26 Or Bust!

To date $159,387.45 has been raise by everyone training for the Nashville marathon through Team in Training in New York City! My personal total is already up to $2480. Thank you so much to everyone that has supported the cause through donations online, by mail, at the happy hour or simply by stopping by my desk. You are the reason our team has been so successful and already raised so much for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

With two months remaining until our April 26th race day, there’s plenty of time left to donate and help support blood cancer research and patients. If we’ve raised this much already, I can’t imagine how much we’ll be able to raise by then.

Thank you again to everyone that has helped us reach this point.

Thank you so much to everyone that came out for last night’s Cocktails for a Cause! We raised over $450 dollars and are already planning the next happy hour event. I’ll be sure to let you know as soon as the date is set and the bar is booked.

It was a fantastic night and I look forward to another night out with everyone, raising a glass for cancer research.

Thanks again for your support!

Tonight is my happy hour charity event to raise money for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Hope to see you there!

COCKTAILS FOR A CAUSE
Wednesday, February 20

6 – 9 p.m.

Black & White
86 E. 10th Street (btw 3rd Avenue and 4th Avenue)

$10 Suggested donation at the door
Money goes to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

No R.S.V.P. necessary. All welcome.

Remember, your donation supports blood cancer research and blood cancer patients and their families.

Check back tomorrow to hear how it went and how much we raise!

Per doctor’s orders, I’ve been taking it easy on the running to give my peroneal tendonitis time to heal. I’m happy to report that any lingering discomfort in my foot is almost completely gone. To keep in shape, I’ve been spending more time than I ever thought I would on the stationary bike. It’s rather exciting to go well over 20 miles and it’s fun to catch up on Law & Order reruns on USA (it’s much easier to watch TV on the bike than on the treadmill), but my new friend the stationary bike definitely does not take the place of running.

Until now, I hadn’t realized how much I had come to enjoy running. It’s relaxing on the long easy runs and makes me feel incredibly energized. Just going five miles in the morning before work makes me feel like I’ve accomplished so much. Every time I walk into the gym it’s a bit hard to resist the treadmill and I’m a little jealous of all the runners I pass. Plus, it really does take some time to build a tolerance to the bike seat. It’s not bad for 30 minutes, but after 90 minutes the next day is a little sore.

Oddly enough, I actually find the bike harder than the running. I spent the last two months running, strengthening my muscles for that specific exercise and building up a tolerance for that motion over long miles. Suddenly, I’m using all my muscles in a different way and it’s taking some getting used to. The first week was the toughest, no surprise, and I’m starting to see an improvement by being able to bike at a higher resistance level and to go greater distances. I’m settling into the groove of the bike and each day look forward to the challenge of pushing harder than before, the same mindset I’d adopted for running.

While the biking is growing on me, I am looking forward to my new orthotics next week and getting back to running. I feel confident that I can ease back into the program and catch up to the team in plenty of time. Still, I may have to squeeze in one long cross-training session a week on the bike to keep up my stamina and catch up on missed TV!

Sometimes a cure or treatment may come from the place you least expect to find it. An excellent example is chemotherapy which developed out of mustard gas testing. During a World War II military operation, a group of people were exposed to the dangerous gas accidentally and later found to have very low white blood cell counts. It was reasoned that this same substance could be used to control cancer and the theory was tested in the late 1940s on lymphoma patients with promising results . You can read a bit about it on Wikipedia and a quick Google search will lead you to many other sources of information about it.

It’s pretty incredible to think that something so deadly could lead to a treatment that has saved so many lives. It also demonstrates that research by organizations like The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society into a specific type of cancer can help lead to cures and therapies that will help patients facing other forms of this disease. The cure just may come from the most unlikely place.

Welcome to Life Mosaic. Sponsored by Novartis, Life Mosaic is simply that, a mosaic of peoples lives. These people are not just anyone, they are the people fighting blood cancer, the families and friends of patients, the people in remission that have won the battle and they are the people that have lost the war.

I want you to meet Dean Allen Christensen, just one of the lives in the mosaic. His story is like that of so many blood cancer patients—one of pain, challenges, struggles and most importantly hope.

It is for people like him that I am running. It is people like him that your donations help save.

Take up his challenge. What have you done today to solve the problem?

Next Wednesday, February 20, a few Team in Training friends and I are hosting a fundraising happy hour at the bar Black & White. We’re asking for a suggested donation of $10 at the door of which 100% goes to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. We’ll be at the bar from 6 – 9:00 p.m. so stop by after work and stay late. All are welcome, so be sure to bring along friends, co-workers, anyone you like. Remember, your donation will help fund blood cancer research, as well as aid blood cancer patients and their families.

Now when was the last time having a drink did so much good?

Wednesday, February 20
Black & White
86 E. 10th Street (btw 3rd Avenue and 4th Avenue)
6 – 9:00 p.m.
$10 suggested donation

As if training to run 26.2 miles wasn’t hard enough, a kink has been thrown in the works. It turns out that I’ve developed peroneal tendinitis in my right foot and can’t hit the pavement for a few weeks. How did this come to be? As per usual when things are amiss in my life, it was my own fault.

After an easy 5-mile run last Sunday, my right foot was killing me, to the point that I was limping later in the day. I thought it was perhaps because of the new sneakers I was wearing outside for the first time. Remembering the R.I.C.E. (rest, ice, compression, elevation) rule from middle school health class, I was sure to sit down and ice it that night and the the following morning.

Monday brought no relief from the pain and I limped to work on the verge of tears. I was sure something very serious was wrong with my foot and that I’d have to abandon my marathon quest. It was too much to think that I had worked so hard and raised so much money, yet would have to just walk away from it all. I immediately called my podiatrist and got an appointment for Wednesday.

It didn’t take long for her to figure out what went awry. My orthotics were old, worn out and ready to retire. At the beginning of training I briefly wondered if I needed new orthotics made. Foolishly, I thought they had been refurbished more recently than they had and that I’d be fine. My sole moment of sound judgment was choosing not to run through the pain. My doctor assured me that had I tried to keep running, I would have likely broken my foot. Egads. Casts of my feet were made and new orthotics are in the works. In three weeks they will be done and I should be able to run again.

In the meantime, there will be no more running for this girl. I get to look forward to three weeks of cross-training—stationary bike, swimming, anything that doesn’t stress that foot. My coach told me to keep my training sessions to the same length of time our long runs would be. So, if a 13 mile run is scheduled, maybe 2.25 hours for me, then I need to go to the gym and do a 2.25-hour aerobic workout. Fun times.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not too upset with how things turned out. Is it ideal? Of course not, but at least I didn’t break my foot. As long as I’m careful, I’ll be able to stay in shape and catch up with the rest of the team in a few weeks. On April 26th, I will still cross that finish line if only a little slower than planned.

Constantly, I remind myself of the people I’ve met through Team In Training who have completed marathons while undergoing treatment for cancer. If they can do it, surely I can manage with a bum foot.

I won’t bore you this morning with details of my weekend runs. When you stop applauding that decision, go to RecycledRunners.com.

It’s the first “recycling and donation directory” on the web for your old sneakers. That’s right, it’s like sneaker heaven giving your trusty, but worn out shoes a second life. If there’s still some mileage left in your kicks, this site will help you donate them to someone in the U.S. or abroad that could really use them. If your sneakers have outlived their purpose on the track or roadway, Nike will offer them reincarnation as a tennis court, running track, indoor basketball court, or more.

Through a partnership with Zappos, Recycled Runners also helps you do good when you replace your donated footwear by having 50% of the proceeds go to the charity of the month. So, stop reading this and do some good with those old shoes cluttering your closet floor!