Thanks again to all of you who donated financially, supported emotionally, and the few of you who physically forced me to do this again (you know who you are!). I finished in 2:35, not a personal best, but far better than I expected when I started running again 5 months ago for the first time in almost 2.5 years! I couldn't have done it without all of you. There were 359 Team in Training runners from across the country at the Tinkerbell 1/2 marathon this weekend... we raised a combined ONE MILLION dollars!!! The generousity of friends, family and strangers is incredible.

I orginally signed up with the virtual Team because the local San Antonio Chapter registration didn't yet exist... Three weeks ago I was transfered to the SA team- who wants to train with a computer when you can train with friends and teammates?! Somewhere in the transfer, despite modern technology, a new webpage has to be created and the donor list disapears... but rest assured, all of your money showed up in my new account but not your list of names...

So GRACIAS to the early donors on the first page!

Dana Workman, Destiny Naquin, Renee Baiorunos, Ketti Flickinger, Lisa De Los Santos, Shan Hale, Christine Papadopoulos, Peggy Lou Waldo, Anne-Marie Langevin, Gary Poole, Debra Lewis, Lorenzo Garza, Deb Echtenkamp, Stephanie Johns, Johnny Primomo, Gary Caccia, Mark Tissi, Dave Niegsch, Amy Chilcoat, Amy Walton, Barbara K Sullivan, Cristy Ortiz, Tammy Ventimiglia, Betsy Boyce, Patti Hamilton, Kathy Hazen, Alexander Hazen, Nicholas Hazen, Beverley Hazen, Elizabeth Sibert, Kimberly Isaac

2004

In 1999, while home from college on summer vacation, Dad said there was a local 10K and half marathon the following week, implying we should run the 10K together... so at 19, without training, I ran my first 13.1 mile race (awww the good ol days!). In 2003 I ran my first full marathon, The Marine Corps Marathon in DC. The race itself resulted in stress fractures in both shins and the discovery of a rare, benign bone disease/tumor in my right leg. In 2004, following the advice of my doctors, I "backed off the running" and completed my first triathlon with Team in Training in honor of one of my little 2 year old patients, Kiala, who was recently diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). In 2007, clearly forgetting about the pain of my first full marathon, I ran the DisneyWorld marathon, just to prove to myself that I still had it in me. Since then, I've run three additional half marathons "just for fun."

Jan 2005: Kiala's 3rd Birthday

2012 marks my 10th year of nursing (anyone else feeling really old right now?!) and 10 years of life for one my my most memorable patients. On January 19, 2012, just 10 short days before the Tinker Bell Half Marathon, Ki will turn 10, blowing the 5% survival odds we gave her family all those years ago out of the water... I've never been so happy to be proven so wrong!

May 2007

Leukemia is the most common cancer in children under the age of 20. In the United States alone, approximately 3,317 children are diagnosed each year with Leukemia. The fight that my "kids" endure day after day, year after year, long after the chemotherapy stops infusing, is the reason why I run. I run because I can. I run because right now, they cannot. I run because I believe, hope, and pray that some day, with the help of family support and research advocacy groups such as Leukemia Lymphoma Society, and the incredible scientists and doctors I am honored to work alongside, there will be a cure. But until then, I will do my job for another 10 years, and another 10 after that, and I will continue to run.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is the world's largest voluntary health agency dedicated to blood cancer. The LLS mssions: Cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families. LLS funds lifesaving blood cancer research around the world and provides free information and support services.

May 2011

"Children with cancer are like candles in the wind who accept the possibility that they are in danger of being extinguished by a gust of wind from nowhere and yet, as they flicker and dance to remain alive, their brilliance challenges the darkness and dazzles those of us who watch their light..."