Update 5/25:

It's now six days until the marathon. I've finished my training program and hit my fundraising goal (but any more donations are still welcome!). Thank you all for your support - I'll see you at the finish line.

Update 3/02:

Wow. Lots of donations recently. I am both incredulous and very grateful - thanks to you all.

Did the 7 mile run on Sunday and had a ton of fun doing it. Oddly enough it didn't seem that long since I was running with a group. We ran along near the beach in Santa Monica, and then trekked up Oceanic a few miles before coming back. I think we're moving up to 8 miles this weekend.

For my weekday runs, I've been trying to get into the habit of running in the morning, and it has been sort of difficult . I'm not what you would call a morning person. The thing is, if I can convince myself to roll out of bed early and go run, I always feel great afterwards. It's overcoming the mind game of warm pillow vs sweating that is the hard part.

And a final update on the Blizzcon giveaway! Grats to Equimanthorn on the mount and beta keys! Thanks to all who donated, I truly appreciate it.

Training Update 2/28:

Hey! I just got back from a strength workout this morning. It probably wasn't the best idea to do an intense workout on the day before we do our 7 mile training run, but I hadn't had a chance to do it earlier this week. The team is meeting up after the run tomorrow to socialize a bit and get to know each other - should be fun!

Oh, an update on the Blizzcon mount keys for those of you who have previously donated: The raffle is over now, and as soon as I hear back from the winner I'll post more about it here. Thanks to all who have donated so far!

Running a Marathon

Hello,

My name is John Webb and I'm a teammate in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training program. On May 31st, I'm going to run 26 miles in the San Diego Rock 'n Roll Marathon for both myself and for a cause for that's important to me: curing cancer and helping cancer patients have a higher quality of life.

I'd like to tell you about John Reeves Hall, a good friend of mine from high school that died a few years ago of skin cancer. He was 24 years old.

A self-described hacker/geek throughout high school, John went on to become an engineer in the video game industry just like myself. We met up a few times here in LA before he was diagnosed, and he seemed like he was doing great. He was just getting settled here in California, had a good job, and was taking lessons to get a pilot's license. He loved gadgets and a plane is pretty much the ultimate gadget. After he was diagnosed, I did not get a chance to see him again, but I followed his war against cancer on his blog. I encourage you to check it out to get an idea of what it's like to suffer through late-stage melanoma treatments. It makes training for a marathon seem so trivial.

Now that he's gone, I only wish I had been there to support him in his fight. I'm going to be running this marathon in his memory and raising money to help other people in their fight against cancer. Perhaps someday we can find a cure for this horrible disease so no one has to endure what John did again.

If you have the means, please support this cause by donating to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society on this page. All of the money donated will go to cancer research and to helping improve the quality of life for cancer patients.

Thank you.