Mile 1

My training officially starts on December 14th. That will be day one of the 6am Saturday wake up calls, meeting my team at our training sight, and racking up those miles.

My focus has been getting a good start on my fundraising, and thanks to my amazing family and friends, I can't believe I am just $45 short of my first goal of $800 by November 30th!

I'm currently holding on to three jobs, working at LLS during the day, 15-20 hours at the local YMCA in the evenings and weekends, and I am usually subbing for a local private school at least once a week, so finding time to start training on my own has been tough.

I had hoped by working at the Y, I would be more motivated to workout..well, when you work there 4-5 times a week, on my one evening off, I don't really feel like going into "work" to workout.

Luckily, there are 25 YMCA locations in Central Florida, so one evening I was able to go to a different site and get a start on building up a little pre-training endurance.

I have flat feet and it causes really bad shin splints. I had special shoe incerts made for me in high school that help support my falling arch. It helps, but never prevents it. So, it's important for me to start slow.

I was on the track and field team from 6th grade through senior year of high school. I enjoyed being active and part of the team, but I HATED running. My sport specialities included races that were over quickly and required very little running. I ran/jumped 100 meter hurtles for 7 years and my senior year I started triple jump.

As you can see, I prefered events that are over very quickly....

I used to skip out of our long runs, find ways to avoid them, or jump in with friends who had already ran half the workout and say I did it too (sorry Coach Ski).

So, that is why running a 1/2 marathon is going to be such a struggle for me. I don't enjoy running, I don't do it often, I get bored, my mind wanders, and I almost always talk myself out of it.

I went to the gym the other night and ran my first mile. YIPPEE! Now, I know running on a treadmill is very different than running outside, but I figured it's a good way to get my endurance built up before the training begins.

Brisk walk for half a mile(4.0-4.5 level)

Fast-paced run for a mile (5.5-6.0 level)

Brisk walk for half a mile (4.0)

Running about a 10-11 minute mile.

I ended the evening with an hour and half ballet class, getting back to my dancer roots. 

As hard as training is going to be, it is no where near how tough fighting cancer is for patients. Please help me raise money for the LLS and their fight against blood cancer. Please join me in this fight by donating to my fundraising page:

Kate's TNT Fundraising Page

*UPDATE: thanks to my lovely bestie Sara, I am only $20 away from my FIRST GOAL, BOOM!*

20/20

LASIK eye surgery was the best decision I ever made, and I want to tell you why.

I got glasses when I was in third grade. In all honesty, my best friend had glasses, so I failed my eye exam at school so I could go to the eye doctor and get glasses just like her…stupid I know, but I was 8, we all do stupid things.

I may not have needed them right away, but my dad has had glasses almost his entire life, so it was inevitable that I would get them eventually. 

Turns out I hated wearing glasses, so I ended up squinting my way through school for the next three years until I got to 6th grade and had no choice but to do something about it. I was able to get soft contact lenses and wore them every day for the next 15 years. My eye sight kept getting worse and every year I had to get stronger and stronger prescriptions. 

Although, I am grateful for contacts, they were so annoying. Swimming was tough, they got dry, I couldn't' sleep in them, and if I lost one I was screwed.

Even the morning after my wedding I couldn't find where I had kept the pair I had been wearing and I didn't have any extras, I was almost going to have to wear my glasses all the honeymoon…no way!

I had been wanting to get LASIK eye surgery for many years, but never had the money and kept putting it off. I also was lazy about making an eye doctor appointment, so for three years I didn't go to the doctor. I had been putting money into a health savings account for a year and half and I told myself, when I went to the eye doctor, if my eye sight hadn't changed in three years, I would go ahead with the surgery.

Well, it hadn't changed and I made my consultation. My eye doctor said my eyes were the perfect candidate for the surgery, I was the right age, the right blindness, and they took well to the pressure. So I bit the bullet and made the surgery appointment!

I was nervous about it, but asked many friends about their experiences, and everyone said positive things!

They tested my eyes before and the doctor said the only thing I could see was the large E on the chart, and it was still blurry. I was suited up for surgery and waited my turn. My doctor only does surgeries on Thursdays, so everyone there was in the for the same thing. The surgery room is out in the open and you can choose to watch the other patients…I chose not too, but it was nice to see each one come out happy.

Then it was my turn. They had me lay down on the bed and put numbing drops in each eye. Next, they put springs in my right eye to keep it open--I was most nervous for this part, but I couldn't feel a thing. And I was moved under the machine. The doctor told me exactly what was going to happen, so I was prepared. First there was pressure on my eye, that caused my eye to black out for a few seconds, then my vision slowly came back. He then used a blade to cut the time layer (couldn't even feel it). Then came the laser. I first say a red dot and I focused on that, as the laser happened the red dot began looking more like a firework and then it stopped! The doctor moved the flap back over my eye, smoothed it out, and it was over! He did the left eye and it was all done. I was in and out in less than 10 minutes. And right away I could see 75% better. It was amazing.

They took me back to the exam room and already I could read the lines on the board. It was really quite amazing.

I got to leave in some sweet shades and my sister in law drove us home. My eyes were uncomfortable but not painful. I slept for a few hours and kept up with my drops. Again, they were uncomfortable, but I was never in pain. Felt sort of like when my contacts would feel dry, or like I had something in it, but this time I couldn't make it go away. I was able to drive to St. Louis the next day!

My drops were white, so it looked like I was crying milk

I am now over three months post op and have 20/20 in my right eye and 20/15 in my left! At night I still have some rings around lights, but it doesn't cause any problems.

Seriously, if you are even considering in the slightest getting LASIK I will recommend it 110%! Even to this day, when I'm getting ready for bed or work, I am relieved I don't have to deal with contacts, I can wake up and see right away, and I can fall asleep watching TV.

Live Your Best Life Today

On November 6, 1988, Bruce Cleland assembled a NYC Marathon team to raise money in honor of his daughter, a leukemia survivor.

38 runners raised $322,000 for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) work to discover new treatments for blood cancers. Those 38 runners were the first Team In Training.

Bruce learned that his two-year old daughter, Georgia, had been diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia. "In a word, it was terrifying." Bruce recalls, "At that time, whenever I heard someone had leukemia, it was usually a death sentence. In those days the survival rate was only about 5 percent." 

Beating the odds, little Georgia went into remission after two years of rigorous chemotherapy and radiation treatment. But the experience left Bruce feeling restless---and determined to act. One night, while tossing and turning in bed, Bruce hatched a crazy, ambitious idea: to run the upcoming 1988 New York City Marathon in Georgia's honor.

"It seemed like a really difficult thing to do, but a heroic thing to do," Bruce, a former rugby player, explains. "I thought if I could get some other people involved and form a team where we all depend on each other and leaned on each other, all had a common goal of raising money for a very worthy cause like leukemia research…it just seemed to me that that might work." 

In today's world, the concept of running a marathon for charity is commonplace. But back in 1988, Bruce's notion was something of a novelty--marathons were seen as a lofty feat, reserved for only the most prestigious of athletes. "Some people called me crazy, but pretty quickly a lot of other people started signing on," Bruce says.

 During the next 25 years, LLS's Team In Training (TNT) has become the leader in endurance sports training for charity, funding significant therapies like chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants, which have a significant impact on blood cancer patients.

Today, LLS funds only the most promising advances; targeted therapies like Gleevec^®, Velcade^® and Dacogen^® take aim at cancer cells, and destroy them. Immunotherapies use a patient's own immune system to kill cancer. And the repurposing of existing drugs for arthritis and antifungals to fight specific leukemias are breakthroughs that allow patients to live their best life, today.

TNT and LLS fundraising efforts through marathons, triathlons, cycling and hiking really are making cures happen. 

Visit My Team In Training Fundraising Page to make a donation for a better life today