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.

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.