Racing to Save Lives

Thanks for visiting my Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Team in Training site. I am a part of this organization to bond together my racing and fundraising & awareness for Blood Cancer Research. Please help me in fighting blood cancers by making a donation today and read below about why I am a part of this important cause.

As a part of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Team in Training Triathlon Team I join with the society to combine my passion for triathlons along with the cause of raising money and awareness for the society. To do this I train with a group of individuals who have all come together for this cause - pretty cool and then I commit to raise money and awareness for them and do at least one major race for them and wear all of their insignia - so my race in St. Croix is my race that I am doing with the group - so it is a cool way to raise money - people see me training, racing and such in memory and honor of individuals who have had or may have some form of Blood Cancer like Leukemia, Lymphoma, etc.

I first started this in honor of two friends of mine - one who had passed away from cancer and another one, Jordan, who was battling blood cancer (Which has now gone into remission) and obviously could not do triathlons for themselves - Jordan used to do triathlons actually - after he first was diagnosed with a Blood Cancer and he battled it into remission and thought it was gone we did a triathlon together to mark one year of being cancer free until shortly after he had a relapse and was faced with the first time that he actually started to lose hope and saw death creeping up on him - but he pressed onward and is now doing much better and weaning off of his treatments and spacing check-ups out more.

Since starting to team up with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society I have added to my list of individuals whom I race on behalf of - in honor and memory. I continually have individuals contact me to tell me about "their" story - like just a few weeks ago I was contacted by the editor of the newspaper in Stephenville to tell me about a friend of his whose dad was diagnosed with cancer - he saidhe didn't know any other reason why he felt he just needed to contact me other than he knew I was trying to do something to stop these de-habilitating diseases and now felt it hitting home and was glad there was someone else on their side. Or Shawna Glasgow whose dad recently died a relatively short battle at age 59. I continually get to hear stories of fear, pain and battling which all give me inspiration for my racing, but most of all - I also often get to hear stories of victory and life.

When training for a race that lasts for multiple hours of a combination of continuous swimming, cycling and running there are a lot of hours put into training that can get monotonous, painful and tiring - then to think of the pain that the body experiences when racing for multiple hours continuously - there are a lot of emotions that maybe I can't finish or that my body is out of energy and failing me (like on the run of a 70.3 mile race in Lubbock where I had less than a half mile to go and felt my body physically stopping � but knew I had to find a way to finish) - but it is in situations like these that I think to myself that while it might be painful for me in this situation - it is nothing like the pain that many cancer victims go thru trying to battle - so I press on in my small, microscopic battle compared to theirs to cross the finish line of my race with the goal of helping to cross the ultimate finish line of finding a cure for these cancers. So I continue to train, raise money and fight to help make this all happen.

It is truly an honor for me to do all of this and thank you for the opportunity to share my story with you. It is unfortunate that we almost all have a story of how cancer has affected us � now will you use that story to inspire you to help others and the possibility of a cure for Blood Cancers.

I need your help to cross that ultimate finish line!

So as you make your donation, please feel free to pass this site on to others and check my personal racing website for my progress and free fitness tips for all at www.Tri4Fitness.Net.