I’ve
been a bit hesitant to make a public announcement regarding what I’m about to
publically announce. It’s not
life-shattering nor particularly embarrassing (a pleasant change), but it’s
something I find personally scary and admitting it in a public forum means I’ve
committed myself to this particular activity.
I signed
up for my first half-marathon.
This is
something I’d been thinking about doing for awhile, especially since I’ve
lapsed a bit on training since the Peachtree ended. I’ve been sticking to my commitment of at
least one 5K per month to celebrate my 30th birthday and that’s been
fun (in October, I did two in the same weekend—Monday was less fun). I’ll keep doing them b/c it’s a fun way to
spend time with my friends and then eat an absurd amount of Waffle House
afterward.
But I
missed having a running group and I need the accountability that a running
group provides. And so… I signed up through Team in Training and
committed to the Publix Half Marathon on March 22, 2015. For obvious reasons, blood cancer research is
important to me, not only because it saved my life, but it impacts people I
care about.
And like
I told my TnT recruiter, I’m tired of being a mascot in my own cancer story.
For all
that people gave me credit for how gracefully I handled having cancer, I didn’t
do much. I got well (and, more
importantly, wanted to get well) because I was surrounded by friends and family
who never let my spirits fall so low, I thought giving up was the better
option. I had doctors, harangued by my
father (often and without guilt), who worked around the clock to make sure my
pain was as minimal as it could be under the circumstances.
My
beloved bestie already has done her part to raise money on my behalf during her
experience with Team in Training, and now it’s my turn to pay it forward and to
do one of things I wanted to do before I got sick. I want to be my own hero and finish something
I’m not entirely certain I’m capable of.
Paralyzed left diaphragm and bad arches notwithstanding, I’m literally
not sure I can last 13.1 miles.I’m also not sure I’ll last through early
morning, cold weather training, but I’ve got cute new clothes, so it’s a start.
I’d also
apologize in advance for the next five months of fundraising requests, but I wouldn’t
actually mean it, so I’ll just promise not to post links to my TnT page too
often.
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