(<--he photo is of me just before the Monument Ave 10k)

Racing to Save Lives!

I'm back, and this time I'm going the distance. I'm going for speed (OK, maybe not). I'm now training to participate in the Marine Corps Full Marathon in Washington DC on October 28th as a member of Team In Training which raises money for Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). I'm training and raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives and in memory of Amanda Amos, late wife of my good friend Adrian.

In April of 2008, Amanda was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia. When asked if I can raise money in her honor, she had the following to say:

"Go right ahead. I love being a mascot. Especially for fund raising. It's kind of like I'm one of those sad-eyed waifs on the TV ads for those "For only pennies a day, you can save the life of a child" charities. If nothing else good comes of this ridiculous illness, at least some money will have been raised for the right causes."

You can read more on her blog archive or her Adrian's blog.

I wanted to run the Monument Ave 10K in Amanda's honor, so I chose TnT since they raise money for LLS. I was looking to beat my previous 10k time of 1:08, so I set a high goal of 60 minutes flat. Overwhelmed by all of the donations and the success of my training, I decided to set my goal even higher at 55 minutes just a few weeks before the race. Sadly, Amanda left this world just 3 days before the race. A few days later, I re-enlisted with TnT to run a marathon in her honor. The struggle and pain I'll endure over the next 5 months simply can't compare to her year-long battle with cancer. The race went well. I ended up beating my goal by almost a full minute. I finished in 53:55, 14 whole minutes better than the previous year.

Thank you for checking my page and donating if you can. If you can't, you can still support me by calling, texting, or emailing words of support. I need some of you to keep me in line with my training.

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Training log:

For the 10K I kept a log here, but I'm changing it up for this race.

-Training Calendar

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Weight Log:

At the start of my 10K training, I weighed 183.3. Just a few days before the day of the race, I was down 6 lbs to 177.0. I've since lost even more weight.

5/28: 173.4

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Past Athletic Events this year:

3/28: Monument Ave 10k (run)

4/11: Fredericksburg off-Road Duathlon #1 (bike/run)

4/19: Twisted Tire (bike race)

5/3: Muddy Buddy (bike/run with Buddy==Glenn)

5/16: Urban Assault (bike race)

5/23: Devil's Backbone Challenge (bike race)