Mark Smith's Team In Training Page
Racing to Save Lives
I am back with the Leukemia & Lymphoma society's Team in Training to participate in the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon in San Francisco (Yep, I managed to get selected).
On June 8th I'll start my day by diving off a boat, parked next to Alcatraz Island, and swim 1.5 miles through the freezing cold waters of the San Francisco bay to Marina Green. From there I'll embark on an 18 mile bike ride through the Presidio and down to the Golden Gate Park before I complete the race with an 8 mile run over the hills of San Francisco - including the sand steps of Baker Beach!
I've decided to join Team in Training for this event as I was diagnosed with a rare form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in November 2005. Since then I've been in and out of hospital on a regular basis. My treatment has consisted on having malignant growths surgically removed, followed by radiation therapy and then immunotherapy.
Despite this, I consider myself to be a lucky person as my lymphoma is localized to my arm and I don't suffer from the symptoms that many patients with the disease have to deal with. It's for these people that I've decided to sign up with Team in Training.
Please make a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance the Society's mission - to find a cure for blood cancer.
Special offer!
For all donations greater than $40 you will receive a free dri-fit T-shirt. They're available in short or long sleeve and in sizes XS-XL (they do come up big). The shirts were designed by me and printed by Jim and Kathy Saucier. Jim and Kathy's son, Josh, is a leukemia survivor and I appreciate their generosity and help in printing these shirts for me.
I hope you'll visit my web site often. I plan to update this site as my training progresses.
Cheers, Mark
3/10/2008 I'm shocked and excited to hear I finally qualified for Alcatraz. Now I just have to focus on improving my swimming! Fundraising is going great - over 60% raised so far - thanks.
3/31/2008 Just completed training weekend at Lake San Antonio. Training is going well. Need to improve the swimming a lot to complete Alcatraz but still have a couple of months to go.
5/5/2008 Training is going well. I just competed in the Wildflower triathlon relay in Lake San Antonio, CA. I managed to swim 1.2 miles in under 40 minutes so am happy with that. I need to up my training as I'm now only a month away from Alcatraz!
5/20/2008 Just completed another swim in the bay. This time we had a sea lion follow us around the pier at Aquatic Park! The currents were very strong and the conditions were choppy but we've been told it could be like that for race day so it's all good experience. Just over 2 weeks until race day. Fundraising has been fantastic - thanks so much.
5/26/2008 Had my first encounter with a shark whilst swimming in the bay this weekend. Spectators on the beach came running down screaming at us to get out of the water because they could see a shark following us. Once we got out of the water we were disappointed to find it was a baby leopard shark measuring about 3 feet in length! We race in two weeks.
