Got my first blister EVER this past weekend. Since 2008, I've never lost a toenail, never gotten a blister. But now, I've lost TWO toenails and have a big fifty-cent-piece sized blister on my right foot.

I'm thinking it's time for a new pair of shoes!

We had our Mission Day on Saturday. I think at least 75 teammates were there. It was SO neat to hear each person name who they were running for, and then we completed our first mile in complete silence in honor of all of our heroes, past or present.

Let me remind you who I'm walking and running and losing toenails and walking on blisters for:

My beautiful sister, Valerie, who passed away on July 3 from cervical cancer. It spread through her lymph system and I remember the day that they measured a lymph node in her neck. It had gone from a marble-sized to the size of your hand in one week, so then I knew just exactly how scary this could be. We lost her just a little over a week later.

My dear friend and former co-worker, Jason Hover, who is battling non-Hodgkins' lymphoma. He finished his chemo but on the first checkup, his blood counts were way low so he's back to weekly checkups til they figure this out.

My wonderful friend, Julie Collins, who has battled lymphoma. She watched my house and took care of my kitties during the four months that I went back and forth to take care of my sister.

My dear aunt Donna, who has leukemia.

Russ Stevens, the son of my great friends, Jan and Doug Stevens. He is in remission from Leukemia but has had a really tough time getting his health back. And I always run in memory of their son, Scotty, who passed away forty years ago from leukemia.

A sweet, sweet friend who doesn't want anyone to know that she has leukemia. But Heavenly Father and the angels know and I know.

Team Mascot Dave, who is back in treatment for his aggressive leukemia for the FIFTH time. We just want him to hold out and keep fighting because there are so many incredible treatments in clinical trials right now.

Don't give up. Don't ever give up, we're all in this for you.

Bless you!

Check out my fun ecard! I posted it on my Facebook page. If about 29 people donated just $25 each, I would hit my goal for the Denver Marathon, coming up on October 9.

I used to drive my sister from central Utah on Thursdays and Fridays to her oncology appointments in Provo and Salt Lake City. Hers was a different cancer than a blood cancer but I sure experienced how much the little things add up. Daily radiation treatments for about eight weeks was pretty daunting. I paid for my own airfares and driving but a small grant from the cancer society, along with the twenty-dollar bills and checks that my friends and co-workers gave me, helped all of her volunteers keep gas in their cars on their days.

Believe me, every little bit is HUGELY helpful!! Thank you so much for reading and for caring :-)

View my e-card

My hero for this season, Jason Hover, had a clean PET scan and is done with chemo! Yay!

I hope he doesn't mind if I share this picture from his cancer blog. I just want you to see what lymphoma does to a handsome, strapping young father of four. It tried to kick his butt but guess what? By the grace of God and thanks to great lyphoma treatments, he's kicking cancer's butt!

This is why I come back to this team over and over again. Cancer has hit my family's life and it's hit my friends. We have to be RELENTLESS.

Next time you give thanks to God, be sure to give thanks that Jason has a chance to raise his beautiful children.

Back row: Drew (Shamrock Foods team), Linda (Shamrock Foods team), Lou and Joan (my teammates and friends from way back in our first season in 2008)

Second row: Marla (team hero and three-time cancer survivor), Vicki (I think!), and Coach Karen,

Front row: Coach Lori (a beloved former teammate turned coach, her husband passed away from a blood cancer)

Gosh, that's a good-looking team, don't you think!?!

I absolutely loved my first training! I came in about 10 weeks into the season so they are all in much better shape than I am, but we did 1h15min and I did just fine keeping up! I didn't feel wiped out or bad at all and am barely sore today.

Shamrock Foods has a Corporate team here in Denver, this year, and they are scattered across all of the teams -- cycle, tri, run, walk. They're very impressive folks, I really REALLY enjoyed getting to know Linda. (Kick me if I get all the names wrong and blame it on the hot sun).

They asked me to give the "Mission Moment" -- we start all of our trainings with someone's short personal story from their hero. So I told a little bit about Jason and how he's on his fifth chemo and it's pretty hard on him but he's hanging in there. Jason, if anybody gets how hard this is, this team does. We have shirts that say,

Think running a marathon is hard?

Try chemo.

I'm really glad to be back with the team.

A few years ago, I worked with an exceptional young man, Jason H. He taught me so much and was so kind and patient. Everybody liked him. We teased that we "looked up to him". We really did. He is 6'6"!

He eventually moved to another company but we have stayed in touch. We happened to be of the same faith group and I got to be friends with his mother-in-law. He is a great young father and has a beautiful wife and children.

Imagine my surprise when a few weeks after my sister was diagnosed with cancer, I received this shocking email from Jason:

Wanted to keep you in the loop... I was diagnosed with non-hodgkin's lymphoma a couple weeks ago and had my first chemo treatment last Monday 4/11/11... Please keep our family in your prayers. They caught it pretty early (stage 2) so hopefully everything will be okay. Chemo for next 4-6 months with regular monitoring to see how it's responding.

Oh, of COURSE I would keep Jason and his young family in my prayers!

His every-few-weeks blog entries were absolutely riveting. I read them to Valerie, who devoured them. She is an editor whose Master's thesis was on the personal essay. She LOVES to read what people write about their lives.

Valerie dictated a note to him as we sat in a recovery room after a procedure to insert a port so she could start chemotherapy. She tanked the next day and spent the next week in the hospital. I was so distracted, I neglected to let Jason know.

Jason has been super sick. He's made it through five chemos and has lost all of his hair, is tired all the time, and sleeps A LOT. That's what Valerie could relate to, that fatigue.

His wife was reading the notes that his blog visitors had left him, including Valerie's, and she popped over to Valerie's blog to see how she was doing. I wish I had let him know in a gentler way, it really tore him up to learn that she was gone.

Here is the very tender message that he left on her blog:

Dear Valerie,

My wife told me the other night that you had passed. I was in shock because you had just written some uplifting words in my own cancer blog one week before. I was like "No she didn't pass... she just wrote in my guestbook.. it is not possible." So I checked your caringbridge site and found out it was indeed the case that you had passed on July 3. Being a fellow traveler with you along this road of cancer, I took it pretty hard and found it hard to believe. You are such an inspiration to have been thinking about others right up until the end. I know you are in a better place now and I hope and pray that you are experiencing the peace and rest and love that you deserve. Lord knows that as we go through this cancer process, some peace and rest and well-being sounds incredible and I hope that that is exactly what you are experiencing right now.

Sincerely,

Jason (friend of Teresa's)

I asked Jason if I could walk for him with Team in Training. Would he be my personal hero? It mostly means that I wear his name on a bracelet as I train and put his name on a ribbon -- a nice, white survivor's ribbon -- when I do my events. Oh, and by the way, I keep him in my prayers! I walk and run for several personal heros. I do it so that some day, we don't need to have these special heros -- because we have found the cure and they aren't sick any more.

He said "yes".

Jason, you hold a very special place in my heart because you took this journey at the same time as my sister, and your blogging about it helped her enormously.

I want you to win your battle.

This Denver Half Marathon is for YOU!

P.S. For Jason's family and friends who may read this, I encourage you to reserve your generosity for his personal battle. I know from my sister how much it costs to make it through this. Maybe that's a weird request but there will be plenty of people who can help me meet my goal. Go Team!