august 26, then and now.

Seven years ago on August 26, 2001 Ashley Boyer was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoma Leukemia. She was only 14 years old and battled through several years of treatments and hospital visits. Today, August 26, 2008, Ashley is in full remission and graduated from the French Culinary Institute in New York City. She is a true hero and has followed her dreams when she could have easily given up. On October 19 I will be running a measly 26.2 miles for Ashley and all the people who have battled blood cancer. I say measly because it cannot possibly compare to what Ashley had to go through. She is my hero! Congratulations Ash for graduating!

This past Saturday we ran 10 miles! My hamstring was still bothering me a bit, so Anja and I did a little bit of walking, which I think is good for me! We got free massages afterwards from Bob and Ruth and Blue Ridge Massage! It was great and I felt good all day Saturday. I definitely wasn't quite as sore as I was the first time I ran 10 miles, so that is a good sign! My body is definitely getting accustomed to running long distances. I have also realized that walking for a bit after my long run helps with recovery and helps with not being so sore. So that is something to keep in mind, especially since the runs are just getting longer!

This Saturday we will be running a full 16 miles! I cannot believe that I am going to run that far! It also makes me realize the marathon is just that much closer. We will only have 2 more very long runs (18 miler and 20 miler) and then we start tapering in order to recover and build up for the marathon! It's just around the corner and all I can do is hope to be healthy! So here's to a good run on Saturday! I'll let you all know how I manage to get through a full 16 miles!

one for liam.

A teammate of mine, Kat Hardaway, is running in honor of Liam Fisher who is 18 months old and is suffering  from Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. He was diagnosed at 8 months and has been battling it for over 10 months. I can't even imagine what all this poor little baby has had to go through and what all his parents are dealing with.

On Thursday, Liam's leukemic blast cells were extremely high, around 45%. This morning (Friday) he was rushed via ambulance to the hospital in Charleston. His bone marrow aspirate results show 90% blast cells. They give him a 5 to 10% chance of living through the day. He will have several procedures done today and they hope he will make it through. So please keep this family and little Liam in your thoughts and prayers. Hopefully there will be a miracle and this little guy will grow up healthy and strong.

For more on Liam, please visit his caring bridge page: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/liamfisher

are you serious?

As I sit here and watch the Olympic Women's Marathon, I am thinking to myself, are you serious? Am I suppose to do that? These women that are running, or any woman that has ever participated in a marathon, have been put on this imaginary pedestal in my world. They are amazing athletes and to think that I am going to run a marathon makes me weak at my knees! Yeah, yeah, I know I won't be running quite as fast as them, but this is something that I never in my life thought I would do because it seemed so impossible. I am going to run a marathon. Are you serious?

I can honestly say I haven't really put much thought to how far I am going to be running. Mainly because if I think about it to much, it does make me nervous. If I am doing something as big as this, I like to not think and just do. Similar to when I went skydiving, if I had thought about exactly what I was going to do, I probably wouldn't have gone through with it! So to think about running for 4 plus hours... well, lets just not talk about it. I do know that I find a lot of strength from all of the cancer patients that I am essentially running for. I think about Ashley and what all she went through and how strong she was, and 26.2 miles seems like a piece of cake. I can only imagine what someone going through chemotherapy feels like. I have a hard enough time dealing with the way my body responds after a long run, so dealing with all of the side effects of chemo is beyond my comprehension. I am so thankful for all of the research and treatment options they have these days and I am thankful I have had this opportunity to help raise money to help fund research to find a cure! 

On Friday morning I ran my long run with Rachel and Anja. Rachel and I volunteered to help out at an event on Saturday morning, so we decided to run Friday morning so we would be able to work at the event. We did a solid 14 miles! It was quite brutal at times as I was trying to work through a hamstring injury and Rachel was working through crooked knee caps! Anja was as healthy as a horse, so she had to hold back a little for me and Rachel. We started at 5:30 in the morning and did a nice little course through the Augusta Road area. I figured I wouldn't be able to move on Friday afternoon, but I actually felt pretty good. I certainly slept quite a bit the past couple of days trying to recover and help get my hamstring back to full strength. The great thing about these runs is that after about 3 miles, I get into the swing and I don't even think about how far or long I have been running. I get finished and think, are you serious? Did I just run 14 miles? It makes thinking about running 26.2 miles that much easier. So I am now that much closer to running a marathon and it makes me so excited about crossing that finish line!

just 8 miles.

Saturday we knocked down our long run a bit in order to have a recovery week and boy did I need it! I was so exhausted last week and don't know if I could have run anything over 8. Of course I think the majority of it was just mental for me Saturday morning, because I'm sure if I had to run 14 miles, then I would have been able to finish it, but I sure am glad it was just 8. I ran with one of my best running buddies, Katie, and she makes it so much easier. Everyone else I usually run with was out of town, so I dearly missed them too. I have been taking the past few days easy because I am having problems with my hamstring, so I need to let it fully recover before this Saturday when I am set to run at least 14 miles!! I can't wait!

I have been glued to the TV watching the Olympics since it started. I think this is the first Olympics I have really gotten into and I want to see as much as I can! I've been cheering for Michael Phelps in swimming nonstop. He is such an amazing swimmer and from what I can tell, an overall nice guy. I missed the men's 4x100 freestyle relay the other night, but had to record it so I could watch it the next day. As I watch other sports, a clip came on showing that the US men won, so I knew the outcome, but still had to watch the race myself. It was amazing! That swim has to go down in the books as one of the best all time wins in athletic history. If you didn't see it, you must watch it. Jason Lezak came from behind in the last leg to win the race by a mere mili-second. I had chills watching it. Here's the link, if you missed it, http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/share.html?videoid=0811_HD_SWB_HL_L0194.

Seeing all of the competitive action really makes me miss being a competitive athlete. It's so inspiring to hear stories of comebacks and especially to see 32 year old Jason Lezak break the all time record for fastest 100 m split in a relay. And have you seen the women's Beach Volleyball?? Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh kick butt. They are really great to watch, and I have never really been a big beach volleyball fan, but you have to see them. Although I doubt I will ever really become that competitive in running, it does give me a little more motivation to keep at it. Maybe once I get old and gray and I am still running, I'll hit my prime and be able to at least win in my age group!

So enough about the Olympics, although I think if you aren't watching it, you should! For an update on my fundraising, I have currently raised $4,017.20!! I am not far off from my fundraising goal and even closer to my fundraising minimum of $4100! Thank you so much to everyone who has donated and supported me. I truly don't think I can ever thank you guys enough! I am getting closer and closer to the marathon and will definitely be thankful to everyone for helping to get me there!

half marathon down.

I am about 10 weeks away from the marathon and I am so anxious to get out there! I know I am going to have a blast and will be with some great people. This past Saturday I ran a little over a half marathon distance (13.5 miles), which is huge to me at this point in time. It felt great and I actually ran more than I ran 11.5 miles. I didn't have my typical running partners, but found a new one, Bess. She was great to keep me entertained and my mind off of things. I also found a new love of energy gels. It's amazing how well they work and you seriously don't believe it til you try them. I felt a little achy in my muscles and before I knew it, I was running full speed ahead!

I got to about mile 8 and I ran out of gel so I was going to try the Powerade Bar that we got at our nutrition meeting. I took several small bites and managed to get them down, even though it was quite gritty and chewing while running is hard enough. So in an attempt to get my hands free, I took a big bite and continued to chew and chew and chew.  I thought I would try and get it down with a little bit of water... remember I just said running and chewing was hard enough, now I am trying to attempt to drink too?! It didn't go so well. I ended up choking a little bit and it all ended up going up into my nose. I felt like I was swimming and got chlorine in my nose! I coughed and coughed. Thankfully it didn't slow me down too much, but I will have to remember not to try that again!

Those 13.5 miles definitely kicked my butt though. I could barely walk on Saturday because of my hip flexor was sore and tight. I've been slowly recovering the past couple of days and slept in a little this morning in an attempt to rest all that I can. Between keeping up with my dad working last week and the run on Saturday, I need a vacation! There is a big difference between running 10 miles and 13 miles and how my body responds. I just hope that my body at some point catches up and gets much stronger, cause if the pain double with the mileage, it's going  to be a long road ahead! But it's definitely not going to stop me!

On a sad note... unfortunately dealing with this type of cause, there is more than likely going to be a sad note. The mother of one of my teammates, Stephanie Young, passed away on July 29. Virginia Carnes had been battling Leukemia for a long time and it came down to that there wasn't anything else they could do. So please, please, keep her family in your thoughts and prayers. I know this is a difficult time for them. Here is Stephanie's page if you are interested...  http://pages.teamintraining.org/sc/nikesf08/syoung