This morning's run started off with tears - tears of sadness and yet of joy. I cannot add to the story of Victor Watters. My nephew Eric says it so well on his Facebook:
You can read about Victor and his family on their CaringBridge site
and in Ruben Rosario's column today
Childhood cancer - ewings sarcoma - not a leukemia or a lymphoma - won the battle, but Victor, through his Savior, claims the victory. He fought the good fight, he finished the race strongly and I know he has heard the words - "Well done! Welcome home."
Cancer is cancer, it doesn't matter the cause.
And so I run.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Meet one of the reasons why I run...
Meet Heidi Gusenius, Senior Campaign Manager with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Minnesota. Heidi is my go-to gal for the Light the Night Walk - and unlike me, she has a VERY personal reason for being involved with LTN.
In her own words...
In her own words...
There is a statistic out there that every 4 minutes, someone is diagnosed with a blood cancer... well, I contributed to that statistic on July 6th, 2005 when I was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. As a "never-been-sick-a-day-in-my-life" strong, healthy young woman in my mid-20's, I had never even thought of the word CANCER for myself. After finally going in to see the doctor for all the bizarre symptoms I had been having (including nausea, vomiting, broken capillaries, severe headaches, strep throat, and fatigue) I started to worry when he told me my white blood cell count was so high, their lab machine could not even read the number. He then told me I needed to go to Fairview Southdale and have a bone marrow biopsy done - IMMEDIATELY! I had no idea what that procedure entailed (had I known, I probably would not have gone!). They didn't even wait for the results of the biopsy to send in the oncologist... they already knew.
After a month-long stay at Fairview Southdale where I received a groshong catheter, a couple PICC lines, leukopheresis, two types of chemotherapy, numerous blood and platelet transfusions, and 4 more bone marrow biopsies, I was declared in remission! I finally got to go home - just to come back for 4 additional rounds of chemo for the next 6 months.
I was one of the lucky ones that beat the odds and am thankful every day that I survived that horrible disease.
Now, I’m even more grateful to be expecting my first baby this fall! The doctors never knew for sure whether or not carrying my own child would be a possibility, but I feel so blessed and am anxiously awaiting it’s arrival.
What Heidi didn't share is that she's a runner. She's participated in the San Diego Marathon to raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training. In the three years I've known her, she's run it twice. She gets a bye for this year as she and her husband Mick are happily anticipating the arrival of their first child which is due right about the time of our LTN walk!
Heidi, Carl and me as I received the LLS 2011 Volunteer of the Year Award
Heidi is one of the many reasons. I can't image a world without a smile like hers.
This weekend I ran the Woodbury Country Mile Half-Marathon with my young friend Cara. It was her first half-marathon and she rocked it! Her goal was 3.5 hours, her dream goal was 3 hours and she nailed a 2:47:16! That's an awesome time for a walk/run first time effort! It was really sweet to see her husband and daughters waiting for her at the finish with flowers!
My race was almost as good, 2:47:42! and with no stomach issues! I stuck with the Aspen Ridge Honey Farm stix, my own water and but for tired legs and some soreness in my back, I felt great! I felt great until Monday when all the things I did prior to the race, coupled with the race and sitting at my desk for hours caught up with me. A visit to the chiropractor, some time with the heat wrap and I'm good to go again.
It's 4 weeks until the Light the Night event. I'm still short of my goal, but I'm trusting that things will soon start picking up.
Have a safe and happy holiday weekend!
Friday, August 26, 2011
Sunday's coming!
And with it, the Woodbury Country Mile Half-Marathon! Thanks to all of you who have given so generously to my fundraising efforts! Your kindness and generosity are appreciated much more than words can express. With every step I run, I am reminded of all of you and all of the reasons I'm doing this - each of us are making a difference in the lives of blood cancer patients!
The training runs haven't been as long as I would like them to be prior to a half. I'm not too bothered by that as I'm actually doing this one to support one of my Titus2 girls who is going to be running her first half this weekend. Setting a personal record is not a goal for this race. Encouraging Cara and ensuring that she finishes with the best possible experience possible is the goal.
I keep coming back to the importance of having a support system, don't I? I'm supporting Cara in her efforts to run a good race while you support me in my efforts to race money for cancer research. Somewhere out there, there are doctors, nurses, oncologists, whole teams of people working to support blood cancer patients and their families. It becomes a circle of sorts.
And so I run.
The training runs haven't been as long as I would like them to be prior to a half. I'm not too bothered by that as I'm actually doing this one to support one of my Titus2 girls who is going to be running her first half this weekend. Setting a personal record is not a goal for this race. Encouraging Cara and ensuring that she finishes with the best possible experience possible is the goal.
I keep coming back to the importance of having a support system, don't I? I'm supporting Cara in her efforts to run a good race while you support me in my efforts to race money for cancer research. Somewhere out there, there are doctors, nurses, oncologists, whole teams of people working to support blood cancer patients and their families. It becomes a circle of sorts.
And so I run.
It's personal
I can no longer lay claim to not having a personal experience with blood cancers. It's starting to get personal now. My son-in-law's father Mike was diagnosed with hairy cell leukemia and I've learned that my cousin PJ was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma seven years ago.
Hairy cell leukemia is one of the rarer leukemias and is curable in most patients. It's a form of chronic lymphocytic leukemia and is a slow growing blood cancer, starting in the bone marrow. There are between 500-800 cases of hairy cell leukemia a year. Mike is one of those statistics this year. I'm sure he'd much rather be counted as a retiree with a hot sports car, if he had to be counted and knowing Mike, he'd rather not be counted at all.
On the other hand, PJ is in a much bigger group of folks. In 2010 alone, there were over 600,00 people living with lymphoma or in remission and almost 475,000 of those folks with non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
PJ has benefitted greatly from Bexxar, a lab produced protein that targets antigens in the cancer cell's surface to interfere with and destroy the cells. It's kind of like the Search and Destroy treatment. (Cue the Metallica).
The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, together with other agencies, funds research that can help change the lives of people like Mike & PJ.
They also provide:
co-pay assistance http://www.lls.org/#/diseaseinformation/getinformationsupport/financialmatters/copayassistance/,
education
http://www.lls.org/#/diseaseinformation/getinformationsupport/patienteducation/
and support for patients and their families http://www.lls.org/#/diseaseinformation/getinformationsupport/supportgroups/
And so I run.
Hairy cell leukemia is one of the rarer leukemias and is curable in most patients. It's a form of chronic lymphocytic leukemia and is a slow growing blood cancer, starting in the bone marrow. There are between 500-800 cases of hairy cell leukemia a year. Mike is one of those statistics this year. I'm sure he'd much rather be counted as a retiree with a hot sports car, if he had to be counted and knowing Mike, he'd rather not be counted at all.
On the other hand, PJ is in a much bigger group of folks. In 2010 alone, there were over 600,00 people living with lymphoma or in remission and almost 475,000 of those folks with non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
PJ has benefitted greatly from Bexxar, a lab produced protein that targets antigens in the cancer cell's surface to interfere with and destroy the cells. It's kind of like the Search and Destroy treatment. (Cue the Metallica).
The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, together with other agencies, funds research that can help change the lives of people like Mike & PJ.
They also provide:
co-pay assistance http://www.lls.org/#/diseaseinformation/getinformationsupport/financialmatters/copayassistance/,
education
http://www.lls.org/#/diseaseinformation/getinformationsupport/patienteducation/
and support for patients and their families http://www.lls.org/#/diseaseinformation/getinformationsupport/supportgroups/
And so I run.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Can't slow down
Life has a way of moving into fast forward and time slips by so quickly. Seconds to minutes, minutes to hours, hours to days - well, you get the idea. Somehow I got caught up in the whirlwind that is my life and when I stopped moving for just a moment, I discovered that it's 6 weeks until Light the Night! SIX WEEKS!
When I set my goal, I determined that I would have run 400 miles to make my goal of $2,000. It didn't seem that outrageous a feat at the time. Thus far, I've run 45 sponsored miles and 67 unsponsored miles. I've now got six weeks to run 288 miles! That's 57 more 5 mile runs - 57 more $50.00 sponsors needed or
ONE REALLY BIG SPONSOR!
You can't blame me for putting it out there! I do have a half-marathon coming up on August 28. There's still time to get a name printed on my running shirt!
The past few runs have been fun even if challenging. Running Buddy and I tried running back to back days this past week and let me tell you, that just didn't go well. Our legs were tired from our efforts the day before and someone forgot to bring her rescue inhaler along. Ok, I didn't really forget. I've gotten kind of cocky lately with my inhaler and I left it at home. A few months ago, I would need to use it somewhere around mile 3, but it'd been getting to be less and less of an issue, so I stopped bringing it along.
Monday was a warmer day, humid and we ran later in the day. I think the combination of the tired legs, the humidity and the allergens in the air made it harder for me overall. I'm embarrassed to share that our time was close to 13 min/miles. My chest hurt and I couldn't do my deep calming breathing. I hate that feeling.
Whine, whine, whine.
I have to come back to the reason why I'm doing this.
I'm running for my teammate who lost his daughter to leukemia in February and another who lost her son 3 years ago this month.
I'm running for Kent who lost his mother two years ago to lymphoma.
I'm running for Mike, recently diagnosed with hairy cell leukemia.
I'm running for Cole, Charlotte, Noah, Heidi and Jon, who have all fought the battle and WON!
I'm a strong, healthy woman, blessed with a wonderful husband, great kids and even more amazing grandkids.
I want it to stay that way
and so I run.
When I set my goal, I determined that I would have run 400 miles to make my goal of $2,000. It didn't seem that outrageous a feat at the time. Thus far, I've run 45 sponsored miles and 67 unsponsored miles. I've now got six weeks to run 288 miles! That's 57 more 5 mile runs - 57 more $50.00 sponsors needed or
ONE REALLY BIG SPONSOR!
You can't blame me for putting it out there! I do have a half-marathon coming up on August 28. There's still time to get a name printed on my running shirt!
The past few runs have been fun even if challenging. Running Buddy and I tried running back to back days this past week and let me tell you, that just didn't go well. Our legs were tired from our efforts the day before and someone forgot to bring her rescue inhaler along. Ok, I didn't really forget. I've gotten kind of cocky lately with my inhaler and I left it at home. A few months ago, I would need to use it somewhere around mile 3, but it'd been getting to be less and less of an issue, so I stopped bringing it along.
Monday was a warmer day, humid and we ran later in the day. I think the combination of the tired legs, the humidity and the allergens in the air made it harder for me overall. I'm embarrassed to share that our time was close to 13 min/miles. My chest hurt and I couldn't do my deep calming breathing. I hate that feeling.
Whine, whine, whine.
I have to come back to the reason why I'm doing this.
I'm running for my teammate who lost his daughter to leukemia in February and another who lost her son 3 years ago this month.
I'm running for Kent who lost his mother two years ago to lymphoma.
I'm running for Mike, recently diagnosed with hairy cell leukemia.
I'm running for Cole, Charlotte, Noah, Heidi and Jon, who have all fought the battle and WON!
I'm a strong, healthy woman, blessed with a wonderful husband, great kids and even more amazing grandkids.
I want it to stay that way
and so I run.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Aspen Ridge Honey Farm Honey Stix and a Run with my Honey!
Today started off a little challenging.
Some background: My dear husband is also in training for the Outer Banks Half-Marathon. Hubbster started running after the kids and I ran it last year and thought it sounded like fun. (We're still trying to figure out how he got that impression - eh, oh well.) He's done a couple of 5ks since January, the Resolution Run on January 1 and the Get in Gear 5k in April. He trains at the fitness center on the DT and has been primarily doing 3 miles at a time a few times a week. Last night, I convinced him that he needed to start doing long runs on the weekends and that we should start that this weekend.
The growling and grumbling was minimal. I think he thought I'd drop it or that we would wake up and it would be raining. He knows me well enough to know that I will give up under both conditions. Ha! I fooled him.
The alarm went off at 6:30 a.m. today. I was up after one snooze, into my clothes and laced on my shoes and down the stairs to take care of the dogs so he could have just a few more minutes. I was hoping the sounds I was making in the kitchen would drown out the growling and grumbling which it did until he came downstairs.
After all the fussiness in the kitchen, we were out the door by 7:30, off to do 5-6 miles. The first mile and a half was more of the same. How could I expect him to run twice as far as he's run so far? Grouse, grouse, grumble, grouse. At this point, I'm praying for patience and a sweet spirit until finally I give into my baser self and tell him to lose the bad attitude or else. He must have seen something dangerous in my eyes, because he did stop with the trash talking and focused on his running.
I decided to try for 5 miles, rather than 6. It seemed like the right thing to do. We would run until he felt the need to walk and then we'd walk, probably farther than he really needed to, but I was trying to be nice.
At 2.5 miles, I think I found my running fuel! Something natural, something tasty and easy! Aspen Ridge Honey Farms Honey Stix! I had stuck two in my new Camelback handheld water bottle, one for each of us. I popped the cherry one, sucked half of it down and gave the other half to my better half.
I also had Lemon Tea flavored Nuun in the water bottle, after having been persuaded by my daughter to give it a try. I'm not a fan of the flavor, but again, here is something that doesn't seem to cause any issues! So very excited!
Okay - back to the run. We ended up doing 4.5 miles, short of my goal for the run, but I was letting Hubster decide when to quit. Now that he's done 4.5 with no adverse problems, I think getting him to do a longer run will be easier.
I'm ahead of my donations now in miles. I still have a ways to go to hit my goal at which point, I can turn my focus on helping my team meet its goals. If you're reading this, would you please consider a small donation. The company I work for matches dollar for dollar, so your donation is doubled! How cool is that!? I hope you'll consider.
I hope to tell you about my friend Heidi in my next post. I think you'll enjoy getting to know her as much as I do.
Until then, I'll be running along.
Some background: My dear husband is also in training for the Outer Banks Half-Marathon. Hubbster started running after the kids and I ran it last year and thought it sounded like fun. (We're still trying to figure out how he got that impression - eh, oh well.) He's done a couple of 5ks since January, the Resolution Run on January 1 and the Get in Gear 5k in April. He trains at the fitness center on the DT and has been primarily doing 3 miles at a time a few times a week. Last night, I convinced him that he needed to start doing long runs on the weekends and that we should start that this weekend.
The growling and grumbling was minimal. I think he thought I'd drop it or that we would wake up and it would be raining. He knows me well enough to know that I will give up under both conditions. Ha! I fooled him.
The alarm went off at 6:30 a.m. today. I was up after one snooze, into my clothes and laced on my shoes and down the stairs to take care of the dogs so he could have just a few more minutes. I was hoping the sounds I was making in the kitchen would drown out the growling and grumbling which it did until he came downstairs.
After all the fussiness in the kitchen, we were out the door by 7:30, off to do 5-6 miles. The first mile and a half was more of the same. How could I expect him to run twice as far as he's run so far? Grouse, grouse, grumble, grouse. At this point, I'm praying for patience and a sweet spirit until finally I give into my baser self and tell him to lose the bad attitude or else. He must have seen something dangerous in my eyes, because he did stop with the trash talking and focused on his running.
I decided to try for 5 miles, rather than 6. It seemed like the right thing to do. We would run until he felt the need to walk and then we'd walk, probably farther than he really needed to, but I was trying to be nice.
At 2.5 miles, I think I found my running fuel! Something natural, something tasty and easy! Aspen Ridge Honey Farms Honey Stix! I had stuck two in my new Camelback handheld water bottle, one for each of us. I popped the cherry one, sucked half of it down and gave the other half to my better half.
I also had Lemon Tea flavored Nuun in the water bottle, after having been persuaded by my daughter to give it a try. I'm not a fan of the flavor, but again, here is something that doesn't seem to cause any issues! So very excited!
Okay - back to the run. We ended up doing 4.5 miles, short of my goal for the run, but I was letting Hubster decide when to quit. Now that he's done 4.5 with no adverse problems, I think getting him to do a longer run will be easier.
I'm ahead of my donations now in miles. I still have a ways to go to hit my goal at which point, I can turn my focus on helping my team meet its goals. If you're reading this, would you please consider a small donation. The company I work for matches dollar for dollar, so your donation is doubled! How cool is that!? I hope you'll consider.
I hope to tell you about my friend Heidi in my next post. I think you'll enjoy getting to know her as much as I do.
Until then, I'll be running along.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
I'm still here~
But barely!
It's been a rough few weeks since I last posted. The sweltering humidity and heat or is it the sweltering heat and humidity has been the cause of much consternation.
I don't do heat and humidity well. Just thinking about the combination seems to cause my pores to open and gallons of sweat to exude from my body at an unbelievable rate. Imagine if you can what running 5 or 6 miles in weather with a 115 degree heat index can do. I know I wrote about this before but I can't emphasize enought that it was ugly, people, just ugly. Carl looked at me when I came in and wondered if I'd run through the neighborhood water sprinkers. (I had but only to cool my legs and our Maddie dog off.) I couldn't have been wetter standing in the shower. The best part of it is that this run was a 5 mile run on a Sunday morning that started at 6:00 a.m. 6:00 A.M.!!
Am I the only one who thinks that is insane??
Oh - wait, you probably think I was insane for even attempting to run 5 miles in that kind of weather.
If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results* - then you'd right because I not only did that run, but I did another 5 mile run under the same conditions two days later, another after that again and a six mile run after that!
I am a sweat bucket. I can easily lose 3-4 pounds after a run in these conditions. Not really the way I want to be losing weight. I end up feeling weak and tired - generally, just miserable all over. Being a woman of a certain age, I think my personal summers contribute something to my ability to sweat. The only time I don't really feel them is when I'm running. Hey! I just found a real positive to running!!
I went back to the fitness center in our neighborhood and used the DT (dreaded treadmill) and found that even being in an air conditioned room doesn't do a thing to inhibit the sweat glands in their performance. It does, as I've mentioned before, inhibit my spitting, but only so far as I spit into a rag rather than on the floor. I only did 2.5 miles before calling it quits there due to time constraints not physical conditions.
With the 6 mile run, I was running with my tunes and my fuel belt with a mixture of Gatorade's new G2 series Perform and water. I was hoping this watered down drink wouldn't have the same effect on my stomach as GU, but hope wasn't enough. I think my neighbors are really impressed by my sprinting home. If only they knew. Not so impressive. Sharts... definitely not a girl's best friend.
This morning, Running Buddy and I hit it again. She's back from vacation and the weather was a gift from God! 64 degrees, 59 degree dew point. Yes, yes, yes! And a nice breeze. Even more Yes! Yes! Yes! It was wonderful for our 4.5 mile run.
Thanks to all my fabulous donors: Kate, Erin, Cha, Helga, Sue, Arlene & Larry. Kate actually pushed me to run 10 miles! Yay!
Today was the Light the Night Ice Cream Social sponsored by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to provide information and recruit walkers for the Walk, September 25. I'm very excited to say that we were able to get 24 people signed up to be part of the Thomson Reuters team.
One of our new team members is a father who just lost his daughter in February to leukemia. Those are the hard moments. I watched as he strongly put his name down on the sign up sheet and admired him as he encouraged his friends to do the same. I wondered if I would have the ability to be so controlled were it my daughter. Teammate Cindy is the stepmother of Jenna, the author behind The Redhead Report, who is currently fighting the good fight. Another team member lost his mother two years ago this month and yet another is a survivor. These people have a personal interest. They know the "story of leukemia" even better than I do.
It's humbling.
And so I run.
Runs since last blog post:
07/23 - 5.07 miles 12:27 min/mile
7/24 - 2.61 miles 11:05 min/mile (run with my Carolina boy Tim)
07/29 - 6.02 miles 11:17 min/mile - followed by a 4.5 mile bike ride.
08/01 - 2.65 miles 12:04 min/mile (Dreaded Treadmill)
08/03 - 4.59 miles 11:51 min/mile (Running Buddy)
*attributed to Albert Einstein
It's been a rough few weeks since I last posted. The sweltering humidity and heat or is it the sweltering heat and humidity has been the cause of much consternation.
I don't do heat and humidity well. Just thinking about the combination seems to cause my pores to open and gallons of sweat to exude from my body at an unbelievable rate. Imagine if you can what running 5 or 6 miles in weather with a 115 degree heat index can do. I know I wrote about this before but I can't emphasize enought that it was ugly, people, just ugly. Carl looked at me when I came in and wondered if I'd run through the neighborhood water sprinkers. (I had but only to cool my legs and our Maddie dog off.) I couldn't have been wetter standing in the shower. The best part of it is that this run was a 5 mile run on a Sunday morning that started at 6:00 a.m. 6:00 A.M.!!
Am I the only one who thinks that is insane??
Oh - wait, you probably think I was insane for even attempting to run 5 miles in that kind of weather.
If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results* - then you'd right because I not only did that run, but I did another 5 mile run under the same conditions two days later, another after that again and a six mile run after that!
I am a sweat bucket. I can easily lose 3-4 pounds after a run in these conditions. Not really the way I want to be losing weight. I end up feeling weak and tired - generally, just miserable all over. Being a woman of a certain age, I think my personal summers contribute something to my ability to sweat. The only time I don't really feel them is when I'm running. Hey! I just found a real positive to running!!
I went back to the fitness center in our neighborhood and used the DT (dreaded treadmill) and found that even being in an air conditioned room doesn't do a thing to inhibit the sweat glands in their performance. It does, as I've mentioned before, inhibit my spitting, but only so far as I spit into a rag rather than on the floor. I only did 2.5 miles before calling it quits there due to time constraints not physical conditions.
With the 6 mile run, I was running with my tunes and my fuel belt with a mixture of Gatorade's new G2 series Perform and water. I was hoping this watered down drink wouldn't have the same effect on my stomach as GU, but hope wasn't enough. I think my neighbors are really impressed by my sprinting home. If only they knew. Not so impressive. Sharts... definitely not a girl's best friend.
This morning, Running Buddy and I hit it again. She's back from vacation and the weather was a gift from God! 64 degrees, 59 degree dew point. Yes, yes, yes! And a nice breeze. Even more Yes! Yes! Yes! It was wonderful for our 4.5 mile run.
Thanks to all my fabulous donors: Kate, Erin, Cha, Helga, Sue, Arlene & Larry. Kate actually pushed me to run 10 miles! Yay!
Today was the Light the Night Ice Cream Social sponsored by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to provide information and recruit walkers for the Walk, September 25. I'm very excited to say that we were able to get 24 people signed up to be part of the Thomson Reuters team.
One of our new team members is a father who just lost his daughter in February to leukemia. Those are the hard moments. I watched as he strongly put his name down on the sign up sheet and admired him as he encouraged his friends to do the same. I wondered if I would have the ability to be so controlled were it my daughter. Teammate Cindy is the stepmother of Jenna, the author behind The Redhead Report, who is currently fighting the good fight. Another team member lost his mother two years ago this month and yet another is a survivor. These people have a personal interest. They know the "story of leukemia" even better than I do.
It's humbling.
And so I run.
Runs since last blog post:
07/23 - 5.07 miles 12:27 min/mile
7/24 - 2.61 miles 11:05 min/mile (run with my Carolina boy Tim)
07/29 - 6.02 miles 11:17 min/mile - followed by a 4.5 mile bike ride.
08/01 - 2.65 miles 12:04 min/mile (Dreaded Treadmill)
08/03 - 4.59 miles 11:51 min/mile (Running Buddy)
*attributed to Albert Einstein
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