Mavrick's Musketeers - Two Marathons. One Century Ride. $10K raised for TEAM in Training to Benefit The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in Mavrick's Memory. But we aren't done. Cancer has not been cured so these journeys will not be our last as we continue to raise funds to benefit the research being funded today by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Thank you. Each and everyone of you that supported us on our first journey together as Mavrick's Musketeers. We love you all.

“Beauty is as beauty does. We’re remembered not by what we looked like but how we behaved and changed the lives of others. ~ Cristina Carlino

RELENTLESS from the start, Team In Training participants are FOCUSED on raising as much money as they can to make a difference for cancer patients and their families and have raised over $1.2 billion to fund lifesaving cancer research and patient services and assistance.

In fiscal year 2011, LLS invested more than $76 million in blood cancer research.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML), $18.2 million

Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), $15.7 million

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and myeloproliferative diseases (MPD), $10.5 million

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), $9.8 million

Myeloma, $8.4 million

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL), $6.4 million

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), $4.3 million

Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), $3.2 million

Click on that Donate To Team button over there to the rght and help change the lives of others with a donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Please.

Thank you.

This past week, TEAMmate and good friend Dianna Bacon posted a video that summed up her spring season with TEAM in Training into the Rock N Roll Dallas Half Marathon. The video shows pictures of her honored heros and her fallen angels that inspire her to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and pictures from the half marathon event while it plays a song by Lady Antebellum called "I Was Here." The song almost perfectly expresses why so many of us in TEAM do what we do. It's not about the medals, the personal records, or the finisher's shirts. Heck, it's not really even about the sport we participate in while we raise money. We want to leave our mark for those we love who have fought and lost the battle with cancer, for those who are fighing now, and for those who've won that battle. And hopefully one day our marks, the reason we were here, becomes a cancer free world.

I Was Here

Lady Antebellum

Songwriters: Burr, Gary S; Scott, Hillary Dawn; Shaw, Victoria;

You will notice me

I'll be leaving my mark like initials carved

In an old oak tree, you wait and see

Maybe I'll write like Twain wrote

Maybe I'll paint like Van Gogh

Cure the common cold, I don't know

But I'm ready start 'cause I know in my heart

I wanna do something that matters, say something different

Something that sets the whole world on its ear

I wanna do something better with the time I've been given

I wanna try to touch a few hearts in this life

Leave nothing less than something that says I was here.

I will prove you wrong

If you think I'm all talk, you're in for a shock

'Cause this dream's too strong and before too long

Maybe I'll compose symphonies

Maybe I'll fight for world peace

'Cause I know it's my destiny

To leave more than a trace of myself in this place!

I wanna do something that matters, say something different

Something that sets the whole world on its ear

I wanna do something better with the time I've been given

I wanna try to touch a few hearts in this life

And leave nothing less than something that says I was here.

And I know that I, I will do more than just pass through this life

I'll leave nothing less than something that says I was here.

I was here

Cyndi & Andy After Running the Rock N Roll Dallas Half Marathon 3/25/2012

On March 25th, 2012, Cyndi ran her first half marathon at the Rock N Roll Half Marathon in Dallas, Texas. Just barely three months earlier she had bought her first pair of running shoes and started training to run the San Diego Rock N Roll marathon with TEAM in Training. Is less than three months enough time to train for a half marathon for a girl who did not run at all? No, probably not. Most training plans, even for non-runners, are 14 to 16 weeks long. Most runners will have run 5K and 10K races along the way. Most will have run several 8, 10, and 12 mile training runs along the way. And most train to finish with an agressive goal. Cyndi's goal was to finish somewhere around the 3 1/2 hour mark which she did. Was it a really hard task for Cyndi to complete? Yes, absolutely. Did she find herself, along the way, questioning whether or not she could make it? Yes. But Cyndi put one foot in front of other, sometimes running and sometimes walking. And she finished. And does every muscle in her body feel the effects of the stress of running 13.1 miles? Most definitely.

No more than Cyndi was fully ready and fully trained to run a half marathon with barely three months of training and only one 10 mile run beneath her feet are those diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma, or any form of cancer fully ready for that diagnosis. But like Cyndi they put one foot in front of the other, sometimes running, sometimes walking, and even sometimes barely crawling through chemotherapy, radiation treatments, steroid treatments, biopsies, and surgery. Of course, Cyndi had support along the way. It is very unlikely she could've done it on her own. She had received a giftcard to buy new running shoes at Run On from Mavrick's parents. She had her Uncle Andy to coach her and encourage her along the way. She had friends and family who believed in her. She has a TEAM in Training coach. And she had support on the race course from the particpants and coaches who wore the same TEAM in Training jerseys she herself was wearing. But at the end of the day, for 3 and a half hours, it was Cyndi's body and mind, her willpower, that got her through the pain and the fatigue of running 13.1 miles and across that finish line. And like Cyndi, cancer patients have the support of organizations such as the LLS and their doctors to mentor and treat them. They have an oncologist. They have friends and family to encourage and support them. And they have support from other's who have fought the same cancers. And like Cyndi's goal to simply finish the race, a cancer patient's only goal is to simply survive the treatment and find remission. But unlike Cyndi's run, there really is no finish line for cancer patients. There is no cure. There is no treatment for blood cancer that does little more than force the cancer into the dormant state known as remission. The longer one is in remission the less the odds that the cancer will reactivate, but the fact is - the cancer is merely dormant. But unlike Cyndi's run, the end is not always a happy and celebatory event for those with cancer and their families. Our family is painfully aware that there is no finish line for many cancer patients.

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is funding the research that will one day bring those with leukemia, myeloma, and lymphoma across the finish line while funding new treatment research to make that journey from diagnosis to cure safer and less destructive to the body. And they are providing programs to help those fighting the disease today. They have patient coaches and advocates to help those with the disease understand and cope with that diagnosis and treatment. They provide co-pay financial assistance to those who need it most. But, they need our help in the form of financial donations to the cause.

Cyndi and I are running the San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon in memory of our nephew, Mavrick Veal and, most importantly, raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society so that one day all cancer patients can be finishers and have that shiny medal of a cure hung about their neck. Please donate now and help us help those who need it.

Cyndi once told me that I inspired her to begin this journey to San Diego. Now, it is Cyndi that inspires me to complete the journey.

Noah Kiser

acute lymphoblastic leukemia

March 16th, our TEAM in Training friend and TEAM mentor, Pam Reding's nephew Noah Kiser lost the battle with ALL. To say that we are saddened by this loss is an understatement and there truly are no words that are fitting of the grief we are individually and collectively as TEAM struggling with today.

As recently as only 20 years ago survival for ALL was unheard of. Today, the remission rate for those diagnosed with ALL is around 80%. But sadly, about half experience at least one relapse of the cancer. But, the loss of even one life to leukemia is not acceptable. The mission of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society does not include any acceptable loss percentages. The cure for leukemia and lymphoma will only be found through funded research and the lives of of those living with these diseases made better through advanced treatments and care. And the LLS needs my help, your help, all of our help.

Our family remembers the pain, the grief, and the sorrow of the loss of Mavrick. And our hearts, love, and deepest sympathy goes out to the family of Noah Kiser.