three quarters of the way there...

Thanks to the generosity of a friend, and the generous company match from said friend's employer... I am now almost 3/4 of the way to reaching my fundraising goal.

And I am SO enormously grateful!!!!!!

I always find fundraising such a daunting task, and to have such a boost this early on in my season is both a great relief, and strangely motivating... a few more small fundraisers and I'll be there. And if things go well, I can exceed my goal!

I am also about 3/4 of the way through training for the first of this season's races. Although the countdown calendar on this site shows I've still got a couple months to go until Nike Women's Half Marathon... it is less than a month until Rock & Roll USA Marathon. We started training for that one in December, race day is mid March, so we're in the count down now.

This coming Saturday, as long as we don't get hit with another snow storm between now and then, we will be running 20 miles. The longest run we will do together in training, until race day... Can't even tell you how much we have good weather between now and then!

Last weekend we were scheduled to run 12 miles... but because every trail and side walk in the National Capital Area was under snow and ice, and not safe to train on... I had to head to the gym and spend a couple hours on the treadmill. Haven't done that in a LONG time, and had forgotten just how mentally taxing it can be.

It was hot and steamy and smelly and boring.... no need to say anything further about that.

But, at least I got the miles in, because I certainly wasn't going to be able to find a place to run them outside.

The idea of having to run 20 miles on a treadmill makes me want to go back to bed and have a little cry... so, here's hoping the trails are clear and the weather is fine!

The 20 miler is often an emotional training run with the Team. For many of the participants it is, once again, the furthest they've ever run. It's the moment that they realize they're within arms reach of the starting line... they're really going to do this! It's also the point at which a lot of participants find inspiration and fortitude by thinking about their personal connections to blood cancers. In my experience, the 18 and 20 mile runs are the ones where I have heard the most about who my teammates are running for...

This particular 20 miler, my thoughts are going to be with my great aunt. I learned last Sunday that she has just been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. They have not yet determined her course of treatment...

I like to think that the funds I have raised during my five years of involvement with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team In Training will have in some small way helped to advance the therapies that are now available to help treat Auntie Christine.