- To honor the survivors and remember those who we have lost.
- To encourage the participants to remember your patient heroes when you think you can't go on during the race.
- To bring our focus back to the Society's mission to cure leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma and Hodgkin's, and to improve the quality of life for patients and their families.
- To celebrate our accomplishments as both endurance athletes and fundraisers.
- To gain a better understanding of how LLS is using all of the funds raised by the Team.
Before starting our run, we went around and shared the reasons why everyone is running with TNT. Since I'm not sure I've done so yet, I'm going to share my story ...
As I've mentioned many times before, my Aunt Goofy was one of my favorite people in the world and I was devastated when I found out she had cancer (Hodgkin's Lymphoma). After an amazing battle, she lost her fight in July 2006, just a few days before I picked up and moved to Orlando to start my internship at Disney's Wide World of Sports. Losing her has really taken a toll on me and those first months were tough. While working the Disney Marathon in early January, I noticed a lot of people wearing purple shirts - the "purple people" as I kept calling them. It seemed as if no matter where there were in the race, people around them were yelling and cheering - I was definitely intrigued. I learned afterwards that they were part of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training. While I wasn't ready at that point in time because I was still hurting from our loss of Aunt Goofy, I made the decision that I would do that at some point in my life. Fast forward a few years into March 2009 and I received a flyer from the LLS and Team in Training with some informational meetings. I had been thinking a lot about Aunt Goofy lately so I felt like this was a sign that it might be time. I figured with my crazy work schedule, there was no way I would even be able to make an info meeting but I could. I made it to the meeting and knew it would be perfect to train all summer long while I was "quiet" at work but then was afraid I wouldn't be able to make a race weekend because my schedule is crazy in the fall with work. When I learned that training started the weekend after my last championship of the year in May and the race was two weeks before my first championship in October, it seems too perfect to pass up. I knew that this was my time to join the Team and here we are now 3 weeks before the race. I'm getting very excited - I'm looking forward to the race (even though I'm a bit nervous) and I still love spending time with the group. I truly couldn't have asked for a better group of teammates and Mentor (Jim) and Coach Mitch. I'm so glad that I have taken on this challenge in honor of Aunt Goofy and look forward to being part of the Team for a long time into the future.
Today's Miles: 11.0
Total Miles: 194.0
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