Alright IRONTEAM, you have helped me raise $5,800 for Team in Training and i am so THANKFUL! We all have a personal connection to the mission if you have donated, most likely you know someone who has been effected by this terrible disease. So in exchange for all your support I want to honor your loved ones on my 140.6 mile journey!

Send me the names of your loved ones and I will make them a ribbon and take them with me on race-day. each and every time the road gets hard I will have them with me knowing that what we have set out to do through Team and Training and the race will allow others to not have to endure what all of us have.

Send them over :)

10 days! YIKES!!
Coach mandy!

I wanted to share a photo of Ava and i from her NO MORE CANACER PARTY last month. We drove to Akron Ohio to spend the day with family and friends and celebrate the courage and spirit of Ava and her overcoming her battle with "Kemia". As she said... "I kicked Kemia's butt", and she's right!

We are just one week out from leaving for Ironman Mont Tremblant and I couldn't be more proud to be honoring such an amazing spirit.  Sometimes life isn't fair and there just isnt anything you can do but roll up your sleeves and get to work, and that's exactly what cancer fighter do! They are up all night, fight through rough days, do everything they need to to be strong, and they just keep moving forward.

Anyone who has been touched by cancer knows that it can be overwhelming and a trying experience. Whether you are or have been a patient, caregiver, or a friend you have most likely found that while it can be a challenging community- it’s also one of the most thriving communities to be apart of. I am so proud of the opportunity to raise funds for Team in Training and to be apart of a thousand Ava’s journeys because this here and now, it matters and what we are doing now have never been more important than it is today.
 

One day many years from now, if I was diagnosed with cancer, I would want someone out there fighting for me. Who are you fighting for?

Don’t give up; don’t ever give up—Jimmy V.

Those six words are the most powerful words I have ever read during some of the most trying times of my life. Cancer means a lot of things to many people. As a young girl I remember family members having cancer, some recovering and some not. As a teenager and young adult I soon learned the devastating effects the disease would play on my life and that of my family when my mother was diagnosed with colon cancer. My mother was a constant source of joy and inspiration in my life and when she passed I lost a huge piece of my identity. Since that I have continued to be involved in several organizations working with and for the common goal of a cure.

Over the past few years cancer now has a new meaning for my family as it represented an amazing 6 year old's heroic drive for life and every other child that wakes up and fights against the vicious monster of childhood cancer. Our family knows oh too well that it takes and leaves too many permanent wounds that often do not heal. It represents one more year we have to celebrate and one more year of racing against the clock for a cure. While cancer has taken many forms and many meanings in our lives we absolutely cannot deny the impact it has had or the life lessons we will never forget. We tend to appreciate all the little things and not sweat the small stuff. We laugh too much and love so hard because we no longer take anything for granted.

This past August I competed in my first IRONMAN and  was witness to all the wonderful causes that others were racing for and their stories of surviving, battling, and lost loved ones. I couldn’t help but be taken back to some very special and difficult times in my life while running and hearing their stories. It made me think about the small amount of physical and mental pain that as athletes we go through for one day --and the non-comparison it has and is for cancer patients. It made me think back to all the ways that cancer is everywhere and leaves a web of emotion and pain for the ones left behind. In the days and week following IRONMAN I knew I wanted to do it again but I wanted to do it for something bigger than myself. Something that mattered and something that would make a difference for someone else. That's when the right click at the right time brought up Team in Training IRONMAN Mont Tremblant. I had been talking to my coach about the race and was very on the fence about even doing another IRONMAN. When I saw Team in Training was an opportunity to race for cancer I knew I HAD to do it. I am alive and well and have an opportunity to use this powerful and positive platform to help others. There is no bigger or better opportunity than that.

In August 2014 I will be competing in the Subaru IRONMAN North American Championship Mont Tremblant with Team in Training in honor of my family's little hero Ava Maryann Turner. The 140.6 mile race consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2 mile run which is nothing compared to the challenges that children with cancer have to overcome. It compares nothing to the children and parents praying for a cure and for the ones who were lost too soon.

Ava is 6 years old and loves to sing and dance.  She had Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) and is the bravest little girl I know! I am honored to embark on this journey and head right into battle for Ava and Team in Training. She had her last chemo treatment on 2/2/2014 which is AMAZING! God is oh so GOOD! 

My fundraising goal minimum is $5,000 so please consider helping me fund this cause and make a difference for all the little Ava's out there. You would have to search far and long for someone within a degree of separation who has not been affected by cancer. The money raised through all of these organizations is in an effort for all of us to someday not know the devastation of the disease and to never again lose someone we love way too soon.

Cancer is one of those things that with a village of fighters we will eventually find the answer. Join my village and help us find a cure! I have a mission-to help find cures and more effective treatments for blood cancers. Like the other members of TNT, I will be raising funds to help find cures and better treatments for leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma. I’m improving the quality of my life by participating and with your support, I can help improve the quality of life for patients and their families as well. Please make a donation in support of my efforts with Team In Training and help advance the research for cures.

But more importantly, please consider donating. Let's make sure that everyone can say that they too, were lucky.

Let me honor your loved ones!!

Anyone who makes a donation please please please leave a name of someone who you know that has been touched by cancer.. it could be a survivor, someone living with it, or someone who passed. I am going to write their name each on a white ribbon and pin them to my Team in Training jersey so all of you can have your loved ones honored with me for all 140.6 miles of the race!!

Thanks

Mandy

Persistence, Passion, Perseverance- And 7 week till IRONMAN Mnnt Tremblant

First as always I wanted to start with a HUGE THANK YOU for all the love and support. As you know we have hit our $5000 goal but we don't have tp stop here! Let's keep going! Here's what I have been up to with my training and my recent race at Syracuse!!

I’ve never really been that great at race recaps just because I don’t really like to sit down and hash out every second of the race on paper- I do that the entire time in my head while I am racing. So here is my shortened recap of Ironman 70.3 Syracuse 2014. We came, we conquered!

Sunday morning started at about 3:30 a.m. because we had a 20 min drive to the race. We wanted to leave by 4am so that we could be in transition at 4:30 am when it opened. I am a heckler for being early incase I need extra time. I remember it being SO COLD and just wanting to get my wetsuit on. My friends Bob and Trish were doing their first 70.3 so we wanted to have plenty of time incase they need anything and sure enough Bob got a flat so we did.

The swim start was awesome because I was the 2^nd group to head out (YAY)! We waded out to a buoy about 100-150 yards out and treaded water until the gun went off. My heart always pounds SO HARD at the start. The butterflies are crazy and I almost want to vomit but once I get started I am fine.  The swim was okay. I wore my wetsuit because the water was a little chilly for my liking but it was also choppy too so I had to adjust my strategy.

I had a good swim and headed into transition feeling GREAT, I finished in 38:45. Had a quick T1 and headed to the bike mount. I had to remind myself to be patient on the first 15 miles and no go out too hard and blow it. It was a nice hard climb and I just sat back and focused on staying consistent. After those first 15 miles the course allows you to really pick up speed. I had a great time flying on the back roads and running up some of the later climbs. Final bike spilt was 3:14 and I headed into T2 for the run.

The run had two really big spikes in elevation right in the middle of each loop. My coach challenged me to do whatever I needed to do so that I did not walk even if I was running slower than I could walk. I lived up to my half of the bargin and focused on staying strong. I had a final run time of 2:27.

I crossed the finish line in 6:28 feeling amazing. I felt like I could have done it again if I had to which is a great sign for Tremblant.  Now time to get to work for the big ticket in August! I recommend this race to anyone who is up for a challenge and some beautiful scenery!

I owe a HUGE THANK YOU to my IRONMATE Christian for being my strength and rock throughout the weekend. he is the best support crew ever as he makes sure I am all set in the morning, takes photos and is on all parts of the course offering me water and encouragement. I have the best Fiance in the world... and well the pups did awesome cheering all day too :)

Coach Mandy

Thank You to everyone (my IRONTEAM) who came out to Thyme for a Cure on Friday at Thyme in Your Kitchen in Sharon Pennsylvania! Thyme in Your Kitchen is a culinary boutique that offers quality dinnerware, bakeware, kitchen accessories and artisan-made gift ideas. Cooking classes offered for all cooks, from novice to expert.

Pat and John Evans hosted our fundraiser by offering an amazing event for us and we are SO THANKFUL!! Chef Bryce Stanford and Garron Birdsall showed us how to make some delicious summer appetizers (and drinks), The James Willaman Situation played some FABULOUS music, and we even had wine tastings, a candy bar and Chinese auctions! I have to admit that it was a night to remember!

We raised well over $800 for Team in Training! Which will put me at $5000 raised since September. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT, $5000 we all have helped to raise.

When someone you love becomes a memory, that memory becomes a wonderful treasure of a life so beautifully lived & a heart so deeply loved. My mom, Robin Louise Budzowski would have been 49 years old this year. I think of all the things that I want to be doing when I am 49 and of all the years to live I hope to still have. But how much time do we really have? Do we know what tomorrow brings?

Life can change in an instant though. Cancer is a disease that knows no boundaries of class, ethnicity, or gender. It's a disease that affects us all at some point in our lives. The funds raised through my TNT journey are used for research, education, and advocacy. I believe so much in those resources because they are the same ones that my family used just ten years ago when we found out my mom had cancer. Also again when Ava had leukemia they are the same resources that may have saved her life. At 6 years old she now has many years to live and a life full of joy ahead of her.

It's important to keep working towards a cure so that generations to come will never know the devastation that we have and the wrath of this disease. Team in Training to me is……It's . . . a way of giving back to the people (organizations) who helped my family, it’s been a way to say thank you to everyone who put their best foot forward in helping to cure cancer and make the lives of those diagnosed a little better.

My IRONMAN journey on August 17^th  time won't matter at all to me in terms of time or how I place. The only number that matters today is this: $1.4 billion raised by Team in Training for blood cancer research since 1998 and more than 600,000 participants in it for the LONG haul to help fund and find a cure.