Karla Bailey's Team In Training Page
Because I can. Because of her.
This past January when I began my third season with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training (TNT) as Team Captain I thought it would be my last. Sadly, on April 14, 2007 I lost my friend and teammate, Brenda Donato, to Acute Myelogenous Leukemia. In a letter she wrote to the team before her stem cell transplant last year she said, “I know I have quite the "marathon" ahead of me and count on the sincere love from Team in Training like no other. As cliché-ish as it may sound, I don’t know what I’d do without you.” It is an amazingly powerful thing to hear this message first hand. So this season I am coming back as Web Captain and I will run in her memory. I am doing this again so that hopefully one day I won’t have to say goodbye to anymore friends.
Season after season I choose to return to TNT because through my involvement with the program and the friendships I've built with our honored patients I have gained a very personal understanding of just how much the funds I raise contribute to the health and well-being of real people and their families. This season I am specifically running in memory of Brenda Donato and Bruce Heise and in honor of Dottie McHugh.
I am training with TNT to run my third marathon (my 2nd one this year!), the California International Marathon on December 2, 2007. I will also be running three half marathons (San Francisco, San Jose Rock ‘N’ Roll and the Nike Women’s Half Marathon) to prepare for the big 26.2. And in addition to all that fun I will be traveling to Honolulu, HI the week after my race to cheer my teammates on at the Honolulu Marathon. This season I am hoping to raise another $2,500 for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Completing the donation form online only takes a minute (really) and it's totally secure. Be sure to check if your company offers any matching programs for charitable donations – that's like free money!
I hope you'll visit my site often to check for updates and I also encourage you to forward this link to anyone else who might be interested in helping this cause that is so near and dear to my heart. Thanks for your support!
Love always,
Karla
