First, I want to thank all of you who helped/supported/encouraged and donated to my Disneyland Half Marathon last year! I couldn't have done it without help from a LOT of people!! Thank you!! All the "strangers" in purple (TNT families and friends) cheering me on all along the course was an amazing and unexpected event. It meant so much to me since I was there alone and didn't know anyone! Along the route, there were several times I noticed young children, bald from chemo, an man in a wheelchair all in the TNT crowds, cheering me on. It was humbling and gave me the courage to keep going, cause it reminded me why I'm doing this! And my husband, for not minding when I was getting up @ 4am, waking him up, and coming in to work late on the "long run mornings", and putting up with the soreness the day after! I can't do this alone!

This year, I'm doing the Honolulu Marathon on December 9th

with team Costa (Barry and Jessica) and the Team in Training Crew!

This is my second year with Team in Training! And I'm excited, scared and not quite sure how I'm going to do 26.2 miles of running...but I am!

I have started my training for Honolulu, after a full "off season" from running, where I did one sprint triathlon, two 60+ bike rides and a couple of 5K's (there's a few pics below). I'm hopeful I have stayed in just as good shape as last year, to have a good base for running 26.2!

Again, this year, the reason I do this is serious...for friends who are currently fighting Leukemia (Jerry and Carl) and those who won their fight (Kelli) and those who lost their fight with lymphoma, Kim Costa. If something little I do can keep one more parent from losing a child, then every mile, every achy knee, every early morning, is worth it!!!

If you have the ability, please feel free to donate. I don't care how much, I REALLY don't. If I could, I would just pay as much as I could myself. But I have come to understand another aspect to this "money raising" thing, it's humility. Humility for me to ask and give others the chance to be a part of something.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is very careful with donated money, has a huge volunteer staff, and over 75% of donated money goes directly to fund treatment studies or to help patients with experimental treatments.

Thank you all so much, and I'll keep you all posted how training is going!!