Racing to Save Lives

Suddenly this page has become popular!

Here are the rules for the Tattoo challenge:

I will get a Donald Duck tattoo in the location chosen by the highest donor (as of the end of the year).

The location is limited by:

1) I must be able to look/dress professionally (ie, no face or arms)

2) It must be in a location that I can show my mother (if you need to ask for clarification, maybe you shouldn't participate)

I'll announce the winner on 1/1/10!

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Thank you to everyone who showed up for the Happy Hour at Mad River in Manayunk, PJ Whelihan's Pub in Blue Bell, and who participated in the Football Block Pool!

Please share my page with friends and family! Every dollar donated puts us that much closer to finding a cure!

Football Block Pool

There were no winners in the pool. For both the half and final, then winning block was Eagles 6-Cowboys 0. The block was not selected! All the proceeds from the pool will be going to my TNT fund!

Welcome to my Team In Training home page.

I'm training to participate in an endurance event as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. All of us on Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives. I am completing this event in honor of all individuals who are battling blood cancers. These people are the real heroes on our team, and we need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure!

Please make a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance LLS's mission.

I hope you will visit my web site often. Be sure to check back frequently to see my progress. Thanks for your support!

My Training Blog!

7/25/09

After completing the Princess Half in March, my love of Disney over took my ability to reason. Something possessed me and I registered for the WDW Half Marathon coming up in January 2010.

Two weeks ago I registered with Team in Training for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I figured that I was going to do the race no matter what, so I may as well do something good while I can. I am nervous about the training, but I am even more nervous about the fundraising. I got my packet on Thursday, so I will be writing a letter soon to send out to my Christmas card list and I will be trying to set up some fundraising events. Heck I figure that if all of my friends on facebook could give $10 each, then I could be about 80% done with my fundraising.

My plans for this blog are not only to include information about my training, but also information about my fundraising and special events that I will be participating in to help me along this journey.

Please make a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance LLS's mission.

7/29/09

Thank you Chrissie and James for my first donation! Your generousity is greatly appreciated. I'll be sending you a thank you gift as soon as I get them ordered!

8/3/09

Thank you Jodi for your donation! I hope to see you at the race!

8/3/09

Donation Incentives

As a way to help my fundraising efforts, I am offering the following incentives. Any donor who contributes the specified amount will be will receive the following gifts from me.

All donors that make a contribution of $10 or higher will receive: A Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Bracelet

All donors that make a contribution of $35 or higher will receive: A Team in Training Beanie Baby

All donors that make a contribution of $60 or higher will receive: A Team in Training Purple Bistro Mug

All donors that make a contribution of $120 or higher will receive: A Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Glass Snowflake Ornament

The donor who contributes the most will receive a special gift from me from Walt Disney World.

I am in the process of working out additional incentives and fundraisers. Please visit my website frequently for updates

8/12/09

I went to the TnT kick off party on Thursday, August 6. It was a great time. I got to meet my TnT coordinator, my mentor and one of our survivors and Heros.

The survior got up and told us about his history. He was diagnosed in 2000 and was given 3-5 years to live. He went through chemotherapy for 6 months and they decided that it was not working for him. He took the next year to get his affairs in order. When he learned about a drug that was being tested that could help him, he tried to get into the tests but they were closed. He then had to wait for the drug to be approved and come onto the market.

Once the drug was approved he started taking it and was quickly on the road to recovery. He then wanted to thank everyone involved with the drug and that brough him to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. It is now almost 10 years since he was diagnosed and he is able to see his children grow and spend time with his family.

It is for people like this that I am doing this event for. It could have been easy for me to sign up for the race, train on my own and take the trip by myself, but I wanted to take this opportunity in my life to give back. I need everyone's support with this though. My fundraising goal is not something that is going to be easy to meet without the support of my friends and family.

Thank you to Michelle and Joe for you generous donations! I will be placing my order for all the gifts at the end of the month and they will be sent out early in September.

8/24/09

I'm back from my vacation. I received donations from my coworker's mother and from a cousin of mine. They chose to mail in checks to me, so I will need to submit those at the end of the week so that my balance relfects them. I also have some of the funds that I received from the snack shack here at work so that will be an addtional $50 towards my fundraising.

Now, here's the good news...

The Entertainment Books are in! I have the North Philadelphia are and the West Philadelphia are available. If you want a book from the other areas, please let me know and I can order some or they can be ordered on line. Stand by for on line ordering information... (I'll add that later tonight).

I will be doing my first group run this coming weekend. I will also be getting back into training this week. The Philadelphia Distance Run is in less than a month and I've got a lot of training to get done before then!

8/26/09

I got in two runs this week and today is a rest day. I may sneak in a yoga work out tonight, but nothing too exhausting. My quads are a little sore from the runs, but hopefully an off night will help. Each of my runs were for 2.10 miles! Tomorrow is 4 miles!

Check at the top of the blog for a link to ordering an Entertainment book for discounts! All of the profits go to my TnT fundraising goals.

If you are local and would like the Philadelphia North or Philadelphia West books, please let me know and you can puchase them from me directly.

9/9/09

I'm sorry for the delay with my updates. The past few weeks have been a difficult time for me and my family. My grandmother was diagnosed with liver cancer at the beginning of August and she was discharged to hospice care and only given 3-6 weeks. Unfortunately, she passed away after only 3 short weeks. I am fortunate that I was able to spend a lot of time with her in those last weeks, but the pain of the loss is still fresh.

I have found a new sense of release in my training. Being able to run, no matter what the distance has allowed me to clear my mind a few times per week. During my runs, I focus only on what my training goal is for the day and what my long term goals are with Team in Training.

I was able to attend my first group training session on August 30. I did 6.5 miles on Kelly Drive here in Philadelphia. I felt really good completing that. Since then, I got in 3 more workouts, including one in Hershey, PA (which only partially made up for the chocolate I ate while there). I have another 4 mile workout planned for tomorrow and then my second group run on Sunday in Valley Forge.

I have the Philadelphia Distance Run in 11 days too! I can't wait for that and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for nice weather!

Thank you to Uncle Joe, Lou, Mr. Tanner and Annette for your donations! Every little bit gets me closer to my goal!

10/8/09

So it has been a little while since I updated here. I successfully completed the Philadelphia Distance Run. I finished 8 minutes faster than my previous half marathon which I consider a great accomplishment. I was still hoping for a faster time overall, but any improvement makes me happy.

I've been busy planning more events. Some of my bigger one are listed about. Please check them out.

I'd like to thank some of my most recent donors: Renee, Dr. Sternberg, Dr. Kofsky, Sharon, Bruce and Karen, Auntie Betty, and Chris.

I still have Entertainment books for sale! If you are in the Philly area I have books that I can sell to you directly. If you need a different book, please follow the instructions above and place an order for a book.

10/10/09

Today was a tough day of training. I didn't get nearly as much sleep as I needed (stayed up too late and the Princess kitty woke me up too early). I also am still recovering from the cold and I haven't been getting in as many miles as I should be during the week.

I got to Valley Green early and found the team. I was able to get some stretching in and talk to some of the team members.

We followed the riding trail along the river past Valley Green Inn which was being set up for a wedding. We had a water stop there. I caught up with my teammate, Stormie, and we did run/walk intervals together for the next several miles. She is also running in Disney for the the half marathon.

Around mile 7, (when I was really struggling) one of the walker caught up with me and convinced me to follow her intervals. I would walk with her and run when she was ready. Around mile 8, one of the walk coaches came back and she helped me finish the course. I talked to her about switching to the walk/run approach.

My biggest concern with doing a full martathon, especially at Disney, is not meeting the pacing requirements. At Disney, you must maintain a 16 mile per minute pace or risk being swept (picked up by the party bus). While I have finished 2 half marathons and maintained that pace, I am not sure if I can keep up with it for twice the distance.

So starting with my next long run, I will be working with Linda to see if we can get me moving faster while running less and maintaining a consistence pace throughout. I will be completing 14 mile this week!

10/15/09

Wow! On Sunday I tried a new fundraising idea. My campaign coordinator suggested that people head to the Eagles games and sell beads to the tailgaters. On Friday some of my teammates contacted me and said that they were going to be at the game and would join me. I went to my local party supply store and purchased all of the green and silver beads that they had.

We met around 10:45 and went around selling the bead and raffle tickets for a chance at a future Eagles game. After walking around for over 2 hours and avoiding the other groups who were looking for donations, we managed to walk away with a good amount of money for our donations. After reimbursing myself the cost of the beads, I still made $120! Not bad for a day's work!

10/17/09

This weekend was a really tough run. We're in the middle of a Noreaster or two this weekend. I had my group training on Saturday at Tyler State Park. It is really nice and I look forward to going back there when it isn't freezing and raining. We started a little bit late, which was good because I got there a little bit late. I was scheduled to do 14 miles, but after 7 miles, my coach made the executive decison to finish after 8 miles. We were all soaked to the bone and freezing. Aside from that I felt like I could keep going.

I also had a fundraiser on Saturday night. I did a 50/50 raffle. I did pretty good. I'll be depositing that money tomorrow!

10/28/09

I missed my update this weekend, but I didn't miss my training. We were back at Valley Forge this weekend for a 10-12 mile run. I worked with the walk coaches more this weekend. The loop in Valley Forge is about 5.25 miles so we did 2 loops, clockwise then counterclockwise. Valley Forge is a tough area since it is very hilly. Since I was working with the walk coaches, I was able to focus on a different breakdown for my walk/run segments. I finished the route a few minutes after the head coach. She waited and cheered me on and I was able to finish with smile on my face for the first time in a while.

Next week we are back at Valley Green for 16 miles! That will be my longest training distance ever! Pray for good weather for us!

Also, don't forget about the happy hour at Mad River on November 6.

Check out the beginning of the blog for additional events!

11/9/09

I've had two good training weeks! I was at Valley Green for 8 miles on Halloween and at Kelly Drive yesterday for 7 miles.

We had a costume contest on Halloween and I dressed up as Ugly Betty. My WDW teammate Mike D. dressed up as a neon sign, with neon pink tights and all. No one stood a chance next to a guy in pink tights!

Yesterday was a great day at Kelly Drive. It was a bit chilly at the start, but it was sunny and clear. I felt really sluggish at the beginning and my ankles and calves were tight. My legs didn't feel good until after the first two miles. I have to remember to get a good warm up before the race. I also have to be careful about what I eat the day or two before the race. I had leftovers from Friday's happy hour for dinner on Saturday. Fatty, fried food and a long run are not a good combination. I have to stick to pasta and other healthy food and avoid the fats in the future.

10/16/09

This weekend was a great training run for me! We did 10 mile in Valley Forge. I maintained my 10 minute increments for the walk/run training I've been doing and I think I am well on my way to a PR for the race.

Our rooms are booked, the team is registered, and our flights are booked. I am really looking forward to Marathon weekend!