26 Reasons to Run - Reasons #23 through 26

It's almost marathon day... tonight after work I'll start packing my bag, Saturday morning I'll hop a plane to New Orleans, and Sunday morning I'll start a 26.2 mile tour of the city on foot, with a few thousand friends... With just three days to go, I'd like to wrap up my Reasons to Run a Marathon (and fund-raise to find a cure for cancer) series.



Miles number 23, 24 and 25 I will run in celebration of the many cancer survivors that I have met since joining Team In Training 6 years ago: LLS staff members, TNT participants, team honoured teammates, personal honoured teammates...


I'll be thinking of Jenny, Zach, Al, Carsten, Shannon, David, Trevor, Todd, Catherine, John, Mike, Tony, Dan, Lisa, Chris... and so many more.

Mile number 26... well I run that mile for me. 

I run Mile #26 in celebration of my continued ability to meet the challenges of training for and running marathons, in spite of  (or perhaps out of spite for ??) my own chronic illness. I run Mile #26 in celebration of the generosity of friends and acquaintances who continue to support the work of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as long as I continue to ask them to do so. And I run it in the hopes that I will live to see the day where it is no longer necessary to ask...


You can help to make that day happen by donating to LLS now. See the link to my fundraising site in the upper right hand corner.

And... thank you.

26 Reasons to Run - Reason #19

This morning was our final group training run before next week's marathon. It was a chilly but glorious morning for a 10k run along the National Mall... Everyone's feeling excited, and there was lots of talk about where in New Orleans people plan to eat. It seems the running a marathon is a secondary event, the food is why they're really going!!

This afternoon I was struck down by a wicked cold. Have been tucked into bed with hot lemon and honey drinks, a box of kleenex, and a snuggly dog... snoozing off and on all evening. Now is not the time to get sick!!

And so, instead of being sick in bed, I'm going to just be comfortable in bed whilst I write about reason #19 that I continue to run marathons and fundraise to find a cure for cancer. 

Years and years ago, I lived in a small mountain town that I loved. But all of my family was strewn about the country, and none of them lived anywhere even remotely close to where I lived.  When one is a family oriented person, and one finds oneself without close family, the only thing to do is find some surrogate family members.

My friend Marni's Grandma Dolly was one such person. I loved going to visit Grandma Dolly... I loved spending time with all of Marni's family, actually, but Dolly was really special. She had a way of making you feel important and appreciated... Dolly died of breast cancer. 

I am so very glad to have known her.

Mile #19 I run in memory of Grandma Dolly.

26 Reasons to Run - Reason #18

The 18 miler has always been one of my most challenging training runs, more so even than the 20 miler. There is just something about it that feels like a struggle to break through. I've gotten physically sick during an 18 mile training run. I've pulled muscles during an 18 mile training run. Maybe by now it's purely psychological, but I always start the 18 miler feeling like it is going to be a tough run.

During next week's marathon, I am running Mile #18 in support of Jeff.

On vacation with his family, two weeks after his initial cancer diagnosis

Jeff was originally diagnosed with and treated for Rheumatoid Arthritis in 2012. After a year of treatment with no sign of improvement or relief, in July of 2013 his doctors ran more tests and discovered that he had Waldenström's Macroglobulinemia (also known as lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma), which is a form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. 

Jeff is currently in "partial remission", where chemotherapy is maintaining normal blood levels, and is feeling better than he has in years. Jeff's next course of treatment will be a stem cell transplant.

Jeff at beer & trivia night this week, with our friend Tracy

He'd like you all (TNT participants and LLS donors) to know how grateful he is for the support you're providing to people like him. This TNT training season is almost over, but he's hoping to come out and show his support for the TNT athletes at some future training events. Looking forward to seeing you on the trails, Jeff!

26 Reasons to Run - Reason #17

I run in honour of DIDI

This is an excerpt from a letter I received from my friend, and former flatmate, Chris. It is about his wife's mother, who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in May of 2010.

I was rubbish and never got back to you about Ali's ma, so here goes. You asked me at the time to drop you a note with "her story" to help encourage those of you who do such fantastic fund-raising work. Hopefully this might help.
Didi was diagnosed in mid May with non-Hodgkins lymphoma having felt pretty rubbish for about a month and by this point being pretty bright yellow. The tumour, so it turned out, was pressing against her bile duct and so it was actually that fact which initially did most damage- effectively she was being poisoned by her own body. Thankfully the surgeons were able to operate within a few days and release the pressure that was developing. It also had the immediate impact of allowing her to actually feel better than she had done in quite a while.

In fact, throughout her treatment it was actually not Didi but often Nic, Ali's Dad, who felt worse. He's 72 and suddenly realised his own mortality, despite being reasonably fit and healthy. But all of a sudden the thought had been put into his mind that he might lose the one individual in the world upon whom his life was constructed and grounded. Every time she went into hospital Nic cried his eyes out, terrified, wanting to help and be as much support as possible but not knowing how to. Didi was actually doing quite well. The week after her treatment was horrific, she couldn't eat and definitely couldn't do anything, but the week of her treatment itself she was often fairly buoyant at another session being ticked off. The steroids helped too!

At the end of August she was told that she had gone into remission. In a way, 3 months later, she's now struggling more than she was then, feeling that people have now forgotten about her, worrying that her hair's still very thin and just worried that it's all a lie, that it's still waiting out there, ready to get her again. She's still very frail but has just taken the huge step and admitted that she needs to keep talking to people, especially to seek trained advice. The fight goes on well past the treatment stage, but knowing that there are organisations out there means that she knows there are people who want to help her and who can and will. That means such a lot to her, to Nic and to everyone around her. So as you all go out to train, as you all go out to compete, as you all feel the pain and exhaustion afterwards please please remember that you're not just doing it to pay for chemicals, for research or for bed space. You're doing it to help rebuild lives, from the moment that someone first seeks help to the point where they finally feel like they're actually capable of standing alone again, strong in their knowledge that they're back.

So thank you.

Four years later, Didi remains in remission and is doing well. 

Mile #17, I will be thinking of Didi and Nic, of Chris and Ali and their children... They have this time together because organizations like the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society are there to support cancer patients and their families, and to fund life saving research.

26 Reasons to Run - Reason #10

  Mile #10, I run in honour of my friend CHRIS

This is my friend Chris... he was diagnosed with advanced throat cancer in 2010. Upon completion of his treatment (which involved months of chemo and radiation, followed by surgery, and then a very long and painful recovery), you've never met a man with a greater zest for life. He's living every moment, every day...

Chris is reason #10 that I continue to run marathons with Team in Training, and continue fundraising to help find cures for cancer.

26 Reasons to Run - Reason #9

Here is reason #9 that I continue to run with Team In Training, and continue to raise funds to try to find a cure for cancer.

Mile # 9, I run for my friend KEIRAN

Keiran and I were in the Peace & Conflict Studies program together at university in Nova Scotia, and worked to start a new student society for our department. I went on to work in France for a couple years, and Keiran went to Mexico to work as a human rights advocate. Years later we reconnected when we both moved back to Canada, and were working in a city that was new to both of us... 

Keiran was diagnosed with leukemia in 2012... She is doing well now, and I've been trying to get her to come down from Canada for a visit, and to cheer the Team on at an event (or training). I'll get her down here one of these days!!

26 reasons to run - reason #2

First things first... thanks so much to those of you who have helped me to get past the mid-way point in my fundraising for my 8th event with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society... I am enormously grateful!!

As I write, I currently have another $1200 to go... and essentially 3 weeks to get there! and, I can do it. I have good reasons to keep at it.

Here is reason #2 that I run, and that I am trying to help find a cure for cancer.

Mile #2, I run for my friend Bonnie

A few decades ago now, I was living with my friend Kris and her son attending university. My family had moved clear across the country for my dad to go to law school, and air travel in Canada is prohibitively expensive (particularly on a student's budget)... So Kris' mom Bonnie generously invited me to come north to spend the Christmas holidays with them. Their family is large and noisy like mine, and I was made so welcome that I forgot to feel homesick for my family at Christmas that year.

Bonnie was diagnosed with lymphoma just months after her husband had died suddenly of a heart attack. She made her way through treatment with several young children at home, as well as kids in university... Bonnie has been cancer-free for more than 20 years.

So on mile #2 of my 20 mile training run on Saturday (and on race day), I will think of Bonnie and her family, and the challenges they overcame during her illness... puts the challenges of training for and running a marathon into perspective, if you know what I mean.