JM Lucien's Team In Training Page
Racing to Save Lives...
Welcome to my Team In Training home page.
I am training to participate in an endurance event as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team In Training. All of us on Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives. I'm completing this event In memory of my grandmother, Auxilia Benjamin. In her honor I will attempt to raise awareness and money to treat cancer so that maybe my son won't have to suffer like she did.
Thanksgiving day 1996 would be the last time I would see her at 100%. Her hardy laugh, her smile and her unforgiving but loving ways all made that holiday so special. At the ripe old age of 86, she could still be the life of the party. She could still stare your bad ass down from across the room and make you behave. Her years as a cook, chef and baker gave her the experience that could run circles around Emeril. His BAM! is totally ineffective against her mighty BOOM! Wolfgang Puck would get stuck in the quagmire he creates for himself as he tries to keep up. She could bend any iron chef! She was also a seamstress at one point ... fingers so nimble, she make a surgeons steady hands seem to tremble.
Black Friday I got a call that the ambulance came and she's in the hospital. Nobody knew what was wrong. I didn't want to go see her cause ... well you know she's mighty .... and she always bounces back! She didn't come out that weekend. She didn't come out the next weekend either, so I reluctantly went to visit. I went just about every weekend for almost a year.
At first it was great cause I got to be with her, listen to her stories and learn. Anyone with that much age, history and experience is a walking library. If only we took the time to check out a book or two instead of glancing through the pages. I would brush her hair, listen, and make her get up and walk back and forth across the hospital floor. It was usually the only exercise she got. Sometimes she would complain that she couldn't keep up. Sometimes she would laugh at me cause I must be crazy for forcing her to get up. Sometimes I'd bring a homecooked meal snuck in under a jacket or something.
I watched her deteriorate to the point where she couldn't get out of bed anymore, then to the point where she thought I was my uncle. I walked in one day and she yelled at me (calling me by my uncle's name). She talked about how I owed her money because when I first came to the USA she gave me money to purchase a car. She was really on some "Yo where's my money"!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it. Although I was hurt, I laughed cause it was the funniest thing I ever heard. Later on I cried, because I knew the end was near. She passed away on November 13, 1997.
On May 28th, 2007 I'm going to compete in a triathlon. I haven't run more than a couple miles since HS and I haven't really biked for quite a few years and I can't swim. So how am I supposed to compete in an event that will combine all three of these sports? How am I going to compete against people who have been doing this for years?
I don't know yet. I DO know however that I will compete and I will finish. I also know that I need your help to raise these funds. Show me some love, by posting a comment, donate a thousand dollars or donate a dollar. Just take action and donate and tell your friends.
I hope you'll visit my web site often. Be sure to check back frequently to see my progress.
Thanks for your support!
