This weekend I competed in my first Mini Sprint Triathlon. It was so unbelievably scary the night before and right before I got in the water – but as soon as I was in the water, it was gone. I realized that I had trained for this and was prepared. I am defiantly slow, but that is ok, at least I am attempting to do these fun events. I came in 64th out of 87 people and placed 3rd out of 5 in the Novice category. Monday I registered for my next Sprint Tri on May 22nd at the James Island County Park.

Today I officially committed to do the Olympic Distance triathlon. This was super scary for me to do as it seems like a very long swim and run (almost 1 mile swim, 26 mile bike, 6 mile run). But I have great support and people who have done it before who believe I can do it. So I am believing that if I can have friends who can kick cancers ass then I can do an Olympic Distance Triathlon!

A great big thank you to everyone who has helped me meet Team In Training’s Goal for me of $2,500! Now on to my personal goal of $3,000! Here we go!

More next week …………

Love and Light to you and yours!

Below is a story of a little boy named Owen who has juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia - he was given life saving cells from a 24 year old women who dared to be brave and donate to Be the Match. Their story made me cry and touched me so much. Sometimes when training is hard and I am tired or feel sick. Thinking of people like Owen and our honored hero (and their families as they are just young children) makes me want to work harder.

BE THE MATCH story below:

This May, a 4-year-old Omaha, Neb., boy who underwent a marrow transplant will lace up his sneakers and join forces with the donor who saved his life. They’ll run together in the Twin Cities Be The One Run® to support patients in need of a marrow transplant — and to give hope to more families like Owen’s.

Owen Jensen’s parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins will be piling into a couple of minivans for this special road trip to Minneapolis. Ready to greet them will be Laura Houghton, Owen’s 25-year-old marrow donor from Brooklyn Park, Minn.

“This run will be a big celebration for all of us. It’s a great way to bring our families and friends together to help raise money and spread the word about marrow donation.” Laura said. “One look at Owen and it makes all the sense in the world.”

Owen has gently broken the news to Laura that he’s pretty confident he’s faster than she is.

Owen’s diagnosis

Owen in the hospital

In the fall of 2009, Owen was diagnosed with juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia, a rare blood cancer. Chemotherapy wasn’t a viable treatment option and doctors knew his only chance was a marrow transplant. But Owen, like 70 percent of patients in need of a transplant, had no marrow donor match in his family.

Laura gets the call

Fortunately for Owen, a few months earlier, Laura had joined Be The Match Registry. “I remember the day I got the call from Be The Match,” Laura said. “They asked if I was still interested in donating and told me about a little boy who needed my help. I was his match.”

Although she knew only that the patient was a 3-year-old boy and could be from anywhere in the world, Laura couldn’t shake the feeling that he was close. She had no idea how close.

Transplant day

On Jan. 7, 2010, Laura was on the 4th floor at the University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital donating marrow. Just one floor above her, Owen and his family were waiting for Laura’s life-saving cells. To have a donor and transplant recipient in the same hospital is rare. Because of confidentiality guidelines, neither Owen’s family nor Laura knew they were in the same building; they didn’t even know each other’s names.

For the next year, Laura thought of her recipient often. “I prayed for him and his family every day. For a year, I would imagine this little boy in my head. To be 3 or 4 and having to deal with this disease . . . But I always imagined him spunky, a trouper who wouldn’t give up. I imagined him getting better every day. And when I met him, he was all of those things.”

Owen and Laura meet

After a year, and if both parties agree, donors and patients are allowed to exchange information. In January 2011, Laura and Owen met for the first time.

Heather Jensen, Owen’s mother, remembers preparing Owen to meet Laura. “He was too little to understand the importance of marrow or how frightened we all had been. He knew he had been very sick and in the hospital to get better. I explained that Laura gave him some of her good blood so that he could get well.

“His reaction was priceless. He turned around and with complete sincerity simply said: ‘That was nice! I need to say thank you.’

“If Laura hadn’t joined the registry — I don’t know — I don’t want to think about what would have happened,” said Owen’s mother. “We will spend the rest of our lives saying thank you.”

Owen meets Laura, his marrow donor

Owen meets his marrow donor Laura

The two families will participate in Be The One Run Saturday, May 21, 2011, at Lake Harriet in Minneapolis. It includes a 5K, 1K Fun Run, and a Tot Trot.

About Be The One Run

Be The One Run gives patients with leukemia, lymphoma, and 70 other life-threatening diseases a second chance at life. Each year 10,000 patients need a marrow transplant but have no donor match in their family. They depend on Be The Match to help them find an unrelated donor and receive the transplant they need.

Through Be The Match Foundation®, Be The One Run raises funds to support marrow transplant research, help patients with uninsured costs, and add more potential marrow donors to Be The Match Registry®, giving more patients hope for a cure.

Get Involved

Visit BeTheOneRun.org to learn more, register, fundraise and volunteer.

To join or contribute to “Team Owen” and support all patients in need of a marrow transplant, visit: http://www.BeTheMatchFoundation.org/goto/teamowenmn

NEW CHALLENGE: Here is my new challenge to you, If I have 100% of my goal raised by April 30th then I will commit to change from the Sprint distance triathlon in Charlotte, NC (750 Meter Swim, 17 Mile Bike, 5K Run) to the OLYMPIC DISTANCE Triathlon in Greenwood, SC, (1500 meter Swim, 24 mile Bike, 10 km Run). YIKES! Did I mention I hate running.

So here we go – I have said it. Let’s do it! With my donations from private people and from the Zumbathon I am at 62.5 % of my goal – so we don’t have much more to go…….

Zumbafun!

The Zumbathon was a success! Kassie and I raise over $300 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society – and had so much fun doing it! Many thanks go to Georgia Schrubbe, Laura Johnson, Prisca Denton and Keywi Terry for their awesome instruction and energy! Also our thanks go to Palmetto Carriage Ride, Cupcake, DK Feng Shui, Iron Lotus Studios, Ladles, Kicken Chicken, Bijiju, Mellow Mushroom, Try Sports, Weight Watchers, CofC Campus Recreation. Most of our pictures were blurry – which makes sense because we were dancing the whole time, so all there is to show is the one below of Kassie and I with the instructors.

Nutrition

Here is my new favorite blogger, Green Living (click): Great food, fresh and yummy and HEALTHY! Enjoy!

Hello My TNT Supporters! Great News below:

1. I GOT A GREAT BIKE! Trek 5200. Thanks to my biggest fan, my husband. It makes cycling so much easier and I amin love with the sport! My sister and I are even talking about doing some longer rides after my TNT event is over.

2. I am at over 50% of TNT’s goal – YAY GOD and all my supporters

3. The Zumbathon to raise money for LLS is this weekend at Silcox Gym at the College of Charleston. I am sure we are going to have a great turn out. I hope you can make it as well. Special thanks goes to the following companies who have helped donate all our auction prizes, raffle prizes, snacks and water:

Palmetto Carriage Company

DK Feng Shui

Cupcake

Kickin Chicken

Iron Lotus Studios, Custom Tattoos

Mellow Mushroom

Yogurt Mountain

College of Charleston

Nutrition Challenge:

I am challenging each and every one of you to try and eat preservative free for one whole day. If you can do it for one day – then try a week. SEE HOW MUCH BETTER YOU WILL FEEL. It’s amazing! Don’t know what is processed and what isn’t give me a call….

Articles to read: http://www.ecofriendlykids.co.uk/BenefitsAdditiveFreeDiet.html, http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=george&dbid=107

Story that touched my heart this week, its a bit long, but well worth it

The Sandpiper

by Robert Peterson

She was six years old when I first met her on the beach near where I live. I drive to this beach, a distance of three or four miles, whenever the world begins to close in on me. She was building a sand castle or something and looked up,her eyes as blue as the sea.

"Hello," she said.

I answered with a nod, not really in the mood to bother with a small child.

"I'm building," she said.

"I see that. What is it?" I asked, not really caring.

"Oh, I don't know, I just like the feel of sand."

That sounds good, I thought, and slipped off my shoes.

A sandpiper glided by.

"That's a joy," the child said.

"It's a what?"

"It's a joy. My mama says sandpipers come to bring us joy."

The bird went gliding down the beach.

Good-bye joy, I muttered to myself, hello pain,

and turned to walk on. I was depressed, my life seemed

completely out of balance.

"What's your name?" She wouldn't give up.

"Robert," I answered. "I'm Robert Peterson."

"Mine's Wendy.. I'm six."

"Hi, Wendy."

She giggled. "You're funny," she said.

In spite of my gloom, I laughed too and walked on.

Her musical giggle followed me.

"Come again, Mr. P," she called. "We'll have another happy day."

The next few days consisted of a group of unruly Boy Scouts,

PTA meetings, and an ailing mother.

The sun was shining one morning, as I took my hands out

of the dishwater. I need a sandpiper, I said to myself,

gathering up my coat.

The ever-changing balm of the seashore awaited me.

The breeze was chilly but I strode along,

trying to recapture the serenity I needed.

"Hello, Mr. P," she said. "Do you want to play?"

"What did you have in mind?" I asked, with a twinge of annoyance.

"I don't know. You say."

"How about charades?" I asked sarcastically.

The tinkling laughter burst forth again.

"I don't know what that is."

"Then let's just walk."

Looking at her, I noticed the delicate fairness of her face.

"Where do you live?" I asked.

"Over there." She pointed toward a row of summer cottages.

Strange, I thought, in winter.

"Where do you go to school?"

"I don't go to school. Mommy says we're on vacation"

She chattered little girl talk as we strolled up the beach,

but my mind was on other things. When I left for home, Wendy said it had been a happy day.

Feeling surprisingly better, I smiled at her and agreed.

Three weeks later, I rushed to my beach in a state of near panic.

I was in no mood to even greet Wendy. I thought I saw her mother on the porch and felt like demanding,

she keep her child at home.

"Look, if you don't mind," I said crossly when Wendy caught up with me, "I'd rather be alone today."

She seemed unusually pale and out of breath.

"Why?" she asked.

I turned to her and shouted, "Because my mother died!" and thought, My God, why was I saying this to a little child?

"Oh," she said quietly, "then this is a bad day."

"Yes," I said, "and yesterday and the day before and --

oh, go away!"

"Did it hurt?" she inquired.

"Did what hurt?" I was exasperated with her, with myself.

"When she died?"

"Of course it hurt!" I snapped, misunderstanding,

wrapped up in myself. I strode off.

A month or so after that, when I next went to the beach,

she wasn't there.

Feeling guilty, ashamed, and admitting to myself I missed her,

I went up to the cottage after my walk and knocked at the door. A drawn young woman with honey-colored hair opened the door.

"Hello," I said, "I'm Robert Peterson. I missed your little girl today and wondered where she was."

"Oh yes, Mr. Peterson, please come in.

Wendy spoke of you so much.

I'm afraid I allowed her to bother you.

If she was a nuisance,

please, accept my apologies."

"Not at all --! she's a delightful child."

I said, suddenly realizing

that I meant what I had just said.

"Wendy died last week, Mr. Peterson. She had leukemia.

Maybe she didn't tell you."

Struck dumb, I groped for a chair.

I had to catch my breath.

"She loved this beach, so when she asked to come,

we couldn't say no. She seemed so much better here and had a lot of what she called happy days.

But the last few weeks, she declined rapidly...

" Her voice faltered, "She left something for you, if only I can find it. Could you wait a moment while I look?"

I nodded stupidly, my mind racing for something to say to this lovely young woman. She handed me a smeared envelope with "MR. P" printed in bold childish letters. Inside was a drawing in bright crayon hues -- a yellow beach, a blue sea, and a brown bird. Underneath was carefully printed:

A SANDPIPER TO BRING YOU JOY.

Tears welled up in my eyes, and a heart that had almost forgotten to love opened wide. I took Wendy's mother in my arms.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," I uttered over and over, and we wept together. The precious little picture is framed now and hangs in my study. Six words -- one for each year

of her life -- that speak to me of harmony, courage, and undemanding love.

A gift from a child with sea blue eyes and hair the color of sand

-- who taught me the gift of love.

________________________________________

NOTE: This is a true story sent out by Robert Peterson.

It happened over 20 years ago and the incident changed his life forever. It serves as a reminder to all of us that we need to take time to enjoy living and life and each other.

The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less.

Life is so complicated, the hustle and bustle of everyday traumas

can make us lose focus about what is truly important

or what is only a momentary setback or crisis.

This week, be sure to give your loved ones an extra hug,

and by all means, take a moment... even if it is only ten seconds, to stop and smell the roses.

Pictured above is Seabrook Island at Dawn - this is what my new bike allows me to see a couple of times a week.