We did it!! This morning was the half marathon. It was perfect weather, cool and overcast. The crowd was HUGE.......something like 22000 runners.

My main goal was to just enjoy the event and finish. I certainly did that. Based on my training, I thought there was an slight chance I could finish in under 3 hours. But if I didn't, I wasn't going to worry about it. The energy of all the participants and of the crowd is contagious and it helped propel me across the finish in 2:55:02. As I approached the finish I saw a whole pack of family and friends rooting me on. I had no idea they were going to be them. What a great surprise and what a great way to finish the event.

I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who donated to my fundraising. Without all of you this would have just been a half marathon. Because of your generosity, I was able to raise more than $3000 for LLS and our group raised more than $240,000.

As I was receiving my finisher's medal, the girl placing it around my neck started to cry. She told me she had just been diagnosed with leukemia or she would have been running also. She said "I will be running it again next year". I hope so.......I'll be running it too!

Well this is it! We had our last training run yesterday. Next Sunday is the real deal. I hope I can cross the finish line as strong as my fundraising! What a great sprint it had at the end, with a $500 donation to put me over the top.

We got our race shirts also. Now I need to put my honorees names on it so everyone knows why I'm running. This is for you Darrell & Tina!!

Saturday we had our longest run so far. And I decided to make it even longer. Since there is a marathon group and a half marathon group training at the same time, typically we do two different distances. This time we were supposed to do 8 miles (4 miles out & 4 miles back) while the marathon group was doing 10 miles (5 miles out & 5 back). Since I am in such AWESOME shape, I decided to do the full 10 miles. Actually, I missed the 4 mile turnaround point and didn't realize it until I hit the 5 mile mark. I wish I could say I was able to run the entire 10 miles but that would be a lie. Even with walking a couple miles I was BEAT when I got back.

The first part of the run included a pedestrian bridge and the Team in Training folks had posted all our honorees names on the bridge for inspiration as we ran past. I grabbed my honoree's poster to help me finish the run.

I had an interesting Christmas. Normally my son and his family would open presents at their house and then head over to ours to open more presents and have Christmas dinner but my son has tonsillitis so we postponed everything a week.

That meant I had Christmas morning to run my seven miles, which I did down at the beach. I was amazed at the number of people spending Christmas morning at the beach. There were runners, walkers, volleyball players, people with their dogs and even some people laying out on the beach.

While running, I thought about my grandkids Devon & McKenna. The first thing they always want to do when we sit down for Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas dinner is to go around the table and say what we're thankful for. That has become a wonderful holiday tradition in our home.

OK kids, since I'm not able to spend Christmas with you, here goes. I'm thankful for my wonderful family, who other than Scott's tonsillitis, is healthy and happy. I'm especially thankful for my wife Robin, who has been wonderfully supportive through these many hours of training runs.

I'm also very thankful for all the family and friends who have opened their hearts and opened their wallets to help make my fundraising such a success. These are tough economic times but that hasn't stopped you from all your amazing donations. Thank you guys, I really appreciate it.

And last but not least, I'm thankful to have the opportunity to do what I can to help those like Darrell and Tina and their families who are dealing with leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. Tina starts another round of chemotherapy and stem cell transplant on Monday. Please keep Tina and her family in your thoughts.

This past Saturday our training run was only 5 miles but the post this week isn't about how far we ran but how much we learned.

Frequently before our run, we have an inspirational speaker. Usually it is someone previously not known to us. This week however, I was in shock when Emma, one of our assistant coaches got up to speak.

I see Emma every Saturday and she is always smiling and laughing, always positive. I had NO CLUE that she is a cancer survivor. I was totally dumbstruck while listening to her story.

Go back three years. Emma is 22, getting ready to graduate from college and planning her wedding. As she put it, "she is a college senior, invincible and on top of the world".

Emma began to have some discomfort under one arm and the college health center initially diagnoses it as "reaction to your deordorant or a shaving nick". When her lymph nodes start enlarging, more tests are run.

Emma is diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and her world comes crashing down around her. Surgery is performed to remove the affected lymph nodes and chemotherapy is started to stop the cancer.

Through it all, Emma maintains her strength and her focus. She continues with her senior year of college and graduates with her class. She also continues with her wedding plans but because of the chemo, she has to get married in a wig.

This Saturday marked the third anniversary of the end of her last chemo and Emma is cancer free. She is living life on her terms and not letting anything stop her.

Emma is my new hero!