Racing to Save Lives

Welcome to my Team In Training home page!

(Scroll down to see the latest news - last updated on 06/12/10)

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I'm training to participate in the Rock 'N' Roll Seattle Marathon as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Washington/Alaska Chapter of 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. We will be 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! Most of us know and love someone who has been affected by one of these mentioned diseases or another form of cancer. I myself am running this race in honor of my Aunt Carol who is battling colon cancer. While I understand the money we raise for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society won't benefit her directly, I urge you to remember that advancement in research and treatments in one type of cancer will surely help provide answers for others. By finding a cure for some, I know we will be able to find a cure for all.

Please make a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance LLS's mission.

I hope you will visit my web site often to check up on my progress. I also plan to update my blog weekly throughout the five month program leading up to the race in June. If you would like to receive my letters, updates, and emails, or if you simply wish to make your donation offline and need a donation form & pre-addressed stamped envelope to send it back in, please send your contact info to me at hderby@gmail.com

Thanks so much for your support!

~Heather

PS You can find out more about LLS here.

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THE LATEST

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6/12

Only 14 days until Marathon Day!!!

A HUGE thank you to all of you who participated in today's Request-a-Thon on MojoRadio - we raised $400 for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society!!! The event was so popular in fact, that there's going to be a spin-off on Wednesday (6/16) night! A generous donor has decided to donate his songs for you to pick! There are a few catches, but it will be a fun and rewarding time. See http://mojoradio.us/10003/ for more details.

6/10

Only 16 days until Marathon Day!!!

A HUGE thank you to all of you who have donated, passed the word along, called & emailed, and in any and all ways supported me. It has been both a wonderful and challenging experience and I appreciate everything you all have done to help me get to this point.

Also, another apology for not being able to update this page or my blog as often as I had hoped. In addition to all of the craziness involved with training, I've dealt with a broken laptop, a move, and a delayed internet activation. But things are coming together now and I hope to add a couple more entries before race day.

I'd also like to announce a special fundraiser being held by Mojo Radio this Saturday, June 12th, beginning at noon. Mojo Radio is hosting a special Request-a-Thon and are asking for your song requests and for a one dollar donation in exchange for each song. You can donate through my page here online - just be sure to put your requested songs in the "Personal Message/Comments" field. I have heard that there's an accessibility issue for those using screenreaders, so if it does not allow you to type in your songs when making your donation, then just send me an email with the list and I'll forward them on to the station. You can find out more by going to: http://mojoradio.us/mojo-radio-doing-our-part-in-the-fight-to-save-lives-please-help-us/

Of course, I will gladly accept donations even if you don't wish to participate in the Request-a-Thon! I am sad to report that I am not only far from my personal fundraising goal of $3,000 but I am also far from my minimum goal/requirement of $1,800. Every dollar counts and helps us get closer to a cure, so any and all donations are appreciated!

Thanks everyone for your support!!!

4/22

We're more than halfway there! I cannot believe in that just over two months from now I will be participating in my first full marathon. On Monday I submitted my recommitment paperwork with Team In Training/Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. In thinking of the last 2-1/2 months I cannot believe how far we've all come. Last Saturday our team practice was at Gas Works park, where we had I believe it was our third group Saturday practice... it was amazing to see and feel our progress. At that first practice, I think we did about 40 minutes... last Saturday it was 190! Needless to say we made it much farther down the trail. I actually saw parts of Seattle that I had never seen before, as now happens with each of our longer practices it seems.

The fundraising event we held at the Everett Applebee's went well and we may end up making it a monthly event to benefit the LLS. A big thank you to those of you who were able to participate, as well as those of you who submitted donations in lieu of attending. I have also received a number of donations from people I do not personally know, and I appreciate those as well. It excites me to know friends, family, and strangers alike are willing to help take a stand to fight cancer.

Thanks again everyone for your support!

3/31

I am so excited to have reached 20% of my goal! A huge thank you to everyone who has donated and encouraged me these past couple of months. I cannot believe the race is less than three months away!

I am also excited to announce that the Applebee's in Everett (806 SE Everett Mall Way) will be hosting a fundraiser on 4/19. If you go in between 11:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. and bring a copy of the flyer, they will donate 15% of the proceeds (except alcohol) to my LLS fundraising account! Right now on Monday nights they are featuring $5 burgers - hey, 75 cents is still 75 cents closer towards finding a cure for blood cancers! If you'd like a copy of the flyer, simply email me or post a message on my blog and I can email it to you.

Thanks again everyone for your support!

3/20

Sorry for the recent lack of updates, it seems everything happens at once around here. Among other things I am currently dealing with an uncooperative computer, but am able to use another one to briefly update my status here and on my blog.

Group practice went really well today and we also had a fundraising clinic which was quite helpful to me. I sincerely appreciate all of the donations I have received thus far, yet still have a long way to go. Please consider making a donation; Recommitment (when we have to have a good portion of our money raised in order to continue with the program and compete in the marathon) is just around the corner (about 3 weeks away I believe) and I am not willing to give up! This is such a great cause and I have received such support and encouragement that I refuse to believe I won't raise the full amount!

For those of you who have not received my letter (if you'd like a copy, please email me at hderby@gmail.com or comment on my blog so that I may get your info and send you a copy). This article from Runner's World inspired me in my initial fundraising, and in the spirit of Ellen and what she wanted to do for her donors, I will be pinning little guitars (after all, it IS the Rock 'N' Roll Marathon) to my jersey with the name of my donors and/or the name of the person(s) they are donating in honor/memory of on them. So, if you make a donation and would like someone's name other than your own to go on the guitar, please let me know!

Thanks again for your support & generosity!

2/15

Not that I want to spoil part of my letter that's going out this week to those of you whose address I have, but... if you're questioning what running has to do with fighting cancer, I encourage you to read this article in Runner's World: http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-369-374--13150-0,00.html Please feel free to email me (or comment on my blog) and let me know what you think!

2/13

Great group practice again today, this time at Greenlake. No clinic, but I did get to talk to some of my Team members and a couple of the coaches - got some good tips from Coach Nadine on how to deal with knots that seem to develop... not sure I would have come up with using a tennis ball that had been put in the freezer. Who knew those things would freeze? Nice! We also saw a bald eagle perched up on a lightpost towards the end of our practice. That gave us something to talk about for a bit. All in all a good time and I'm looking forward to next week. You can check out my blog for more details on today's training & fundraising info. I turned in most of my letters today and will be mailing out the rest on Tuesday so watch your mailboxes. If you don't get one, be sure to email me so I can send you one. After all, it has more than just the letter in it. :)

2/6

Had a great time at our second Saturday group practice today. Met some more people from my team and was able to chat a bit with a couple of our coaches as well. It was today that I also decided to train for the full marathon instead of "just" the half. Call me crazy, but... ok, no "buts" - I'm crazy. :) I've realized that just as the fundraising in an effort to save lives takes commitment, so does the training to complete the race, therefore why not give the training my all and go the full 26.2 miles?

All in all it was a good practice session and we had a good clinic on shoes, clothing, and injury prevention as well. If you want to hear more about today's practice, you can read about it here: http://hderby-teamintraining.blogspot.com/