THANK YOU SO MUCH ... my heart is full of gratitude and warmth for the many wonderful folks who have helped me reach my required fundraiser goal in order to do the Marine Corps Marathon in October! YOU ARE THE BEST!!!! 

Because the Luekemia and Lymphoma Society is an amazing organization dedicated to fighting blood cancers, though, I have <<gulp>> upped my goal and hope to raise more! So any and all donations would be GREATLY appreciated and thank you in advance!!

I am OFFICIALLY IN for the 2019 Marine Corps Marathon!!!!! To all the wonderful folks who have made this possible through your generous donation, I can't thank you enough. I'm honored and deeply touched by your support! 

While I have reached my required fundraising amount, I am going to keep striving for more donations to benefit LLS, especially after our family's summer craziness is over! Until then ..... TRAINING!!!

For this marathon, I'm sticking with Hal Higdon's Novice 2 training plan, since it has served me well in my past races. But I've learned the hard way that I also need to incorporate lots of cross-training, such as biking, strength training, yoga, and pilates. Right now, I'm on my fourth day of Beachbody's 21 Day Fix Extreme and so far, so good! In early July, Bob and I biked a total of 186 miles in four days on the Great Alleghany Passage ... I missed my runs during that week, but those big biking days count! ;) 

I'm also thankful for being able to share this experience with Kimberly, my son's girlfriend. This will be her first marathon and we've done some more fun training runs together!

In August, we'll be taking a cruise together along with her parents, their friends, my eldest son, and brother-in-law! It will be very interesting to see how we stick to our training routine while on the ship. ;)

As for the race, we have a very relaxed goal of finishing at 04:30 hours, but really, just finishing and enjoying this race to the fullest is good enough for us! So again, MANY THANKS to those who have supported me. I truly appreciate it!

Thanks for visiting my page, take care, and I hope you're having an amazing summer!

Laura

To those of you who have donated to my Team in Training Fundraising page, THANK YOU SO MUCH ... I am beyond grateful! I lost someone dear to me to leukemia over twenty years ago. The progress and research the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has done in the years since has been amazing ... and possibly could have saved her now, so again ... THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart!

Here's a confession, though: Registering for Team in Training was beyond my comfort zone and I almost backed out. It has shined light on my insecurities and caused quite a lot of panic and fear at first. But here's what I've figured out since then:

This isn't about me.

It's about raising money and bringing awareness to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding research, finding cures and ensuring access to treatments for blood cancer patients.

It's about encouraging others who are also intimidated about running for a charity to take the leap, stretching out of your comfort zone and busting through boundaries. Check out this video to see why Team is Training is AMAZING:

 

And watching this makes your heart pound ... if you're interested in joining Team in Training but need an extra boost, here's some codes to have your $100.00 registration fee waived. (You'll still have to fundraise.)

• Marine Corps Marathon: MCMBIBRAVE, expires 08/01/19
• Chicago Marathon: CHIBIBRAVE, expires 07/24/19
• NYC Marathon: NYCBIBRAVE, expires 08/31/19

And lastly, it's about how the Marine Corps Marathon with be Kimberly's first marathon, (my youngest son's girlfriend,) and we'll be running together with Bob and Cooper cheering for us! Kimberly and I did a fantastic six-mile run at Ocean City a couple weeks ago, discussing training plans, nutrition strategies, and our goals. We're both excited!

 

 

 

So I'm glad I registered for Team in Training. I'm thankful to BibRave for the opportunity, I'm grateful for any and all donations, I'm excited about raising more, and I hope to inspire others to take on the same challenge.

If you are thinking about running MCM or another race through TNT but feel the same intimiation I did, then be sure to read the full version of this post over at the Joyful Miles Blog. In it, I go through everything that has happened so far and all the steps I took. I also briefly discuss my own training plans, but I'm going to go into more detail in my next post here!

Until then, thank you, THANK YOU, to everyone who has donated! Your generosity is truly appreciated. You're AMAZING!!!!! 

I appreciate you taking the time to visit my Team in Training fundraising page and for any donations, big or small! Here's a quick video that shares why fundraising for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is so important to me. Take care and God bless!

Use the code MCMBIBRAVE to get your $100.00 registration fee waived for the Marine Corp Marathon. Code expires on 08/05/19!

Use the code CHIBIBRAVE which expires on 07/25/19 for the Chicago Marathon. I'll be adding the code for NYC very soon!