When I first set out to train and raise money with Team in Training this season, it was with thoughts of honoring my sweet daughter Hudson and with a goal of helping parents who are trying hard to save the lives of their children suffering from blood cancers.

Never in my wildest imagination could I have dreamed that by the end of the season, I would be not only a teammate, but an honored teammate. On March 29, after several weeks of trying to treat a swollen lymph node in my neck, I received a preliminary diagnosis of Hodgkin's lymphoma. It is truly the stuff of the worst fiction. After my husband and I recovered from the very initial shock in the pathologist's office after she read the slides from my biopsy, I deadpanned, "So I guess the prize you get for raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is your own personal case of lymphoma. Great."

And just as our community of family and friends rallied around us after Hudson died, so they did again when they heard this news. Although I am afraid, I also feel incredibly hopeful, not only because we are so well-supported, but also because this disease is imminently beatable. And the reason it is beatable is because of the incredible advances in research into cures that has been done over the last several decades. I have every hope that I will be cured and that this will be just another terrible episode in an otherwise long, fulfilling, joy-filled life.

But that is not enough. As my fabulous TNT Mission Mentor, Kim, said recently, "Research dollars extend people's lives. Research dollars translates into cures. Research dollars give people decades back to their loved ones. Research gives us hope." The money you give today may not help me directly. But think of it as paying it forward for someone who will be diagnosed 5 years, 10 years, 20 years from now, just like I will now benefit from someone's gift 5, 10, 20 years ago.

I have every reason to believe that I will still be able to complete my triathlon in three weeks. But more importantly, I have every reason to believe that I will be able to complete the much bigger race I am running against lymphoma. And I will win. And Ed will win. And our son Jackson will win. And our sweet Hudson will win. And we will win because of people like you.

Thank you for giving.

Welcome to my Team In Training home page.

In May 2010, my 17-month-old daughter, Hudson, died suddenly from a very aggressive bacterial meningitis infection. Her infection was incredibly rare, and her death from it was even rarer. There was nothing I could do to prevent her illness or to save her life. You can read more about our story here.

But blood cancers are not so rare. Almost a million people in the United States are living with or in remission from some type of blood cancer. A person is diagnosed with a blood cancer about every four minutes, and a person dies from a blood cancer about every ten minutes, including hundreds of children every year.

No parent should ever have to endure the death of a child. I couldn’t save my little girl, but by raising money to find cures and better treatments for leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease, and myeloma, I can help other parents who are desperately trying to save their own children. To accomplish that mission, I’m participating in the St. Anthony's Triathlon as a member of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) Team In Training.

In memory of our sweet Hudson, in memory of all children who have been lost to a blood cancer, and in honor of all children and their parents who are currently fighting leukemia and lymphoma, I hope you’ll make a donation in support of my efforts with Team In Training to help advance the research for cures.

And please let me know if you would like for me to include someone you know as one of my personal honorees. It would be an honor and a privilege for me to do so. You can either leave a comment below or send me a message. Thank you so much.

My personal honorees:

• Janet Riggs, my friend Nina's mother (just passed the 5-year mark in her battle with multiple myeloma-- hooray!)
• Ted Oakey, my friend Woody's father-in-law (battling multiple myeloma)
• Judy Campbell, my friend Beth's mother (battling mantle cell lymphoma)
• Brian Clark, a friend's husband, and father to two-year-old Will (battling myelofibrosis, a rare form of chronic leukemia)
• My friend Deborah's friends, Anna Gottesman and Rivka Weiser, and Deborah's grandmother, Vera Roseman (all battling cancer)
• Leonard Ehrlich, my friend Dana's father (lost his battle to leukemia in June 2010)
• Multiple friends and relatives of my friend Dana's Aunt Susan, including her mother, Rose Belasco, 2 aunts and 2 uncles, all who died from blood cancers, and her friends Alan, battling lymphoma, his wife Barbara, battling ovarian cancer, and Janet, battling myeloma
• Sister Marge Cashman, my friends Andrea and Tom's aunt (lost her battle to non-Hodgkins lymphoma in December 2011)
• Karin Roesle, a beautiful 29-year-old friend of friends (succumbed to a brain tumor that was likely a side effect of her radiation treatment for successful battle against leukemia as a teenager)
• Dierdre Dreyer, sister-in-law of my friend Nicole (recently lost her long battle with osteosarcoma at the age of 41, leaving behind a husband and an eight-year-old daughter)
• Richard A. O'Connell, Jr, father of my friend Bridget (lost his battle with multiple myeloma in 2002)
• Gopal Shah, my friend Nirav's father (lost his battle with multiple myeloma in 2010)