I've signed up for Team In Training...

National Marathon here I come!

I will be running 26.2 miles on March 21, 2009 around the streets of Washington, DC. If you know me well, you're probably thinking that's no problem. But I see it differently. Yes, I've done 4 Ironman races, swum across Lake Champlain and the Chesapeake Bay, but this is different. At one point in my life, I did do my first Ironman and my first Bay Swim. I was so nervous, similar to how I feel now. I have never run a marathon by itself. I have tried explaining to people that it's different, but I'm not sure that most people believe me. I can't hide behind the fatigue of just completing 112 miles on the bike. And just because I did run the marathon at Ironman Lake Placid in 4 hours and 54 minutes after biking 112 miles doesn't mean that I feel comfortable to say that I think I will run faster than that without the biking. I'm strange, I know. But I've signed up for at least 4 marathons that I can think of and never once even made it to the start line. This time I will and I will run all 26.2 miles. Here's why....

In 2001, my first year as a Campaign Coordinator for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team In Training program, I went to Tucson for an event. One of the first people I met when I got there was 16 year old Brittany Ross. Brittany had a blood cancer and her parent's were riding in El Tour de Tucson in her honor. Her parents asked if she could hang out with us while they were riding and we had the pleasure of getting to know Brittany during the ride. We talked about *NSYNC and Justin Timberlake and she reminded me what it was like to be 16.

Around mile 60 of the ride, we saw her Mom, struggling with a knee injury and barely able to bend her knee. She was determined to finish, but her knee just wouldn't let her. I got permission to drive her to the finish line with Brittany. We got to the parking garage near the finish and Brittany and her Mom took off toward the finish line. The ride organizers told her to go ahead and ride across the finish line and I watched as Brittany held the handlebars up and pushed her Mom across that finish line in Tucson. It was the first of many inspiring moments that I witnessed here at TNT.

Out of the blue, Brittany called me last night, she's turning 24 in January, graduating from college next month and got a job at Disney. She's now cancer-free. I told her that I had signed up for the National Marathon and she said that she would love to be my personal honored teammate.

Please consider making a donation to support my participation in the National Marathon. You can visit my online fundraising page or email me and I will tell you where you can mail a check.

Thank you for your support. And if you're around the DC area on March 21st, please consider coming out to cheer. It would be very much appreciated.

Thanks!

Julie