Celebrate!

As my title for this post suggests, it's time to celebrate some great news in terms of honored teammates! Teresa Martinez (the cute pregnant woman in remission from CML that I first met when I signed up for TNT) had a baby boy on April 16th and both are healthy and happy : ) Erin Johannson, another honored teammate passed her one year scan Lymphoma-free! And finally I wanted to tell you a little about Beka Malloy, our newest honored teammate who recently had some exciting news herself! In January of this year after a routine blood work-up Beka received some shocking news: her white blood cell count was abnormally high, and her doctor suspected Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML). The next day Beka was admitted to Cottage Hospital, where she actually works as a nurse, to undergo more testing. Ironically, her grandmother had passed away in that same hospital less than a year before from a different type of leukemia so for her, the experience was truly surreal. She spent 3 days at the hospital until it was confirmed that she had the Philadelphia Chromosome which then confirmed that she had this specific type of leukemia. Her 9th and 22nd chromosome were breaking off and making their own chromosome (the Philadelphia Chromosome) which was causing the rapid proliferation of white blood cells. Because this chromosome was isolated, Beka was able to start taking Gleevec an oral chemotherapy that targets only those Philadelphia Chromosomes (and is the same drug, developed in labs funded by LLS, that put Teresa into remission!). Beka has experienced fatigue, bone pain, nausea, and thinning hair as side effects but these have all been worth it—Beka’s blood counts are now on the low side of normal and, even more exciting, she recently entered the first stage of remission!!

Training has been going really well with our runs getting steadily longer. Last Saturday Seattle runners did 2 hours 15 minutes starting at East Beach, running to Leadbetter and up to the Mesa, then back toward the cemetery and the Biltmore. On my way back to East Beach I got a little surprise when I heard my name and turned to see Danielle Stead, a gphi who graduated last year and is a former TNT participant, running behind me! D Stead (as we call her) actually introduced me to TNT my freshman year and ironically I had just been telling Erin about her that morning - small world, right? Danielle and a bunch of other gphi alums were in town for the All-Sorority Volleyball Tournament (ASVT), the biggest greek event of the year. So as soon as we finished our run Sarah and I rushed home to get ready - only to return to East Beach 2 hours later for the tournament!

Having fun at ASVT after a long run!

Track Wednesday wasn't too bad. Coach Neal wanted us to have a "mental" workout, so we did 12 laps (3 miles) straight so that we could deal with the monotony that we could face in our race. We were supposed to run at our race pace (I've dropped mine from 12 min/per mile to 11 min based on how I've been doing during long runs), but couldn't help running faster knowing that we were only doing 3 miles. At practice I was also surprised to hear that it's just about time to get a new pair of shoes! I guess I hadn't realized just how many miles I've already put on them.

On to fundraising! My thank-you this week goes to Mike & Dawn Cooper : ) Also, tomorrow Sarah and I are hosting a Spaghetti Feed Fundraiser at our house!! A few local grocery stores donated some of the food so hopefully we should make a decent profit. So excited! I'll post after to let you all know how it goes. Until then, I will leave with a quote by A.C. Green that I hope you find as inspiring as I do: "Tough times don't last but tough people do."