My Fundraising Page

Racing to Save Lives

Welcome to my Team In Training home page.

I'm training to participate in the Nike Women's Marathon as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. All of us on Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives. I am completing this event in honor of all individuals who are battling blood cancers. Most importantly, my roommate Madalyn and I will be running in memory of her father Randy who lost his fight with non-hodgkin's lymphoma in 1990. These people are the real heroes on our team, and we need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure!

Personally, this will mark the culmination of a decision I made to change my life last year. In my journey to become healthier, happier, and more physically active than ever, I have lost over 30 lbs and still counting. Now, I can think of no better way to celebrate my 30th birthday than to raise money for such a vital organization, and to run a marathon in the process. My marathon compares in no way to the marathons faced by those diagnosed with these horrible diseases, but I hope you will support the journeys that myself, Madalyn and other team members are on.

Please make a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance LLS's mission. To honor any large donors, I will write you or your company's name on the back of my shirt if you give at least $500.

I hope you will visit my web site often. I will update this site with my training progress as well as stories that I hear from friends and family.

If you want to read more about me, please visit my blog

http://nourishthespirit.blogspot.com/

To read the story of my roommate Madalyn's father and why running a half is so close to her heart

http://www.madalynsrunningahalfmarathon.blogspot.com

One last request, this endurance race is a daunting feat to overcome so I am also asking everyone to write a brief note to me. I plan to read these notes the night before the race. You can send them to my email naturecarin@gmail.com or mail them (please write in the subject line or on the envelope "note for race" so I don't open it)

261 Rock Creek Rd

Clemson, SC 29631

Thanks for your support!

Carin

First Fund Rasier Complete!

Madalyn and I held our first fund raising event last Friday night. We put on a coffee house and silent auction, and as far as we are concerned it was a success. I think both of us were overwhelmed at trying to plan and implement a concert and silent auction because she has started a job at camp and I had family in town the whole week, and have been out of town every weekend since I can remember. I was in Clemson a total of one day the entire week of the concert.That being said, the coffee house and silent auction would not have happened without the generous help, support and donations from multiple people and businesses.

Thank you Sarah for your ideas, help, love, and photography. Thanks to starbucks for providing all the coffee, cups, creamer and sugar. I'm sorry to the manager who was not informed that I would be picking up the coffee day of and really appreciate your willingness to make coffee immediately. Super huge thanks to Knox, Alex, Haley and Chris and also to Erik for running sound. Amazing music!To all the local businesses and everyone else who gave, especially Lori Morrow, The Resident Chef, Dan Anderson, Christine Drais, Carla Mora, Kirby Player, Kandace Terry, Teresa Tucker, Brian Krohn, and Brianna Clark. Your friendship and mere generosity helped us to raise about $1,400. This money will help save the lives of many currently suffering from blood related cancers. Not only that but we intimately touched the life of one girl at the show. After Madalyn and I told a little about why this race is important to us, a girl came up to us and introduced herself. Alex was invited by Knox, just another chance to come hear him play. She had no idea that this was a benefit concert until she came upon the poster hung on the door. Alex told us that her mother has been battling leukemia for about 6 years, and she was so happy to be spending her evening there with us. Not only that, but there is a chance Alex will be joining us in this journey. In my mind, Alex's story made the evening a success. We were able to touch the life of a stranger in ways that we never knew could happen and no money in the world could replace that feeling.

First Long Run on 6-20

The most I've been able to run until this week was 3 miles. I have been having pretty bad IT band problems in my knee. The strange part is the numbness feeling, left there from surgery in 2003. So the pain and then odd numb feelings has been a challenge. A week and a half ago it came to the point of getting a cortisone shot. It's been hard not to run very much and much more difficult not to run on hills (I live in a hilly town). Thus I've been feeling like training hasn't really begun until this week. I finally decided to stop running the dikes and test out the hills. I had a 4 mile run and then the long run of the week was 6. So far so good, no pain! Tomorrow starts full on training for me. I'm going to try really hard to keep up with strength training three days a week as well as all the runs.

7 miles complete

I ran 7 miles on Saturday. It was a nice run around the Clemson campus. I left around 6:15 AM and still got a little dizzy from the heat. Although I did bring water and Gatorade, I discovered at the end of the run that I had drank very little. As we continue through the summer and the runs get longer and longer I must really concentrate on hydration. There is a long road ahead, and taking care of my body is key! Speaking of, my knee felt ok during the run. It never became painful but I could feel the presence of what once was intense pain. Odd and tough to describe. I'm just going to trust the therapy and stretches and see how we do as the miles increase.

angela kaye's father

On a recent trip to visit some old friends from Midland I discovered that my friend's father has multiple myeloma. Her father has been battling Myeloma for years, and so I will be running in honor of him as well. It just amazes me how many stories are out there. I definitely feel blessed that I am able to do a small part to lift the hopes of others.

minor set back is hopefully solved

If you've heard anything about my journey through the half marathon in April you may know that I've been sufferering through IT band issues. Multiple weeks of therapy, cortisone shot and finally a new suggestion from the doctor have hopefully done the trick. Dr. Bowman gave me some heel inserts that raise the outsid of my heel about 2 inches. I did my 5.25 miles with the new inserts on Saturday. I actually felt much better while running. Lets hope this works, got a week full of 5 mile runs culminating with a 10 miler on Saturday. Please continue to donate, so far I've raise 21% of my goal.

It's been a while

Well I did take a good long break, almost 3 weeks. I was traveling a lot and had a nice vacation in there as well. Although I didn't run, I did all kinds of other working out, which is really important for me and the knee trouble I've had. The strengthening of other muscles has greatly improved the amount of pain I've had while running. It is good to be back at it. I'm currently going to be running about 3-4 days a week and doing strength and other forms of exercise (soccer) the other two days. A month and a half out, I'm really feeling this can happen. I still need more donations, so please continue to give. Thanks for your support!

16 miler complete

I ran 16 miles today. That means I only have two more super long training runs before the race. I got me a Nike+ training band and absolutely love it. It told me exactly what I need to know, mileage and pace. I would have had calories too if I had entered my weight in the computer, but forgot about it.

Madalyn and I had another good fund raiser on Saturday. We did a yard sale and brought in $600. We're getting there, slowly but surely we will raise the money.

20 miles, and that's it!

Well 20 miles came and went Saturday. Unfortunately I started to have slightly severe IT band issues in my other knee. I did't finish in a bad time and so I had to sit down and do some soul searching and re-evaluate this process. The race is 2 weeks away. Basically it's come down to the fact that I feel like I've been called to do this by God. I'm supposed to raise this money, to feel like it is one of the toughest hills (literally haha) I'll climb in my life, and I will come out on the other side. This week will be full of prayer, rest, stretching, strength training and advil. That's it, no running! I will be carried through the entirety of this process and I believe that with all my heart. Thank you for the well wishes, the donations and the prayers. Oh, and still in need of all three :), 84% to my goal!