Hiking to Save Lives

Welcome to my Team In Training home page for Jaylon.

I'm training to participate in an endurance hike as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team In Training (http://www.teamintraining.org/). I'm partaking in this event in honor of Jaylon Fong. Jaylon is my friend's courageous, 8 year-old son who was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia on December 3, 2008. When my wife first told me of Jaylon's diagnosis it was hard for me to imagine the struggles my friend and his family must have been facing. As a parent, who also has an 8 year-old son, I felt personally compelled to reach out and contribute as much as possible. With the endorsement of Jaylon's family and the guidance of several, long-time LLS members, I feel I made the right choice to work with LLS as a means of lending effective assistance (http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/hm_lls).

Jaylon's brave, on-going battle with leukemia (http://jaylonfong.blogspot.com/) has truly inspired me to raise awareness and to raise the much needed funds to find a cure. Needless to say, I am thrilled to have Jaylon as my honored hero for the event.

Each donation helps accelerate finding a cure for leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. More than 823,000 Americans are battling these blood cancers. I'm hoping that my participation in Team In Training will help bring them hope and support.

I hope you will visit my web site often. Be sure to check back frequently to see my progress. Thank you so much for your generosity.

-UPDATES-

Hiking and fundraising pictures on Facebook:

Grand Canyon *NEW*

El Capitan

Ice House Canyon

West Horse Thief

Holy Jim

Sitton Peak

Bedford Peak

Charity Garage Sale

Morgan Trail

San Juan Trail

Laguna Coast

Video:

Awesome Team In Training Video

THE GRAND CANYON

If you haven't been to the Grand Canyon please be sure to put it on your to-do list. There's nothing really quite like it. It's physically humbling and, at the same time, spiritually awe-inspiring.

Our team hiked a strenuous 9 miles in 9 hours. We started quietly at sunrise at Grandview trailhead, worked our way down 2500 feet, past the abandoned copper mine, to Horseshoe Mesa where we took a minute to rest and appreciate scenery 2,000,000,000 years in the making.

On the way back up temperatures rose to about 90 degrees. On the final stretch of the hike, my legs started to cramp, and I became short of breath due to the elevation change. By the time our team had made it back to the rim of the canyon, I had drank about 7 1/2 liters of water, my joints and muscles were sore, and we actually assisted a fellow hiker who was suffering from exposure. I was extremely proud to walk (crawl, in my case) out the canyon as a team.

My hiking and fundraising activities with Team in Training has truly been a life-changing experience. From the people you train with to the people you are helping, you learn to accept our human frailties and appreciate our inner strengths.

Once again, I thank all of you for your generous support and compassion.

LONG BEACH MARATHON

The hike was so amazing I thought I'd give the Long Beach marathon a shot (never ran a marathon before). The marathon is in October. So, in the meantime, I look forward to another round of fundraising and intense training. I hope all of you will be there to support me and LLS :)

Here's my fundraising site for the marathon (still needs some tweaking): http://pages.teamintraining.org/ocie/lbintl09/peleazar

Thanks and see you at the next event!