Natalie Rubino's Team In Training Page

Racing to Save Lives, One Mile at a Time!

Greeting my family at the finish line of the Chicago Half-Marathon -- "I did it and I'm going to do it again!"

Welcome to my Team In Training home page.

Every 5 minutes a U.S. citizen is diagnosed with a blood cancer. Every 10 minutes another loses his or her battle. However, this statistic cannot discourage us from thinking that in the future all blood cancer patients will one day become blood cancer survivors.

After crossing the finish line at the Chicago Half-Marathon in October, I knew that 2007 would be the year to accomplish a full. Call me crazy, but running a marathon is something that I have always wanted to do. In December, I donated my ponytail for a second time to Locks of Love and yet I still wanted to do more for the fight for cancer. For this reason, I have decided to run in the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon on October 7, 2007 as a member of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team In Training.

Team In Training is an inspirational program that trains people to complete endurance events like the Chicago Marathon. In exchange for the training and support, each marathoner will raise at least $5,000 for the Society and with your help, I hope to do the same.

I joined Team In Training, along with a couple of my girlfriends, to raise funds in order to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and myeloma from taking more lives. When you join the Team you are paired up with a patient honoree. I will be running for Eddie Velez who was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 2 years old. His mother Irene is the captain for the Chicago Team In Training. We will cross the finish line in his memory, as he lost his fight against cancer at age 5.

I will dedicate my run to Eddie and all of those who are battling blood related cancers. Please make a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and make a contribution to finding a cure! Any amount is welcome and all donations are 100% tax deductible.

I hope that you’ll visit my website often and be sure to check back on my progress! For updates on my training feel free to visit my blog at http://natalierubino.blogspot.com/

It will take 8 months of training for 4 and a half hours of running to complete 26.2 miles to the finish line -- my marathon is but one journey to help save someone else’s life!

Thanks for your support!

Natalie Rubino