Why I run:
THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO HAS DONATED!
I'm over halfway to my goal with 1 week to go, which means I need *you* to donate (if you haven't) and pass it along to your friends!
It's hard not to get caught up in the physical/mental barriers I have to overcome to run 26.2 miles, but keeping in touch with why we're running is what keeps me going through this "burnout" stage.
I visited the LLS LifeMosaic and was touched by the stories... children, eldery and people in their 20's just like me. This disease does not discriminate, but it can be fought. Read their stories here: http://www.llslifemosaic.com/lifemosaic/mosaic.jsp
Those of you who know me well, know that 5 years ago in April, my Mom called me to tell me that she had been diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Her mother, my grandmother who I never had the chance to meet, died of cancer when she was right around that age, and it was the scariest moment of my life. I thought I was about to lose my mom. I can still remember where I was, I was driving down a straight country road heading to my dad's to do laundry, I remember finding it hard to push down on the gas, to keep my hands on the steering wheel, to see straight... I just wanted to get on a plane and see her, and hug her just in case I didn't have much time...
I had to finish up the next few weeks of the semester, write papers, take my finals before I could even see my mom because at the time, she was living in Galveston, Texas and I was in Indianapolis, IN. By the time I was able to see my mommy in June, she had opted to have a double mastectomy (and 5 years of tamoxifen-which she just completed.) vs. a lumpectomy and chemotherapy . She believed that she wouldn't live through what chemotherapy would do to her body. My mom is still alive and in remission today. I love her so much and I am running this race in honor of her and people like her, who have chosen to fight and to live and to refuse to let cancer win. And for other people like me, who know that somewhere inside us, there is a cancer gene that is just waiting to be turned on, that for some reason makes our body turn against us.
I don't believe that Team in Training is just about raising money to fight blood cancer. I think of it as a fight against cancer. All Cancer.
Thank you all for your support and GO TEAM!
