Marathon Update #5

Pictures: 2010 LA Marathon Route &



Life's to short not to smile!!!



To make a donation to the LLS click here for my official fundraising page


Well it's been a while since my last update, so here it goes. I have now run well over 150 miles total in training. To put that in perspective, I could've almost run to Santa Barbara and back, or I could of run to Tijuana, Mexico and had about 20 miles to spare. I'm pretty pumped about that. My biggest run so far was last Saturday, in which I ran 18 miles. I'm also pumped about that. At this point in my training, my knees are sore everyday when I go up and down stairs, which is not the greatest thing. I've cut out most of my mid-week runs to help preserve my body for my long Saturday training. Because I get to take some awesome medicines my body doesn't recover very well from the stress. The cool thing is that my doc originally said I probably wouldn't make it past the 10 mile mark running. So with all possible respect, I say to him, "Told you so." I now am only a month and a half away from the run, (March 21st). The course is awesome and I've learned that there is going to be some entertainment on the route; live music, cheerleaders???, possibly restaurants with food platters for runners and an after party. Pretty exciting. I'm posting a map of the route, but basically I'm starting at Dodger stadium, going to Downtown, going to Hollywood, Beverly hills, and ending at Santa Monica pier. That's a pretty awesome run.

With only 6 weeks until the run, I am now trying to focus more on my fundraising. The money I'm raising goes to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). They do a whole bunch to help fight blood cancers, but to put a personal spin on what they are, here are some of things I've personally seen them do. Some of the medicine I've been on was developed from research they funded. Some of their research has made the treatments less painful, which is a big deal. That's especially big because the treatments are the hardest part sometimes and so many of the patients undergoing them are children. I've had a few friends who couldn't afford some of the necessary treatments and they helped them obtain everything they needed. That is huge because these were people raising families and any chance for them to be there for their kids growing up was priceless. I've seen them help families be able to be together as much as possible as patients lived out their final days. All in all they have been amazing. So I really feel strongly about supporting them. With that said I am getting a bit more creative with my fundraising. As always you can go to my fundraising page and donate or tell your friends about it, the pages is; http://pages.teamintraining.org/los/LA10/bsosax For those of you who really can't afford to donate much, I totally understand but you can still come by the page and donate $1.00. Just having a long list of names of people who are supporting really makes all of us who've had to deal with this disease, patients and loved ones, feel so good. Also tell your friends. Getting donations from people I've never met has been one of the most uplifting things I've ever experienced. I'm also trying some other avenues. I'm looking to hold some charity poker games in which half the buy in will go to the LLS. The other half will be dished out in prizes. Please let me know if this would be of interest to any of you, beginners and pros alike. Also I've designed some T-shirts, tank tops and sweatshirts that can be purchased. They have cool slogans like, "Cancer Sucks!!!" Or for those of you who may be inspired to run for cancer, "I hate running… but I hate cancer more", "My friend beat cancer and all I got was this lousy shirt!!!" and a few other designs. Because the profits go to charity and I'm ordering them 1 at a time, they range from $20 to $40. Let me know if you're interested.

Once again I really appreciate everyone's support and well wishes. This has been quite a journey and knowing that I have so many people backing me has made it possible. Also thank you for taking the time to follow my progress, just raising awareness is great start to kicking cancer's ass!!!

Brandon