This time it's personal.

In addition to our team's honored heroes Luke and Lauren, I am raising funds and training in honor of my brother-in-law Jim. Jim's holiday season was kicked off with a diagnosis of both Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and is currently undergoing chemo. After initially doing very well and responding positively to his treament, a followup scan revealed more dark spots. He is now entering the intense chemo phase, getting treatments for 3 days at a time, then going home to be sick for three weeks before the process starts anew.

I'm training to participate in the Steelhead 70.3 triathlon, as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. A 70.3 tri consists of a 1.2 mile swim, 56-mile bike ride, and a 13.1 mile run (a half-marathon). The race is July 31, in Benton Harbor, MI.

I've returned to Team in Training because the LLS is one of the most well-organized and fiscally responsible charities out there. LLS directly supports cancer patients and their families by providing information, moral support, and access to a wide variety of resources both medical and fiscal. In addition, it's also a wonderful motivator to keep me on track in the quest to go longer and farther.

All of us on Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives. Please make a donation to support my participation and help advance LLS's mission.

Be sure to check back frequently to see our progress, and thanks for your support!

You can learn how all of this endurance nonsense started at:

http://www.pairofgeeks.com/running

I will also be blogging about our training progress at:

http://exitcomfortzone.blogspot.com/

Thanks again for your donations!

A Training Milestone

June 16: While half of my team was competing in the Elkhart Triathlon last Saturday (congrats to all of them!), I was testing myself with an ultra trail run. It was a 12-hour race on a 5K trail, and the object was to see how many 5K loops one could complete. After 11.5 hours and 40.3 miles, my feet announced that I was done. That was good enough for second place Masters female, so I got a cute little trophy. Best part is no soreness the next day!

Not a Happy Update

June 10: After more testing, the doctors have decided that the two remaining lumps are indeed cancer. They're not quite sure exactly what kind and are somewhat stumped. NOT what we want to hear. He starts round 3 of chemo this week. [Insert expletive here.]

...And the Good News Just Keeps Coming

May 20: Jim's cancer appears to be gone. Biopsies on the two remaining lumps showed they were NOT cancer! He's undergoing one more round of chemo to make sure all the other stuff is really gone, and the doctors are now trying to figure out what the heck those two lumps are. But he's feeling great and almost done with the cancer treatments, hopefully forever.

Two major milestones

April 29: I just completed my first half-ironman of the season, the Lonestar 70.3 (see photos here). It was a wonderful day, I had a good race, and feel great. More importantly, Jim is awaiting results from another biopsy. His last round of chemo killed most of the cancer, but he still has two areas that are challenging the doctors. Hopefully the results from this biopsy will nail down a more effective treatment. In the meantime, he feels good and is able to enjoy life, and is looking forward to beating this thing once and for all.

It's April already!

April 5: Wow. Butler is in the NCAA finals game, it's feeling like spring, and my team is busy training outside in the wonderful weather. This past weekend we did a brick workout consisting of riding a 10K loop three times, running three miles, then cooling down for mile 4 while we tried to beat the rain. Thankfully most of us were done before it started pouring. I've concluded that the bike fitting was more than worth the cost, and highly recommend it! On another note, my brother-in-law Jim is doing as well as can be expected with the chemo. The worst part is the quarantine for a week after each treatment, since his immune system gets knocked down pretty badly by the chemo. We'll know more in another month or so. Keeping our fingers crossed for him.

Update on my personal Honored Hero

Feb. 18: We were dismayed to learn that Jim's chemo only hit some of the tumors. Others are still there, and there's two new spots on his scan. He's beginning the especially toxic phase of chemo now, and looks like he's going to be very sick for the next few months. Discouraging.

Group swim simulates race conditions

Feb. 11: Last night's group swim was an intro to race day: 5 or 6 of us shared a lane, and there was some bumping going on. It was a great practice, and a very nice way to end a busy workday.

Snowstorm didn't stop TNT group swim

We had our first group swim Saturday, and the snow didn't keep people away. About 25 people showed up, and we got to know each other a little better. Each of us swam a length while the two coaches watched and took notes, then we learned some new drills. Looks like everyone knows how to swim at least a little -- sometimes there are people who are starting from scratch. Was surprised to find out that between the two tri teams (Elkhart and Steelhead) there are 49 participants. That's an impressive number!

Feb 4 Team Meeting

We had our first team meeting last night, and it looks like a great group of people.There were at least two cancer survivors, and several parents of sick kids. One of our coaches (Dea) is the mother of one of our honored heroes, Lauryn. When "victims" feel compelled to raise money for an organization as a thank you, that says a lot. I'm really looking forward to getting to know these folks.