Melody Hartwell Kinghorn

is

Racing to Save Lives

Welcome to my Team In Training home page.

I'm training to

participate in the Kiawah Island Marathon on December 12th, 2009 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!

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.

http://pages.teamintraining.org/nc/kiawah09/mkinghorn

or send donations of cash or check (made payable to LLS) to

PO Box 587

Browns Summit, NC 27214

check out my blog...

http://community.lls.org/people/mkinghorn/blog

Be sure to check back frequently to see my progress. Thanks for your support!

***August Update***

so far we've helped raise over $600 in donations to help cancer patients and their families (as well as find cures for cancer through research)! Training is going well...on weekend group runs we've just completed our six mile run (for Kiawah Marathon) and total mileage / week is 16 miles so far...that's about to "jump" in September so I'm trying to stay injury-free and eat healthy on top of training...keep checking back for updates and if you can, keep those donations rolling in! Whether you know it or not, your help makes YOU and honorary Team In Training Member...Congrats!!!

***September Update***

this month is off to a great start! I received over $200 in donations via the mail just last week alone...i'm confident that those of you who have donated will continue to pray for our success on this and perhaps ask others to join us by donating whatever 'pocket change' they can spare! Thanks so much for your help...

(September 15th, 2009...my parents' anniversary...)

!!!Yeah, we have made it over a $1000 dollars, WOO HOO!!!

The team has our big 10 mile run this weekend! I have to say i'm a little nervous about starting the double digits (running 10 plus miles)! I've done one half-marathon over ten years ago, but as my friend Roger reminded me, "take care Big Mel, you're not in high school anymore and those bones/muscles don't heal as fast..." (he was right ;-)

10 miles turned out to be no big deal, but the folks I saw doing their 20 mile practice run looked tired...that'll be me in a couple months...yikes!!!

I had the privilege of giving blood to this little guy (in his honor) yesterday! He is a sweet little guy and was diagnosed with Leukemia at 6 mos. old and is now cancer free after Chemotherapy at 14 mos. old...Thank God!!!

***October update***

Thanks for all the generousity you all have poured out on behalf of the cancer patients, myself, and Team In Training/Leukemia & Lymphoma Society! So far this month, i've received an accumulated total of $1905 and the race is still a month and a half away.

I have received online donations from Lauren on Facebook, Barb and Matt Mitchell's family (she's running but has met her contribution amount),the Ellison family through Paypal, and my hubby's coworker's girlfriend's employers!!! I even received a donation from my pastor and his wife,...thanks Nick and Abbie! It's so nice to see the support coming from different places, and it is very much appreciated!

I got to volunteer at the Cannonball 5k/half-marathon race last weekend (setting up, assisting during race, and taking down after event). Doing that, i not only earned a little cash towards my goal but got to see a behind the scenes tour and gained a new appreciation for what all goes in to a race! Very cool!

Well, Halloween is approaching and you can probably guess what I was thinking of going as....a Team In Training Marathon runner!!! Ha Ha!!! Happy Halloween everyone!

***November Update***

I'm almost sad that this is my last full month of training for this worthy cause and the marathon! After 3 months of training, we are up to 18 miles during our long run and I feel I'm prepared adequately to at least complete the marathon. After my 12 mile run, I doubted I could do it...BUT, with the support of my friends and family, guidance of my LLS staff members, mentors, and Coach Blue,...and of course, the awesome

teammates I have met through Team In Training, I know I can do it! Now, I am just $300 away from my goal of $2400 !!! Thanks to you friends...with much love and gratitude, I will continue to try to raise more money than my goal and help as many cancer patients and their families as I can,...now and for as long as God allows me to ... RUN FOR A CURE!!!

I'm at my GOAL...well, five bucks short but between the volunteering at the Cannonball 5k/half-marathon and a fellow Team In Training Alumn (thanks Marshall!!), i'm at my goal!!! What a relief! Now for the long 20 mile run this Saturday, my last major hurdle before the Marathon at Kiawah Island! Wish me LUCK!!!

20 mile run is completed, and I've lived to tell about it! It's funny, at the start of the training I was nervous about the mileage increasing but it's like everything else in life...when you train properly and take your time...you can accomplish almost ANYTHING!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Wish me luck in the Greensboro Gobbler 5k race...i'll be volunteering before and after the race (and running too)...I hope everyone enjoys a big turkey dinner and some pumpkin pie! Yummmm!!! We are all so thankful to be alive and have our health/God/family/friends!!!

***DECEMBER 12th 2009***

Marathon Day!!! What a blast...my husband and I drove to Kiawah Island, S.C. and stayed at the nicest hotel i've ever been in! The Sanctuary was 'the bomb' and we had a motivating pre-race dinner with a two time cancer survivior giving a speech that definitely put me in the right frame of mind for race day! No child or adult should have to go through cancer treatments without receiving the most advance medicine/science available and without the support and funding necessary to complete their treatments and become a CANCER SURVIVOR!

Race Day started at 545am and after a snack, stretching, and a couple 'pit stops' I was ready to run! My friend Sabrina and I ran most of race but stopped briefly to stretch, hydrate, and hit the port o potty along the way (that was fun...NOT). The weather was chilly but the rain held off till around mile 21 or so...then, we were cold, tired, sore, and WET! Lucky for us, Sabrina's 21 yr old daughter and my hubby rode bikes (over 32 miles back and forth across island) to meet us at various mile markers and back to finish line to take photos of our half-marathon buddies finishing 13.1 miles! We were so proud of everyone out there, toughing it out to raise money for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society with Team In Training!

At mile 13.1, at the turn around point when we began our second loop, Sabrina and I both were feeling some pains set in, but decided instead of complaining to eachother about every ache and pain, when the other would ask, "how are you feeling?", we'd each answer, "feeling GREAT!"...it got us thru the race,...along with belting out a few verses of Randy Travis' song, "i'm gonna love you forever"...by this point (mile 23) we were getting 'punchy'...i

I don't think I hit the dreaded "WALL" that people talk about, but we hydrated well before and during race, ate our GU/fuel packs/food every 45 minutes during race, and stopped to stretch/pee when needed and this helped immensely...by mile 24 it was all MENTAL because our bodies were very sore and mentally we just blocked out the soreness and focused on crossing the finish line!

During the last mile, mile 25-26.2, I thanked God and the church hymn, "When I've gone the last mile of the way, I will rest at the close of the day, and rejoice in what i've been given,...when I've gone the last mile of the way"... came to my mind and I began humming this to myself (my IPOD quit working due to moisture in case from rain) and I became very emotional! I started tearing up thinking of this great accomplishment (running 26.2 miles and raising $2400 for cancer research/cancer patients)...it got me to the end....

When Sabrina and I were running thru the Finish Line Banner/end point, we held hands and crossed the finish line as the announcer called out our names and where hometowns...i almost did the 'ugly cry'!

Afterwards, our Team In Training half marathon counterparts hugged us and cheered us up/congratulated us on finishing ....(they had already showered, gotten warm and come back out to finish line by the time we finished the race...ha ha)....all I wanted was a hot shower at this point and some dry clothes!!! Oh, and a massage!!!

That night, after a hot shower, dry clothes, and a massage, we had a great party and basked in the GLOW of our accomplishments!!! Special Thanks to Coach Elliott Blue and his wife Lauren, Sandra Clancey (works for TNT and was still out in the cold, nasty weather breaking down the TNT tents, packing up stuff, and wrapping up race day stuff when I came back by at 4 p.m.!!!!), and Kim, Cathy, Caitlyn, William, and Sabrina!!!! I really enjoyed getting to meet all the new friends on race day that we ran alongside and supported eachother....especially the Asheville/western TNT group that Sabrina and I followed for a lot of the race...they reminded us to stretch, hydrate, and laugh during most of the run....ha ha

P.s. Thanks to Cathy for the race pants that she loaned me,...i can't believe I forgot my running pants on race day...oh well!!!

THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR THE PRAYERS, DONATIONS, SUPPORT, LOVE, AND FUN!!!!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO TEAM IN TRAINING