I wanted to share that in addition to running in honor of Fulvio, I will also be dedicating this training season and race day to Bill Thompson. Bill is married to Anna Thompson, a friend and former client from my Hyatt days. She has also been a friend of Nik’s for more than 10 years. Bill was first diagnosed with Lymphoma in 2000 and has most recently been battling myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), another very serious form of blood disease. Bill is currently being treated at Dana-Farber following a cord blood transplant. It is an honor to dedicate miles and direct my thoughts and prayers to the Anna and Bill. I hope you will, too.

The TNT season officially kicked off on Saturday morning and so far more than $20,000 has been raised towards the chapter’s ultimate goal of $400,000 for the season. My sister Cait’s boyfriend Chris is training for Boston, so we hit the snowy roads together Sunday morning for a long run just shy of 12 miles. My mittens and fleece headband kept me nice and cozy and my favorite hill-running song came on my iPod just in time to hit the inclines on Summer Street. Thanks for the great company, Chris!

Next Saturday morning will mark the first practice with my new team. More to come, and in the meantime, you can find periodic updates on my blog.

You guys... I got a little overzealous and day-dreamy on my lunch break again and joined Team In Training to run the Vermont City Marathon in Burlington this Memorial Day weekend. It has been eight years since I signed up to run my first race with TNT. Five marathons and a two-year LLS career later, I’m back to where it all started and I am so excited.

Since I walked into an info meeting at the Redhook Brewery in December 2005 and met my wonderful friend Kate, to the friendships I made as a campaign manager over the past two years, my TNT friends have made a lasting impression on my life. Coupled with the tremendous impact of your generous contributions on blood cancer research and treatment, my belief in the LLS mission and the TNT program knows no bounds. Still, it is the relationships that have brought me back again.

This season it is one person in particular. On October 1, my friend Fulvio, a beloved TNT runner and the person who made me laugh hardest and most often during my time working for LLS, passed away unexpectedly, leaving behind an adoring wife, two children, and countless friends and running buddies. From Fulvio I learned a simple, important life lesson: Live joyfully.

I have two running mantras -- first, I run because I can and because there are others who cannot and second, It's worth it. The first is what gets me out the door and the second is what helps me make it through the tough miles and back. Over each mile I run in preparation for Burlington and race day I'll remember these two simple phrases along with the people I have run for during my first five marathons and those in your thoughts and hearts.

Thanks to my position at LLS and my current job at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, I am lucky enough to witness the impact of your generosity on cancer patients and their families in real life, every day. What might be most exciting of all is that progress is happening right now. I hope you will consider a contribution to support my run, knowing that your gift is being used to fund cutting-edge research and treatments that will save lives and provide an improved quality of life for blood cancer patients and their families right away.

Thank you so, so much to everyone who has made gifts and offered support in the past. I hope you will consider extending that same support again this time around.

Love, Jillian

P.S. As always, you can follow my training over at http://jillianpereira.blogspot.com/.