Racing to Save Lives

Welcome to my Team In Training home page!

I'm training to participate in my first ever marathon 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 - every little bit helps!

Our team has a group of Honored Heroes - individuals who have fought their own battles with either Lymphoma or Leukemia. I'll be updating my site periodically with photos of these amazing individuals. In this picture, I'm hanging out with Sarah Conley, a 25 year old survivor of Large B-cell Non-Hodgin's Lymphoma, after one of my TNT running sessions. Check out my August 8th update for information on her story.

I'm planning on posting updates regularly, so I hope you will visit my web site often. (as many of you know, I'm HORRIBLE at keeping diaries/blogs - so this will be a first as well!) Although I am currently signed up for the Dallas White Rock Marathon in December, if I reach my goal of $2900 by November 4th , I will run the San Antonio Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in November instead. This all depends on my own personal training and your support, so check back often to see where I'm at!

If you're curious about what my individual training runs look like (at least the ones during which I use my iPod), feel free to check out my Nike+ site:

http://nikerunning.nike.com/nikeplus/?l=runners,runs,672552414

Thanks for your support!

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Saturday, 12 September 2009... Decision day...

Training miles to date ~ 194.8 miles

Mileage this week = 36.3 miles

(Saturday run ~ 17 miles)

This has been quite the week - I participated in the Fort Worth Labor Day 15K with some of my teammates (which was a blast!), did some speedwork on Tuesday morning (legs weren't so happy with me after that), ran hills in the rain with more TNTers on Thursday, and topped off the week by running 17 MILES IN THE RAIN TODAY! :) I told myself that if I made it through at least 14 miles today (the scheduled long run for the San Antonio Marathon trainees), I'd commit to the San Antonio Rock 'N Roll Marathon in November, and since I actually made it to 17 today, I feel pretty good about it. Thanks so much to all of you for your support - we're just over 50% towards meeting my fundraising commitment - way to go! Together, we're working towards finding a cure for these diseases. GO TEAM!!! :)

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Saturday, 05 September 2009... 70 days until the San Antonio Marathon....

Training miles to date ~ 158.5 miles

Mileage this week = 30.5 miles

(Saturday run ~ 12.5 miles)

Is it really already September? Wow - time sure does fly! This morning, I met up with the Fall TNT group for their long run so I could see how my body dealt with the continuous running. Good news: I made it! :) Bad news: the knee pain is back :( Thankfully, it didn't start until about mile 10, and I picked up some new running shoes today, so please pray that the shoes and some rest tomorrow will do the trick! Right now, it's not too bad - I just don't want to push it too far and really injure myself. I have about a week and a half to decide which marathon to run (San Antonio or White Rock) - it's getting closer! :)

On a more positive note - the highlight of my run today wasn't finishing the distance - it was the fact that there were so many people out there running with me - all devoting so much time and energy to both train for a marathon and raise funds to fight blood cancers. Together we can do it - one mile at a time!

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Saturday, 29 August 2009... entering new territory...

Training miles to date ~ 128 miles

Mileage this week = 30.7 miles

(Saturday run ~ 14.7 miles)

So.... I'm now entering a new realm in my training - up until last Saturday, I had only run a total of 13.1 (half-marathon) miles in any one day... not anymore! I once again forgot my iPod, but it's actually getting easier to run without it. :) My run today was split into 2 separate sessions - one with the coaches, mentors, and TNT alumni at 4:45 am (ran 9.7 miles - with some hills thrown in again!), and the TNT training session at 6:45 am (5 more miles). Now that I'm running distances I haven't run before, I've talked to my coaches, and I'll be trying to run with some of the other teams so that I can get the miles in during one continuous session - we'll see how it goes!

After the run, we had a seminar on injury prevention, which was very helpful - I'm hoping I can stay injury free through all of this... thanks so much for all your support - I feel like I'm getting stronger with every run! GO TEAM!!!

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Saturday, 22 August 2009... what a difference a day makes...

Training miles to date ~ 97.3 miles

Mileage this week = 25.7 miles

(Saturday run ~ 13.7 miles)

Due to some stomach issues, my mileage was a bit lower this week than last week (thankfully, that actually lined up with the training schedule!)... I am quickly relearning that the heat of the high desert in California is not the same as the heat and humidity of Texas! There were a couple of times this week when I just didn't want to run after work - but then I realized that I wasn't just running for me. When I look at the brave, smiling faces of 5 year old Trinity Fields and 4 year old Emerson Espanet (who, by the way, just had a birthday today!), both of whom are battling Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL), I am once again reminded that every mile I run (no matter the discomfort), and every dollar donated in support of this cause is making a difference in their lives. Keep up the great work everyone, and thanks for your support!

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Saturday, 15 August 2009... a week of firsts...

Training miles to date ~ 71.6 miles

Mileage this week = 26.6 miles

(Saturday run ~ 12 miles)

My first "first" happened this morning. Today, running was MUCH better - I actually got to bed at a decent hour, and was able to wake up in time to make the 4:45AM long run... unfortunately (or, depending on your perspective, fortunately), in my rush out the door, I forgot my iPod. I've always been intimidated about running more than about a half mile without something to distract me, but with the support of my teammates, I was able to make it through 12 MILES without any music (a little over 8 miles during the 4:45 AM run, then a 4 mile run for the TNT session). I'm still not quite a fan of running without music, but now that I know that I can do it - who knows...

The second "first" occurred after one of my training runs this week. I was scheduled to only run 4 miles, but ended up running a bit more. After the run, I was told there was a local 5K that evening - and for once, I actually wanted to keep running! (believe it or not, I'm not really a fan of running - I usually have to give myself a pre-run pep talk to get going, and can't wait until I can stop!)

So far, I'm really feeling good about running the San Antonio Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in November. With your prayers, support and encouragement, my training's been going relatively well, and my knees are still feeling relatively strong. You all have also been AWESOME with your financial support - together, we've almost raised 30% of my fundraising goal. Thanks so much for your help - and keep spreading the word - remember, every little bit makes such a difference!

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Saturday, 08 August 2009... proving once again that you can't hoot with the owls and soar with the eagles...

Training miles to date ~ 45 miles

Mileage this week = 22.7 miles

(Saturday run = 9.7 miles)

This week's training went pretty well - I completed all my training runs during the week, and was feeling pretty good. Unfortunately, last night I got a bit caught up in writing fundraising letters, and didn't get to bed until 3 AM... needless to say, my body was not very happy with me when the alarm went off an hour later for the 4:45 group run. Although I felt horrible about it, I went ahead and skipped that run, but made it out in time for the 6:45 AM TNT training session. I was able to make it through a little less than half my goal distance before my headache began to turn pretty ugly and I had to stop. I was so disappointed in myself. Here I'd made this commitment, and hadn't even made it through the first 2 weeks of training before flaking on a training session! This is where my amazing teammates came in to play - they were so encouraging!

We also had two of our honored heroes come out and cheer us on this morning. I may have mentioned to some of you that I heard Sarah Conley, a survivor of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma speak about her battle with the disease, as well as the battle BOTH of her parents fought with Hodgkin's Lymphoma (despite what this might sound like, Lymphoma is NOT hereditary) a few weeks ago. She and her mother, Veronica Conley, spoke for a few minutes about their stories - and it made my struggles this morning seem so very insignificant. I was able to snag a quick photo with Sarah after her talk. Did you know that lime green is the lymphoma awareness color (similar to pink for breast cancer)?

Well, after a long nap and resting for the afternoon, I was able to complete my mileage for today this evening. I've added a link to the Nike+ website in my introduction above. I've been using the Nike+ system for most of my training runs (unless I was trying not to run with my iPod), and, for the most part, it reports distances fairly accurately (when I don't turn it off during my work out!). Feel free to check it out if you're interested in what I've been running on a daily basis. Thanks again for all your support!

Until next time...GO TEAM!!!

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Saturday, 01 August 2009... first week of training complete!

Mileage this week = 22.25 miles

(Saturday run = 11.25 miles)

Today's training began at 4:45 this morning - after a night of thunder and lightning storms, I was thankful that we had a brief respite! I met up with some of the TNT coaches and mentors for a long run (~9.25 miles), then moved on to the first TNT training run (2 miles - without my iPod - quite a feat for me!) My fellow teammates are amazing! We all come from so many different backgrounds, but are joining each other in our common cause to raise funds to fight blood cancers through training for an endurance event. I'm looking forward to training with them in the coming weeks! :)

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Monday, 27 July 2009... 139 days until Race Day!

So... today marked my first "official" day of training - 5 mile run (a bit on the slow side, but I'll do better tomorrow!). Usually, I dread running after work, but all of your encouragement and support made quite a difference - I can't thank you all enough! Also, my excuses NOT to train seem to quickly fall short when I think of all the brave heroes constantly fighting their marathon battles with Leukemia & Lymphoma - my toughest day pales in comparison.

This past Saturday, I had an opportunity to run with the coaches and some of the TNT trainers (5:30 AM start to beat the heat - 8 miles) - I had a marvelous time. After the run, the coaches said that the San Antonio Rock 'n' Roll Marathon is a feasible option for me - however I've also heard several people advise me to run the White Rock as my first race - so, for now, I'll continue training at a pace that would potentially get me ready for the San Antonio, but I'm starting to think the White Rock will be the best option - we'll see how this goes!