My Fundraising Page

Racing to Save Lives

Welcome to my Team In Training home page (scroll down for more recent updates)

I'm training to participate in the Nike Women's (half) Marathon as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. The event takes place on October 19 in San Francisco, and I am thrilled to be sharing this experience with several of my close friends from Houghton College. 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, including the husband of one of those college friends, who was diagnosed with leukemia in 2000--and is now cancer free. These people are the real heroes on our team, and we need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure!

Please make a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance LLS's mission. On-line donations can be made through clicking "donate now" at the left of this screen, or you can contact me to donate by check.

I hope you will visit my web site often. You also may want to check out our Houghton team's blog at http://nikejournal.blogspot.com/ Be sure to check back frequently to see my progress. Thanks for your support!

Update: June 12

Well, last week I completed the Corporate Challenge on a hot and humid Buffalo evening. It's a 3.5 mile race, and I ran about 3/4 of it (walked the rest), which was fine with me!

On Tuesday, I went to the TNT kick-off, where we received our training schedule for the half-marathon. It officially starts next week. I also received the name of my Honored Patient. Ruth lives in Buffalo, and she was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2003. This February, her husband died from lymphoma, and she recently found out that she had more cancerous growths in her brain which will need to be removed. Talking to Ruth has certainly clarified the reason for this program.

I am also so grateful to the members of the Lake Shore School community who have already made donations to LLS!

Update: June 21

Today was my first team run with TNT. The half-marathoners ran three miles. I ran the whole thing with another woman on the team, and we were both proud of our accomplishment! The weather was beautiful and it was very motivating to meet with my teammates. I'll miss the next two team runs, so I'll be stuck running four miles next Saturday and five miles the next Saturday by myself.

This was my first week to officially follow the half-marathon training schedule. I ran 10.5 miles this week!

Update: June 27

I ran 12 miles this week, with a long run of 4 miles this morning. So far, I feel great! A couple times, I've had to take walking breaks, but I'm able to run much more than 2 months ago. I've been stretching and hydrating faithfully.

I have renewed motivation this week as well. A co-worker shared that her nephew, age 14, has been battling leukemia for four years. I can't imagine going through that situation with my own son. Hearing about Luke gives me that extra encouragement to keep running and raising money.

Update: July 6

Last week was the first week of summer break, and I ran 14 miles while vacationing at Camp of the Woods. My dad ran with me every time (Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Fri mornings); I enjoyed the company and was definitely more motivated to run the whole time without walking breaks. I also enjoyed the cool morning weather in the Adirondack Mountains.

Tomorrow I'll start to figure out my summer running schedule. I'm hoping to run and shower before Keith leaves for work in the morning, so we'll see how that works out! I'm looking forward to re-joining the team runs this Saturday as well.

This was an encouraging week for fundraising as well. My official total is nearly $1000 and I just sent in another $500 in checks. I'm so grateful for the support I've received so far, and I look forward to seeing where the remaining $2500 will come from!

Update: July 15

So far, I've managed to get up at 6 am for my Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday runs, returning in time to shower before Keith leaves for work. This usually involves drying my hair while Logan is eating breakfast, but at least I get it in before the temperature is into the 80's.

My team run last Saturday was 6 miles, and this coming Saturday is 7 miles. So far, so good . . .

Update: July 27

Several days ago, I reached the $2000 mark for fundraising! Thanks to the 47 people who have helped me reach the halfway point! (The web-site should reflect that number in about a week, when all the checks have been entered)

Training continues to go well. On Saturday morning, I ran 8 miles. I wasn't able to attend the team run, so Keith ran the entire thing with me. It was wonderful to have his presence and encouragement. That was the farthest that either of us has ever run. One exciting by-product of this training is that Logan talks about running and says he wants to run when he's older! I'm so proud to be modeling physical fitness to my son.

Update: August 9

Last Sunday was my longest run so far--9 miles. I couldn't make the team run, so I ran my 3 mile course in my neighborhood three times. That allowed me to stop for Gatorade (and encouragement) at the end of each loop. The team run this morning was 8 miles and the weather was cool and beautiful.

The fundraising has slowed down, but I am currently working on a new tactic--selling $5 lottery style tickets, door-to-door. The tickets will be good for each day of September. The neighbors have been friendly and generous so far, but unfortunately, I don't have enough time to sell as many as I need to. However, I have sold about $200 in tickets so far, which is encouraging!

Update: August 28

We recently returned from the Kaminski family trip to Disney World--a wonderful vacation. I only ran once in Florida, but the morning that we left for the trip, I ran 10 miles! That was my longest run to date and it felt GREAT. I ran the whole thing, slowly but steadily, and I truly felt like I could have kept going and run a half-marathon that morning. However, we had a plane to catch :)

Now that we're home, I'm back to my regular training schedule of Mon/Tues/Thurs runs, with a long run on Saturday. I'm also back to my fundraising efforts, selling the lottery tickets. I need to raise over $1000 in the next month.

September 17

Training has gotten harder now that I've been back in school for several weeks. Most of my weekday runs take place in the evening, and I'm pretty tired then! I'm scheduled to run over 100 miles in September alone.

I've raised over $3400, so I'm closing in on the goal. The fundraising deadline is Sept. 26, so I'm very interested to see how much money comes in over the next 9 days.

October 29

It's been 10 days since the Nike Women's Marathon, and I can still feel the excitement of that weekend. The time in San Francisco with my dear friends was wonderful, as was the experience of completing a half marathon. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this event.