Bettina's Race to make a Difference
Running to Save Lives
Hello! Thank you for stopping by and Welcome to my Team In Training home page.
I am training to participate in an endurance event, the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco this October 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 honor of all individuals who are battling blood cancers. These people are the real heroes on our team, and we need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure!
I must admit: When I started running just for fun this year, in my head the fluffy dream of one day running a marathon, I had no connections to fundraising. I was looking into running teams and kept hearing about Team in Training. Of course, their incredible support for the athlete him-/herself seemed almost too good to be true, but very quickly I realized an even greater motivation to run: Run for a cause!!! Yes, crossing that finish line of the very first marathon in my life seems like an exhilarating prospect (after getting over the "I must be out of my mind" thought), but crossing that line knowing it to be such a visible symbol of having done something to help those who struggle MUCH harder and longer is a thought that gives me "helicopters in my belly". 26.2 miles of pushing myself to make a difference for someone who REALLY struggles now doesn't seem all that bad anymore... :-)
Please make a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance the Society's mission.
I hope you'll visit my web site often. Be sure to check back frequently to see my progress. Thank you for reading about my cause and: Thank you very much for your support!
June 9, 2007: First log entry of the season: Today our TNT season got officially started with a big, fun meeting of everyone in our Monterey/Santa Cruz Chapter. Woowoowoo! We have lift-off! Amongst many wonderful people I also met our "honorees" - people like you and me, who are directly affected by blood cancers. I got to meet Jack, a wonderfully motivating guy, who has beat multiple myeloma for several years now and told us how happy he is to now have walked his oldest daughter down the aisle on her wedding. Also Nick - living with a t-cell affecting blood cancer, as well as Marissa, the cutest 8 year old girl, who has now been in remission from a blood cancer for three years - such a young and cheerful survivor! I was very moved and found all the motivation I needed to do anything I can to help kids like her, who fight so bravely and thank us with lots of smiles, as well as all who need our support. I am happy you are all with me with your donations and motivating words! Thank you!
June 2007: Our official training with the team has started and we said good-bye to spare time. Our schedule has something to work on for almost every day until the race. Tuesdays: track, Saturdays: long runs, etc. For track workouts we got devided into "speed groups" - I am now officially a Mako... :-)
July 2nd, 2007: The long runs are getting longer. I had to suffer a setback due to an injury, but after a couple weeks of worrying, I was able to increase my runtime as planned this last weekend and am keeping up with the required miles. Wish me luck. :-)
July 6, 2007: After one year of bravely fighting, Josh, one of our honorees, lost the battle against cancer today. He was 22 years young. This leaves us all silent with helplessness. All we can do is keep running, carrying his name and not lose hope. Our thoughts go out to his family and girlfriend.
July 7, 2007: Pogonip run - Oh U-Con trail, thou killet me... .. but it sure was good pain. What a great, challenging run today in Pogonip! Additionally to getting some good hill training, I really experienced a workout on the mental aspects of running as well. While I oozed my way up the ever-winding trail to the turnaround point, I bravely battled sneaky thoughts of marathon-inadequacy like "I'm not even half way through the 8 miles and I just got passed by two beetles and a speeding slug - how will I ever run a whole marathon...?" But I was amazed at how much energy I gained back while starting to go downhill. We can do great things with our bodies - we just have to believe. My personal moment of great happiness: The IT band held up for the whole 8 miles! Now I am sure that it has been healing. I hope it will continue to! What a great day of many victories!
Mid-July: My work took me to very hot and humid Louisiana for a week, but, of course, I can't let the training slack. So, I bravely mounted the treadmill inside a room with NO air-conditioning! I just about died around mile 2... I have never experienced a time when it was impossible to drink enough liquids to make up for the lost sweat. I was forced to walk several stretches, just to cool down. I did get my 5.5 and 8 mile runs in, but I sure was VERY happy to get back to the perfect temperatures of the California coast!
July 28: We keep on pushing - A new record today: 12 miles! My legs felt 5 inches shorter after that one...
August 4: Sometimes we need to run not because of, but in spite of…
After our epic 12-miler last Saturday I felt great – until Sunday, when a nasty cold bug got a hold of me. I was bummed – no training on Monday. Then – still coughing on Tuesday: No track. I was starting get grumpy. By Wednesday I sounded like a mad dog, barking at anything near – I was starting to go into running-withdrawal. When I was still barking on Thursday, I suddenly had enough, and decided to just give it a try: Armed myself with a cough-drop, put on my running gear and stomped out of the door, mutinous thoughts in my head. And lo and behold, I was able to run. No major coughing. I took it easy on the speed and “only” ran for less than half an hour, but there were hills involved, and I suddenly felt SO much better. Got back home with a huge smile on my face (Then I had to happily catch up on coughing, and also cut the long Saturday run shorter, hoping for no negative side effects for the next days, but it felt great to run). Sometimes it takes being sick to realize how great it is to be healthy; it’s easy to take our health for granted. Now, I am not saying that we should constantly think about how bad it could be, but reminding ourselves every now and then how wonderful it is to do what we can do, can make for some encouraging thoughts. I certainly am happy to be able to run. And I wish that all our honorees and everyone we are fighting for can one day feel this happiness again as well!
