You want to what?

Last month I participated in the Shamrock Shuffle (a 5 k walk in downtown Chicago). Through this experience I encountered and organization that will train folks for a marathon, triathlon, or century bike rides, while people train they also fund raise for research on Lymphoma and Leukemia.

I went to an informational meeting last night, all the people sitting next to me were shuffling their chairs away as they showed a touching video that made me cry and talked about the impact their organization has had on the disease and on the lives of patients and families. Matt and I have been SO blessed through my cancer process to have AMAZING student health insurance that has covered nearly everything fully. By not having to worry about finances, I was able to fully focus on recovery. I can barely grasp the stress and frustration of folks who don’t have that option.

Can I do it? Well, minus some lung damage from the chemo drugs, I believe that I can. I’ll be doing a run / walk or a walk/run—my focus isn’t to ‘run’ the marathon, as much as it is to complete it, raise money for an important cause, and get back into my pre-cancer (or better than) shape.

One of my great motivators was learning last week that with radiation I’ll have be more prone to other cancers (especially breast, which is what my mother’s mother died of). The radiologist advised that diet and exercise are going to be my best weapons against the return of any future cancers. During chemo I couldn’t continue with my typical workouts, and I barely had the energy to get around during the day. So I’m so grateful to be able to workout again—and it feels great!

I’m still working on the link from here to my TIT site, but I’ll be keeping you posted on everything. (isn’t it exciting that the same place you read about my treatment, will also be the same place you can read about what it’s like to train for a marathon?)