The big day is almost here, no turning back now
To join in the fight against leukemia please visit my fundraising page at: http://pages.teamintraining.org/los/la11/bsosax
I've already written this marathon update twice, but I thought I'd restart one more time. As usual I'll take the normal route of an update on training and fundraising, however I'm going to wrap this one up a bit differently than any of my previous updates.
I'll start with fundraising. Since the last update I've seen a few more people taking 5 minutes out of their day to donate $5 to help in the fight against leukemia, I'll talk more about that fight a bit later, but for now to all of you who have donated, thank you. Thank you for taking the time to read along, thank you for your awareness, thank you for tapping into your empathetic self to see the world through the eyes of us who have the privilege to fight against this cancer for our own lives and the happiness of those who love us, thank you for taking the time out of your day to help in that fight, and hopefully thank you for telling someone else and starting that process in another person. I say thank you that way, because the words thank you don't express enough. Actually the words above don't express enough either, but they're closer. For various reasons it's not always easy to join the fight, but you all found the time, the energy and the five dollars. Thank you!!! Sincerely, THANK YOU!!!! For those of you who haven't had the chance to join the fight, please do. The link above will take you to my fundraising page, and it'll take about 5 minutes to donate. We still have 2 months to reach our goal of 500 people. Long way to go, but last year taught me not to underestimate those who want to support and make a difference.
Now to the training. This year has been quite different than last. I had what I felt was a good start in the fall. Worked on plenty of short runs and some cycling to get my body going. However that has derailed quite a bit in the last couple months. I've made the attempt to get back on a steady training plan several times, however my body has not cooperated and for now I first have to get a bit healthier. This season, I am battling a bit less with the aches and pains of a running plan and more with the aches and pains of the bigger battle. I have been able to maintain some type of minimal workout routine and have put back about half of the weight I lost over the past 12 weeks. I am optimistic that over the next week I can at least begin cycling consistently and after that start some steady running. I have 2 months to train for the big day, and that begins now with getting my body to a better place. Hopefully my next marathon update will be following a good workout.
Now I'd like to finish this off in a different way. I'm writing this as I'm flying home from work, sitting 30,000 feet in the air. The in flight movie was about a runaway train, which seemed ridiculous to play to a group of people sitting in a plane (don't want to think about transportation disasters). On today's flight I am getting to enjoy one of the perks of flying across the country regularly for work, which is an upgrade to first class. Still trips me out to be up here. And from looking at everyone around me, I'm about 15-20 years ahead of schedule!!! My warm cookie after dinner made me begin to think of all the amazing little and big things I am thankful for; warm cookie, haven't lost my hair from treatment, a very good job, a date Saturday night, getting to see the snow fall in a city (Boston) for the first time ever, beautiful nieces and nephews who make me so very happy, the ability to help my father put in yard drainage last Saturday, happiness that comes from a very full life, finding love in a way that I didn't think existed outside of the movies (Beth) and having that person both: be a running coach & be in love with me in return, the ability to experience so much during my life (especially the last 5 years), my romantic trip to Europe over the new year, my perfect weekend in New York in the fall, the fountain in downtown, the sunset from last Sunday, and so much more. I have had a life that if it ended today I would be very, very proud of. But even with all that there is a not so pleasant side to this battle that I've mentioned periodically throughout my marathon updates dating back to season 1. Fear. I don't want to do the sob story, or reach for the sympathy vote, but I do want to give a little insight into what it's like for the thousands fighting this battle and what your donation helps fight against. I thought I'd spend the rest of this paragraph talking about, fear. I'm a 6'2", 195 lb (when healthy) 29 year old male. I know that I'm not supposed to openly admit to being afraid, but that would be an omission of the truth. There are so many ups and downs in dealing with Leukemia, but the one constant in this battle from day one, is fear. Every day there is the fear of how bad today might feel. Everyday there is the fear that this may be a harder day than others, or that this might be the beginning of the end. Every time the phone rings there is the fear that it may be "The Call" from the doc. Every time there's a treatment the fear of how bad it will feel afterwards is present. Every biopsy there's the fear of how much pain will have to be endured. There is the silly fear that more hair will fall out to the point where your bald. Those are a few of the small fears. Then there are the big ones. There's the constant fear that holding it together won't last much longer. Or that putting on a brave face will be impossible. That the courage you depend on to get out of bed each and every morning will disappear. That you start down the slippery slope of feeling bad for yourself, or thinking that you were somehow cheated by all of this. And then there are the biggest fears. The fear of hurting those who you care about. The fear of your battle ruining their lives. The fear of letting them down. Every day, every person who has to battle with leukemia will be living with these fears. To make it worse, so many of them won't be able to understand or articulate these fears, because they're just children. The organization (LLS) that I'm raising funds for helps not just in the fight against leukemia but in the fight against fear. They support those on the front line of the battle by; sponsoring research, funding the development of new research, ensuring that families are able to be together, ensuring that patients are able to get the treatments they need, helping find ways to make that treatment less painful (hopefully much more of that), providing support and information for all those fighting alongside their loved ones who have been diagnosed and many, many more ways. I'll end this update with this. Every day there are thousands and thousands of people who live with this fear. Not by any choice of their own. Not by any bad decisions, or irresponsible acts. Many of these are children (leukemia is the #1 cancer killer amongst children). Please take the next 5 minutes to go and donate $5. Then, more importantly, take the 5 minutes after that to send the link to this blog to some of the people in your life ( www.ihaterunningbutihatecancermore.blogspot.com ). This year I made the promise to run the marathon to many of my friends who are fighting this battle. It will be ridiculously hard, but it will be even more ridiculously worth it, especially if we can get 500 people to join our battle against leukemia.
Thanks for your time reading this, and please feel free to repost this or a link to it anywhere you think it may raise awareness ( www.ihaterunningbutihatecancermore.blogspot.com ). Also for those of you also running and raising funds and support, if you don't have the words to tell your friends and family what it's all about, please take these words (just remember to change the fundraising link to your own).
Please leave comments I really love them.
B
