Claire & Matt's fundraising page
Tri-ing to save lives...
Thank you so much for all of your support! Thank you, thank you, thank you. We just broke the $3000 raised mark and $10,000, here we come!
Training is going well and we have been extremely fortunate with the beautiful weather. Claire is swimming more than ever, so she can survive, maybe even enjoy, the swim portion of Escape From Alcatraz. More than anything, Matt's been training to fight the never ending cold/flu that's hit him. In between coughing up a lung, he is still getting most of his workouts in, but it's not pretty :)
Please donate what you can. There is no donation too small (or too big) and all donations are tax deductible. We would really like to reach our goal of $10,000 again this season.
You can also support us by participating in our first ever Rhodes Race 5K run/walk on Sun, April 6 at Lake Merritt in Oakland. The race registration is your donation to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Here's the website for more info and to register: www.motivatedpixels.com/rhodesrace5k . It is going to be a lot of fun, we promise!
The 5k distance is almost exactly one lap around Lake Merritt. All participants will receive race bibs and race baggies. Top male and female finishers (30+) and top male and female finishers (<30) will receive medals donated by Alameda Advertising & Recognition, Inc. Our other race sponsors include: Clif Bar, Sports Basement, TranSports, and Ghirardelli (yes, the chocolate). Expect goodies.
Not interested in running/walking, but still want to participate? You can register to be a race day volunteer! www.motivatedpixels.com/rhodesrace5k
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Once again, Matt and I are training with Team In Training (TNT) and raising money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. This year we will both be racing two events: The Wildflower Half-Ironman and Escape from Alcatraz. Claire is a slow swimmer and petrified of swimming in the Bay; Matt is not a fan of long hours on the bike. So our choice of races is very interesting considering Escape has a 1.5 mile swim in the Bay (from Alcatraz to shore), and Wildflower includes a 56 mile bike ride with more than 4500 feet of climbing. Ha!
This season takes on different meaning for us. Originally, we chose to join TNT to celebrate Matt's battle over cancer and to give back in honor of those who were instrumental in his recovery. Our experience the first two years was filled with triumphs. We met so many who had successfully battled blood cancers. Meeting them and training with them was thoroughly inspirational and all was fun and good. It felt as if our fundraising really was making a difference. Little did we realize how far we still need to go and how much money we still need to raise to make the kind of difference we ultimately want...
Lior Jacober, one of our original teammates on Hike For Discovery, relapsed a year later and was for the fourth time, fighting for her life. The day before our first triathlon in Maui in 2006, Brenda Donato, our friend, teammate and survivor, found out she had relapsed. Less then a year later, on April 14, 2007, she passed away from complications from her second stem cell transplant. It was heart wrenching to see her go and leave behind her two sons, husband and the many of us she inspired by her positive outlook and zest for life. As if we needed an additional reminder for how much work still needs to be done, Lori Humphreys, an honoree for our team this season, died Feb 1, 2008 from pneumonia that her body's weakened immune system could not fight.
We have been given a reality check, and it has gotten us to re-focus, but it is not all doom and gloom. Progress is being made. Five-year survival rates for Leukemia have tripled in the past 48 years. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) survival rates are now at 74.8%, thanks in large part to Gleevec, kind of a miracle drug that exists in part, because of researchers funded by The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Hodgkin's lymphoma, the cancer Matt had, has seen survival rates improve from 40% to 86% now. We watched little Lauren Bishop go through her last year and a half of treatment with spunk and she is now in remission. We have connected with other remarkable survivors who are also in remission and doing great, especially Brigit Tuxen, Frank Andrews and our neighbor Bob, who just celebrated his two and half year cancer-free anniversary.
Check out Matt's experience with cancer here: http://motivatedpixels.com/heroes/
Thank you again for all your support!
