away for the weekend...

Although I have been a mentor for every TNT season I've run but the very first one... this season I decided not to volunteer for that position. It is very rewarding to help my teammates reach their goals, but it can be quite time consuming... time that I just don't have for the moment.

One of the perks of not mentoring is that you can choose to attend group trainings, or not... as it suits you.

Last weekend it suited me to go to Toronto to visit friends. Saturday morning I got up early and headed out to the neighbourhood track to log my scheduled miles. I don't normally run on a track, the idea of counting laps doesn't really motivate me... but this track was really wonderful.

There were people playing soccer. People throwing balls for their dogs. A bootcamp class... kids playing... a couple runners on the track, and some leisurely walkers.

If all tracks were like this one, I might find myself more inspired to run the track more often....

who are you running for?

today was our honoured teammate picnic... an event we hold early in each season, where all of the team comes together, along with friends and family members, and talk about why we're doing this...

some of us talk about the people who inspire us to get up early every Saturday morning for months to train... who inspire us to go out and ask everyone we meet to help us in our fundraising efforts, to help us find a cure for blood cancers.

some of us talk about our personal connections to blood cancers... our own stories, or those of our children or parents or close friends...

there are usually tears, and cheers and sometimes laughter... today was no exception.

we also ran 5 hot and sweaty miles.

feels good.