Racing to Save Lives

Welcome to my Team In Training home page.

I'm training to represent Badger Lubrication and Pro Seal Asphalt in the inaugaral Rock N Roll Seattle Marathon on June 27 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!

I first heard about Team In Training a few years ago while a couple members of the team were on on the radio promoting the organization. So what took me so long to do this? Well, even though running a marathon has been on my life's "to do" list for a long time, it was quite a scary thing for me to commit to. Why is that? Because I have no business running a marathon and that is quite frankley the only reason I ever wanted to run one in the first place. I am slow and short with a lot of weight in my legs, which doesn't exactly make a good runner, let alone a distance runner. I suppose it just comes down to challenging yourself to do things you never thought you could do.

Then why now? I heard another promotion for the Team In Training in January and my intertest perked up like a dog's ears when I heard that there was an event in Seattle. I visited the website and learned that it was the inaguaral Rock N Roll Marathon in Seattle and that settled it. It would be their first time and my first time as well. It just seems like a perfect fit.

Please help me by making a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance LLS's mission. Remember, no donation is either to large or too small.

I hope you will visit my web site often. Be sure to check back frequently to see my progress. Thanks for your support!

Update 6/28/09

Well I did it! The long journey is now complete and I sucessfully crossed the finish line yesterday in a time of 4:40:34. While I did not meet my goal of running it in under 4 hours, I am proud to say that I did finish because at one point that was in doubt with all the cramping I experienced for the last 10 miles.

I will try and post a picture as soon as I have one available.

I also wanted thank everybody again for all their support. I couldn't have done this with out you! It should be noted that nation wide 1400 Team In Training members raised over 4 million dolloars in this event alone! What a huge accomplishment that we should all be very proud of.

Update 6/17/09

10 Days and I am definatley running the gaunlet of emotions now. Nervous, anxious, excited, and even a bit scared. The worst part about it is that there is nothing I can do about it now. In fact I am supposed to be doing NOTHING! Rest is key at this point I guess.

This may be my last update before the race but I will try and update as soon after the race as I can. I think that if you visit this site, http://www.rnrseattle.com/, you will be able to follow me on race day. How exciting is that! I will be wearing bib # 12087 which should be what you need to find me. I hear that this may not be too accurate but it may be worth a shot.

Update 6/1/09

Less than 4 weeks to go! I thinkt that it's safe to say that we are in the final home stretch of the training. It is now time to taper off after having put in the longest run of the training in 20 miles this past Saturday. I must say that it was a struggle. Once again there was a wind factor and the inner demons got to me as well. It was about mile 6 when I started to wonder how I was ever going to finish the run. It helped to have my Team In Training teammates out there though as I knew I wasn't the only one out there struggling.

Update 5/19/09

Fundraising, I am pleased to announce that I have officially reached my fundraising minimum. The key word is minimum because I am not doing this just to reach minimums. Just as I am striving to to reach a personal goal of finishing in under 4 hours, I am striving to reach the $5,000 raised mark.

A special thanks goes out to my sisters for helping spread the word and soliciting funds on my behalf. Elisabeth has sent out numerous emails on my behalf and and her friends and co-workers at Manitoba have stepped up. Jenni was kind enough to coordinate a fun run this past Sunday at Sheridan Park in Cudahy. My thanks goes out to those that showed up and helped make my recovry run a little more bareable. A special thanks goes out to Brandon for taking time out of his busy schedule to show up and lead us, giving me pointers as well as advice to those that are focusing their efforts on other events.

Training taught me one big thing this weekend. I really, really, really need the weather to cooperate if I am going to reach my goal of finishing in under 4 hours. The wind was brutal on Saturday and it felt like it was blowing in my face for all 18 miles.

Training update 4/26/09

Shame on me! I didn't think it had been that long since my last update but don't worry, that doesn't mean that I haven't been getting my running in.

Since my last update the biggest news is that I have officially "recommitted" which means there is no turning back now. I have 2 months left to complete my training and reach my fundraising goal.

Traing has been coming along nicely. Two weeks ago I particicapted in the South Shore Half Marathon and had a pretty good racing finishing in just over 1:55. My goal is to finish in Seattle in under 4 hours so this puts me right on track to do such. I had a little set back last week when my knee locked up on me after 11 miles and I had to hobble the last 2 miles back to my car. The knee held up yesterday for 14 miles as I just barely beet the heavy downpour that has been hitting the area all weekend. Popping a couple of Advil before the run have helped there. Overall though I am finishing these long runs with two general feelings: pain, and how in the world is my body going to hold up for the next two months?

Training update 3/3/09

I am very pleased to announce that Pro-Seal Asphalt Paving & Maintenance Co. has joined me in the venture to help find a cure. To find out more about what they do please visit thier site at http://www.pro-sealasphalt.com/index.htm. I would not be able to do this without the support of Pro-Seal and Badger Lubrication Technologies.

The training is coming along just fine. It's March now so the weather is going to turn soon, right?

Training update 2/16/09

Well a couple weeks into training and I am ready....for the weather to break so that I can get outside more often. I think that I now have the right shoes, socks, and even cold weather gear, unfortunately not enough sunlight during the week to get in longer miles. That is ok for now but I need to start getting more of miles on the road and off the treadmill. I am finding right now that I am need to get my second wind somewhere around the 2.5-3 mile mark. One of the things I am using to motivate at that point is the hope that all these miles in the low temperatures and even lower wind chill factor, will pay off come race time.

I bought an application for my phone that uses the GPS to track my runs so I can keep records of my distances and times. I seem to be hitting a dead spot somewhere along the line, thus losing the signal and stopping the tracking. Makes it kind of pointless then. Hopefully it works itself out before I start doing the longer runs.