Racing to Save Lives

Welcome to my Team In Training home page!

I'm training to participate in an endurance event 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. These people are the real heroes on our team, and we need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure!

Two special people on our team are our Honored Teammates, Andy Allen, a fiery 5-year-old red head who was diagnosed with leukemia at age 2 and went into remission last year, and Jesus Torres, an active 25-year-old who was diagonosed at age 21. Andy comes to our early morning Saturday runs sometimes, and he is so full of energy, he just inspires you to take that next step no matter how tired you are. You know you want to just keep pushing for a cure so that Andy and people like him will not have to suffer anymore. Jesus, unfortunately, passed away at the beginning of September. His absence on our team in palpable, and it hurts my heart to think that someone so young, with such promise and ambition, had to be taken so soon. We all wish we had had just a little more time with him on our team. He finished his race here on earth, and it is up to us as his teammates to take the baton and keep on pushing until we are able to say we have "cured cancer!!!"

For those of you who know me, you know that I am not a distance runner. Or any kind of runner. In fact, I got a stitch in my side from walking from the front of the restaurant I work in to the kitchen the week I started training. So you may be surprised to see on my page that I am running the FULL marathon in January. I am the slowest person out there...sometimes the WALKERS even pass me...but, gosh darnit, I am going run 26.2 miles, even though it will take me over a quarter of a day!!

I am doing this for several reasons. One is because my friend Kelsey called me three days after completing the 1/2 last year and informed me that I was doing this with her next year. I thought, hey , it's a worthy cause, and running a marathon is one of those bucket list type things...and I'm not getting any younger!

However, I got an even better reason a few months ago. A very dear person in my life was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, and, though this organization raises money for blood cancers, I think finding a cure is finding a cure. If LLS finds a way to eradicate cancer cells, without harming the healthy cells, that's a win over all cancers.

Please make a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance LLS's mission. Above you can see a picture of me after the first time I ever ran 3 miles without stopping...come on! Parting with $25 cannot be nearly as painful for you as this looks! Wish me luck!!

I hope you will visit my web site often and forward the link to your friends. Be sure to check back frequently to see my progress, and check out my blog at http://autumnclack.blogspot.com. Thanks for your support!