Yes, WE did it! Thanks to your love and generous donations we raised $4,000 and I was the #2 fundraiser of 60 Team in Training participants for my event! I could not have done it... reached my goal, trained, and finished the race... without all of you.

I started the Latta Triathlon Sunday morning at 6:38am. Two hours and nine minutes later, I was a triathlete! I AM a triathlete! And, it wasn't as miserable as I thought it would be. Halfway through the bike course I thought, 'Hey this isn't so bad. What was I making such a fuss about?'

I posted more details and pictures on my blog: http://laurenintraining.blogspot.com

You may have noticed that I inched up my fundraising goal. There's a reason for that...

I reached my originial fundraising goal of $3000!! I am so thankful for all of your donations and blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life. Seems like the only thing to do is keep on trucking!

The triathlon team is raffling some GREAT prizes to raise even more money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. There are two trips and a iPad up for grabs and we're only selling 3000 tickets (at the most!). Check out my blog post for details!

http://laurenintraining.blogspot.com/2011/04/fundraising-update.html

...with fundraising at least! Thanks to you, I'm halfway to my goal of raising $3000!! However, I haven't technically started training yet, so I've got a ways to go in that department. Regardless, I'm really excited about closing in on (and hopefully surpassing!) my fundraising goal.

If you're interested in following my training progess and other fundraising tidbits, check out my blog.

http://www.laurenintraining.blogspot.com/

Happy Groundhog's Day! Here's to hoping Phil is right and spring comes early!

That's right, I've signed up for another event with Team in Training. This time around, I'll be training for the Tri Latta Triathalon here in Charlotte. I'd been trying to muster up the courage to sign up for the event, but when I saw that it was a TNT event, I couldn't resist! For those of you who don't know, I trained (I use that term loosely) for and ran in the P.F. Changes Rock and Roll Half-Marathon with TNT in January of 2009. I raised almost $8,000 and finished in under 3 hours. Yep, three hours of just RUNNING (...and walking). That's me and my friend Tara just after we finished the race.

I'm motivated to participate in this particular event for several reasons.

First and most importantly, it's to raise money for an organization that helped my Mom and my family so much while Mom was battling leukemia. The fact that she lost that battle only increases my drive to raise money and find a cure for a disease that affects so many.

Second, the challenge excites me. Now that I'm settled into my new job and life in Charlotte, I'm ready to start something new and I think this is just the ticket.

Third, get back in shape! I haven't swum in ages and I got a nice bike as a gift a couple of years ago that I NEVER use.

Fourth, mix it up! I thought that I didn't like running because I was out of shape. Turns out, I just don't like running!

Be sure to come back and check on my progress from time to time. Updating you on biking, swimming, and running is surely more interesting than just hearing me complain about running... RIGHT?

Racing to Save Lives

Welcome to my Team In Training home page.

I'm training to participate in an endurance event 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.

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