This season is wrapped up, but we're still going! To learn more, go to my page to fundraise for the Portland Marathon 2011. Yup, another 26.2 coming my way. Go Team!!

http://pages.teamintraining.org/oswim/portland11/sweadicbki

Completed my first 15K race this morning, the Portland Shamrock Run! That's 9.3 miles of wet pavement with loads of hills mixed in. I actually had a great race and kept pace with Joe pretty much the whole time! Steve, Ina, Joe and I were all soaked and tired at the end, but it was an awesome event and now I'm ready to not move for the next week.

Looking Good and Helping Others

Our dear friend Shauna has teamed with us and 50% of her proceeds from all PURPLE jewelry will go to LLS! Please check out her beautiful creations: http://www.etsy.com/shop/lemonkissed

Thank you Shauna, you have always been a great supporter of the cause!

Thank you to Jacob, Dad, Ina, Roger & Ashley, Lindsey, Bradley, Katie, Cheri, A&J&J, Dr. Duke, Biller, Erika and JD & K-dog! Due to your speedy and generous donations, I have won a coveted TNT shoe wallet to hold my chapstick and coffee money. Sweet!

Sometimes life is scary, sometimes there are brief moments where you can’t see,

moments where you can’t breathe.

Its unusual that Joe and I don’t know more people with cancer, we are very fortunate to be surrounded with healthy friends and family with wonderful spirits. I am not what cancer means to most people or to myself, but I have had cancer, twice. It was melanoma, it was just on my skin, it was brief and now it’s gone and Joe still sees me. I still have the moments of fear and times when I can’t see, but I’m on a path and this is an important part of it.

Joe and I are at it again, this time for the Eugene ½ Marathon.

The energy, focus and fulfillment from our experience with Team In Training cannot be matched and yes, you may hear from us again and again, because we can’t get enough. There are so many children that are suffering with blood cancers and it is so sad and unnecessary. We know that we are helping and that we can do more. We run to keep ourselves free from disease and we run for those that cannot run and we run to raise money for patient support and research.

I am touched by the stories of hope and commitment that we hear throughout the season. I am motivated by one mother at the beginning of this season who said her wish was that the next time a mother is told that her child has cancer, the very next thing they hear is that there is a cure. My hope dares to go further and begs that in the future there is no more blood cancer. No leukemia, no Hodgkin’s disease, no lymphoma, no myeloma, no more.

Please support my path and my cause and my honored teammate. This season we are running in honor of Kate, a brave 5-year old who is just finishing treatment for acute Lymphocitic Leukemia. We are running in Eugene, and will finish our ½ Marathon in the historic Hayward Field, just like Prefontaine, or at least you can picture it that way.

I am behind in my training and fundraising, so every little bit helps me keep moving forward. I was finally able to begin running last week, not in January like my teammates. And, now that I am training, I feel more a part of the team and ready to tell my story and start fundraising. The first challenge is the 15k Shamrock Run in 3 weeks, that’s 9.3 miles. It’s a lot and the up and down the hills of Terwilliger will be a challenge, but I’m ready. Then it’s on to Eugene.

Thank you so much for your love and support. Go Team!

Please read Joe's story too, I am so thankful we are on this path together:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/oswim/eugene11/jweadick

Skye