.
• Between my pedaling inefficiency, my poor shifting technique and riding with a faster pace group, I managed to exhaust myself after 20 miles with another 10 to ride.
• The bike saddle position put pressure on my knees and my right knee was super painful and cranky.
• Because my knee hurt, I couldn't quickly unclip my foot from the pedal on my right side which meant I was frightened that I was going to fall whenever we needed to stop.

Do you see how the wrongness builds exponentially?

To get around the cranky right knee/unclipping problem, I started unclipping my left foot. It worked until we got about 500 yards from the end of the ride. We stopped and I needed to unclip on the right side and get that foot to the ground. I couldn't do it fast enough and fell over. At that point, I just couldn't take it any more - the painful knee, being afraid for hours, being so close to the finish, the fall. It was simply too much for me and I started to cry and babble (humiliating, I know).

I have never appreciated a Team In Training mentor or group teammates more than I did on Saturday. I was ruining their ride - they couldn't go as far or fast as they should have been able to go and they were still so incredibly supportive to me. I'm not very comfortable needing help and I was incredibly frustrated. My teammates put my bike back together, pulled a clump of grass out of my helmet, wrapped an arm around my shoulders, cheered me on when I got back on the bike to ride to the finish.

The fall gave me a whippin', but at the time I didn't notice it. Now I'm sporting a very tender shoulder and swollen elbow and some nice bruises on my legs. That begs the question, why can't I just stop now? Last week, I got an email from one of my first Honored Teammates. Honored Teammates are people who are fighting blood cancers who agree to dedicate time to TNT teams. Each Honored Teammate is special to me and several are young children. Children fighting cancer is sad, but childhood Leukemias now have a high survival rate which is a direct result of money raised for research.

The email last week was from an Honored Teammate, Michele, who has always touched my heart. She's just a bit younger than I am and from a similar background. She's me, only she's fought back cancer 4 times. The cancer has returned and this time things look bleak. Chemo isn't an option this time and she's looking to alternative treatments - an alkalizing thing, an oxygen thing. Before they talked about a cure, now they're talking about quality of life.

That helps to keep things in context. I had a bad couple of hours training, but I'm healthy enough to train for an endurance event. It's hard to quit knowing that my Honoree won't have that chance. If I just wanted some training partners for every Saturday, then I could join a running club or a bike club. I picked TNT, because I wanted to raise money to fight blood cancers.

Michele is going to be featured on TV program about understanding cancer which does a great job explaining her story.

More Later, But This for Now

Linda will be here to get me in 5 hours, so I should be asleep.

There's plenty of stuff to tell you about - picking up my race number, getting a button with my uncle's photo, going the pre-marathon pasta dinner.

But for now, I'll tell you this. 17000 participants will start the race. Nearly 4000 of those participants are members of Team in Training. Those 4000 runners and walkers raised 12.5 to cure blood cancers.

12.5 Million.

You Can't Always Get What You Want

Sometimes people ask me if I'm disappointed that I'm walking the marathon instead of running it. Admittedly, running it was my plan and I ran as much as I could when I started training. Then my creaky joints let me know that there'd be none of that. Even when I run for short distances now the pain can be pretty intense. On Saturday, Gretchen wanted to run a bit to catch up to Linda and Carol, but I knew I could not do it. I've accepted that running this marathon just isn't meant to be.

Not running the marathon doesn't bother me. Monday was the first anniversary of losing my uncle to multiple myeloma cancer. I didn't want to run a marathon. I wanted to honor the person that we'd lost and raise money to fight the disease that took him. So walk or run isn't a big deal.

Plus, I feel lucky to have met so many wonderful people as part of training. I wouldn't have had as many fabulous, funny conversations if we'd been running. The walkers are unmistakably cool.

There will be other events for me to run. I'm sure I could do a 5K or a 10K. Maybe in the Spring.

Nike Women's Marathon - Run Like A Girl

Last week I officially signed up for Nike Women's Marathon. There was a very nice TNT Alumni cocktail reception hosted by Nike and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Actually I'm a pre-alum of TNT since I haven't finished my first event yet, but lets not pick nits.

I checked out the fund raising commitment and it's only $1500 even though it's a travel event. I knew it was a lot smaller amount as an alum, but I wasn't sure how much. That's cool.

It's a win/win. I love TNT and the cause is so near to my heart. Nike Women's, here I come.

Next!

Okay, I'm barely halfway through training for my first marathon. Yet, I've just signed on for my next marathon - The Nike Women's Marathon, October 21, 2007.

Here is why I couldn't resist -

• San Francisco. muah!
• There is a candy mile - an entire mile of the race is people giving out Ghirardelli chocolates. Candy!
• Pedicure stations.
• The finisher's medal is from Tiffany's and it's given out by San Francisco firemen wearing tuxedos.
• The entire event benefits the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
  

My Heart Is Breaking

Second training session. Again with the 8am. You hurt me Team in Training.

We met at Movin' Shoes for a shoe fitting clinic. Some really good info there. I'm pretty sure my shoes are a size too small. Apparently, the too short shoes will make my toenails turn black and fall off my foot. I'm a big fan of the pedicures and the sexy/trashy red toe polish. Must address the toenail issue with a new shoe purchase.

We did 6 miles today which finished with a brutal hill. Actually, when we started the workout going downhill and I thought to myself, "This is going to suck eggs going up on the way home." It almost did.

Heather and I were standing at a stoplight at the base of the hill getting ready to start the climb. We were both wearing our TNT shirts as were a bunch of other teammates. We were right next to a Starbucks and I was gazing at the coffee shop with pure lust. Dear Venti Decaf Americano, show me your hot love. Suddenly, there was someone yelling at us - a woman in the Starbucks drive-thru had rolled down the windows on her SUV. "Thanks for raising money! My son has leukemia. Thanks so much! Wave honey, Wave!" And her son waved to us from his car seat.

Even thinking about it now my eyes tear. To be grateful for some stranger for trying to help your sick child. The hill just didn't seem so bad after that.

The Starting Line!

Today was the first training session - 3 hilly miles.

All the teams - runners, walkers, triathletes met at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society headquarters at 8am. You hear me? 8 A M. That means in the morning. On a Saturday. Oh, sweet, sweet pillow, I miss thee.

The arrival was a mess of hard-to-find-parking and hard-to-find-your-event-team. Eventually, I found my team and listened to the orientation.

The workout was a bit harder than I anticipated. Not exhausting, but I was moving pretty fast (for me) and the hills were tougher than I thought they'd be. About halfway through they had a little comfort station with Gatorade, water, pretzels and Cheez-its. Man, I love me some Cheez-Its.

Kick-Off

Tonight was the kick off party for the Spring Team in Training. It was slightly dorky or also inspirational and fun. The best part was listening to the comments from the honored teammates - if these people can beat cancer, then I can drag my body 26.2. I want to start training right this second.

I also got my first piece of Team In Training swag tonight. I got my TNT training shirt because I'd set up my fund raising website and written my solicitation letter. There's no way I'm going to send out letters, but I did write one. The shirt is actually nice - a Nike CoolMax shirt. Good swag is a beautiful thing.

It was awesome to see all those people ready to go - runners, marathon walkers, triathletes, century riders. Endurance athletes one and all. Go Team!

Getting to Know Team in Training

I'd always wanted to do a marathon with Team in Training. My friend Becca did it a few years ago but it was just never the right time for me. TNT trains people for endurance events - marathons, century rides, triathlons. In return each participant agrees to raise a specific amount of money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. LLS uses that money to fund research to cure blood cancers. It's a win/win.

I was always too busy, too lazy, too frightened of the fundraising commitment, too something. Two things happened last year that made me reconsider. We lost my uncle to myeloma and I moved across country. Suddenly I wasn't too busy or too lazy to raise a bit of money for when a blood cancer hit close to home. I went to the introduction session and decided the timing was just right.

One thing that I always wanted to know was how much I needed to fundraise for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to participate. In fact, I hunted through tons of TNT blogs to try and figure it out before I went to the session. It's like a state secret or something.

Here's the deal - the LLS takes the cost of each participant then multiplies it by 4. That guarantees that the agency has 75% of all money donated going directly to the agency's mission. The cost per participant are: entry fees, materials, travel, jerseys, etc. So if you go to race in Ireland, it's more expensive than if you go to a race in your hometown. I'm doing a local race and it's a 1700 buck commitment.

Not too bad. I can raise 1700 bucks. I signed the form.

On June 3rd, I'll be dragging myself 26.2 miles in San Diego's Rock N Roll Marathon.