Third Time's the Charm

After running the Nike Women's Half Marathon in October 2009 and the New Jersey Marathon in (85-degree PLUS) May 2010, I have joined my third season in a row with Team In Training and will run the Chicago Marathon on 10.10.10.

The experience I've had with Team in Training in the last year has been unbelievable - I have made amazing friends, have heard beautiful stories about survival and loss from my teammates, have officially become a Marathoner(!) and have gotten to share about my own mother. I have shared, of course, about losing her to leukemia, but even more, I have introduced a brave, warm, funny and beautiful woman - a woman who lived her life with grace and honesty - to my friends who didn't have the chance to know her, and have shared memories with those who did. She was a woman who fought for herself and for those she loved, especially for people (and animals) who couldn't defend themselves. I run for her and for others who can't.

When I ran the Nike Women's Half Marathon in October 2009, my mom's family, including my grandmother, Arlene and my aunts, Julie and Sharon, as well as my stepdad and his wife, joined me in celebrating my mom's life and in supporting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. That race alone raised over $14 million and the New York City Chapter has raised over $3 million in the last year - money that goes to research, patient and family support, and to new treatments that save lives every single day. All of you were a part of that due to your unbelievable generosity and support of me, my family and my mother's memory.

I have done this three seasons in a row because I admire this program and am inspired every day by our honored teammates and by the doctors, nurses and researchers in LLS who use the money we raise to save lives. Besides giving me a new obsession in running, Team in Training has given me and my family the gift of honoring my mother and helping save the lives and families of others affected every day by these diseases.