A BIG thank you to all of you that donated to Team in Training and supported me as I trained and evenutally finished the Tinkerbell Half Marathon!

Overall I finished at 2 hours 52 minutes and with that I received a beautiful finishers medal (picture below). There were approximately 11,000 participants, we started at 545am on Sunday, January 29th. And as a TNT group (of 359 walkers/runners) we raised $1 Millon dollars for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in this one event. GO TEAM!

One of the great things about doing Team in Training as a corporate team is getting to partner with your co-workers on fundraising ideas and opportunities. We have found that bake sales have been very successful over the past 2 seasons.

However, this year we have tried something new and that is the Breakfast Cart. We go around to different departments offering beverages (hot and cold) as well as pastries for a fee. People are paying not only for the food and drinks but convenience of not having to leave their desk. I think overall this event has been very successful and we hope to do another one soon... check out our menu and pictures of our cart below:

Coffee Cake

Blueberry Muffins

Gingerbread Cake Pops

Chocolate-Chocolate muffins

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffins

Assorted Donuts

Coffee

Gingerbread Hot Chocolate

Orange Juice

Pink Lemonade

Fruit Juice

Hot Water for Tea

My training started this past weekend (with 6-miles since I just completed a 1/2 marathon 2 weeks ago) and it was cold! It was about 48 degrees and cloudy on my run which may not seem too bad, but for this native southern californian it was chilly. I warmed up after about 1 mile and felt strong throughout my run. I think my running gloves are definetly going to be essential for my training this time around, along with pants and long sleeves. Since I ran my last 1/2 marathon (Santa Clarita on 11-6-11) in the rain, I feel like it can't be any worse than those conditions... This is me being optimistic because I will cross the finish line, lets just hope that it doesn't rain for Tinkerbell :)

As promised, I have come across some pictures of Justin then and Justin today (with my son Bode.) Even if you have not had a personal experience with Blood cancers, you may have had a personal experience with a cancer or other life-threatening disease. It can certainly make any family stronger. I am very fortunate to have an amazing immediate and extended family that supports eachother through everything...

FYI - Justin just turned 23 this past weekend, and my son turns 1 this upcoming weekend :)

Please make a donation to my journey towards helping fight blood cancers - any amount helps!

This last picture is my brother Justin and my son Bode when he was just 3 months old...

Hi everyone,

Only 1 1/2 weeks till the official Team in Training Winter session kick-off (November 5th)... Training will officially begin the week after and I'm looking forward to having our team meet for the first time. We are hoping to have enough participants for an official coach but if not than myself and the other two mentors (Michael Jones and Jennifer Drobtisch) will be leading the team out here in Valencia, CA. So far, we have 5 people signed up for our Quest Team, all participating in the Tinkerbell Disney half marathon January 29th. Thank you so much for following my Team in Training Blog, if you haven't already donated please do so, as every dollar counts towards making a difference in the fight against blood cancers!