Hello Family and Friends,

Marathon training is in full swing! We have been slowing upping our milage just as much as the heat and humidity seem to be rising! :) We finished a few ten mile runs and our longest run yet...14 miles!!!!

I will admit, I had a "mini" breakdown on my 14 miler!! Thoughts of "Why on earth am I doing this?" and doubts of, "If I am struggling with 14 miles, how am I going to finish 26.2 miles!?!?" I seriously contemplated stopping. Why didn't I? A pep talk with my coach, who ran/walked with me to the finish!! During his pep talk, he reminded me why I was out there...a reason far bigger than myself and my goals of finishing a marathon.

I am participating in the Chicago Marathon on behalf of Team in Training so that I can fundraise money for for patients with leukemia and lymphoma. After my mini breakdown, I am proud to say that I am running with a completely different mentality- thank you Coach Jim!

One of my favorite parts of training is the celebration that we have after we finish! Below are some pictures of our "Grills Gone Wild!" picnic- we have another one coming up on Saturday.

THANK YOU for your words of encouragement, your support, and your donations! They are greatly appreciated! :)

Hello family and friends! Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my Team in Training fundraising home page!!

I have some exciting news to share with you! Just over a week ago, I decided to take Nike's advice and "just do it!" I have officially signed up to run the Chicago Marathon this October and train as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training.

Do you think I am crazy?!? Don't worry, as I type these words I am thinking the same thing!!! However, I am so excited and proud to to training with such an inspiring group of people who all have the same mission! All of us on Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives. The LLS supports the world's leading researchers who are investigating the causes, treatments and cures for blood cancers. The society has dedicated itself to being one of the top-rated voluntary health agencies in terms of dollars that directly found the mission...more than 75% of each dollar goes directly towards goes directly to advance the mission of the LLS.

Please consider making a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance LLS's mission. All donations are tax deductible and may possibly be matched by your company's employer...be sure to check!

THANK YOU for your support!!! You can track my training by checking out my blog

where I will be making some posts about my training.

** www.lessonplansos.blogspot.com ****

This is not my first marathon- I have ran two marathons a LONG time ago. My first marathon was the San Diego Rock N’ Roll Marathon- which I ran with my college roommate, Amber!

We were only sophomores at Illinois State University when we signed up for TNT and ran the 26.2 mile marathon in San Diego! I can still remember us walking out of our dorm room at 6:15am on Saturdays and getting ready to run our long runs with our TNT coaches and teammates! When we saw our friends just coming in from their night out, we were headed out for a 14 or 18 mile run!!! Believe it or not, we raised over $7,000 between the both of us- as college students!!!

Can you tell how proud we were????

The next group of pictures are from when I trained for the Chicago Marathon, back in 2004. I am here with my teammates after our training run with this sweet little boy who was one of my patient honorees.

My brother is one of those athletically gifted people who can just go out and run an “easy” 6 miles without running in weeks. No matter if it is 90 degrees or 20 degrees- it is effortless for him. After he finished in about 3 1/2 hours, he literally fell asleep at Buckingham Fountain waiting for me to finish. He did wake up and take this picture with me. :)

This is a picture of Chris and I right before the finish line! I think I might have stood there talking to him and my mom for about 5 minutes! I was in absolute no rush to finish the race! I wanted to bask in the glory of finishing a 26.2 mile race!!! :)

Christina (a friend I made in our team in training goup) and I finished the Chicago Distance Classic (half- marathon!!) and a TRAINING run for the marathon.

This is my mom and I at the expo- enough said!

The medal is proof- I made it!

The Price of fullfilling a dream of running a marathon through TNT:

Jogging bra.................$30

Nike Dri-fit shirt..............$40

Matching Running shorts........$35

Brooks Running shoes........$120

Finding a cure for blood and marrow cancers and training with a great group of people...PRICELESS!!!!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read about my fundraising efforts!