I Finished a Half Marathon!! That's 13.1 MILES!

Welcome to my Team In Training home page. Scroll to the bottom for updates!!

I'm training to participate in the Country Music Half Marathon in Nashville on April 25th, 2008, as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. All of us on Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives. I am completing this event in honor of all individuals who are battling blood cancers. These people are the real heroes on our team, and we need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure!

As part of the Mississippi Chapter of TNT I will be running on behalf of our Honored Teammate, Felder Sartin. He is the 4 year old son of Gareth & Jessica and brother to Easton. His family resides in Bogue Chitta, MS. He was diagnosed with ALL (Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia) on 8/28/08. Felder loves to play sports and be outside but he also love his video games and playing with his brother. His total treatment will be 2 & years. Felder achieved remission during the first phase of treatment. The current treatment is the consolidation phase which lasts 6 months (consisting of chemotherapy inpatient and outpatient.)

I will also be running in memory of Frances Hutcherson who had t-cell lymphoma & fought several battles with this cancer throughout her life before recently losing the war. She is the grandmother to my good friend Haley and I will proudly wear her name on my race day shirt.

Please make a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance LLS's mission. All donations are 100% tax deductible!

I hope you will visit my web site often. Be sure to check back frequently to see my progress. Thanks for your support!

1/28/09: Yesterday Kathryn and I attempted to run 3 miles, but she had some shin issues so we walked the 3 at a brisk pace. We shall try again tonight!

2/4/09: Kathryn & I completed the Mardi Gras 5K this past weekend in New Orleans and took 2 minutes and 40 seconds off our fastest time! We're getting better!

2/14/09: Today I ran the farthest I've ever run, 5 miles. While running I realized running is the hardest thing I've ever had to do. Then I thought about Felder and the struggles he goes through and how much harder I need to run for him and the other children that striken with cancer.

2/16/09: I've reached 10% of my fundraising goal! Thanks to everyone that has donated! Let's keep up the good work!

2/21/09: I've reached 16% of my goal!! Thanks again to everyone! This morning was a milestone for me. I broke through a running wall. Today I ran 4.5 miles continuous without walking a bit. Usually I do bouts of walking and running but todayI just powered through it. It felt AMAZING!!

2/28/09: Group run was canceled due to rain, but the Run for Love 5K was still on! Kathryn, and I ran/walked it and JJ too! He's been so supportive!! I want to thank everyone for their support - I have a LOT of cash and checks that haven't been posted yet, but they will be soon! Keep up the good work!

3/7/09: What a BEAUTIFUL day to run! Our team run was rather small today, but we made the best of it. Today was a hard seven miles and I finished in 1:30 with two one minute water breaks. That's right where I wanted to be. We're about seven weeks away from the big day, and I definitely think I'll be able to finish the half marathon in 2:30. I'll be running in the Crescent City Classic 10K in New Orleans on April 11th - I hope to finish that in about 1:15. I know, I'm slow!

3/13/09: Tonight is the Downtown Hattiesburg Pub Crawl benfiting TNT and LLS! Hope all of my Hattiesburg folks can come show some support!

3/14/09: The rain may have kept us from running this am, but last night the Pub Crawl crawled on! Even with the low turnout, we still managed to have a good time and get a good amount of donations! Next fund raising event should be up soon!!

3/20/09: Fundraiser announcement!! On March 30th from 4pm - 8pm at the Pizza Hut on Hwy 49 in Hattiesburg, Team in Training will receive 20% of your total purchase when you order with a voucher. Please contact me to receive a voucher!!

3/21/09: 9 mile run today!! It was a bit chilly, but I like running in the cold better. Ran with Meredith for the first 4.5 miles and then we had to go our seperate ways. Managed to run it in 1:57:00. It felt great!

3/29/09: Ran 11.2 miles today on a very windy morning. This was my last run with the team as every weekend in April I am booked with one thing or another.

3/30/09: Pizza Hut Fundraiser tonight!! Everyone in Hattiesburg please come out and support Team in Training!!

4/4/09: Yard Sale at my parents' today! All of the proceeds went to my TNT fundraising - my parents rock!! Ended up with about $393 to donate! All of the stuff we didn't sell got donated to the SPCA - we're big on donating to worthy causes!

4/11/09: Crescent City Classic 10K! Over 20,000 runners - one of the largest crowds they've had since the big running boom back in the day. I finished in 1:17:50, which is a pretty good time for my first 10K!

4/27/09: I completed my first 1/2 marathon in 3:02:37! It was amazing! It was really hot and hilly but I finished :)