Spring Team 2010 Breakfast

Today was a fun morning with the spring team. It was somewhere between frigid and colder than hell, but by the time we all gathered for a team breakfast at Kitchen 64, the cold start felt like history. Swan Lake was frozen over for only the second time I can remember since I started Team in Training in 2005:

Faith, a recent stage 4 Hodgkin lymphoma survivor, come out on this cold Saturday morning to tell our team her moving story as a mission moment. Faith, as I blogged before, didn't just sit around while enduring chemotherapy - she got involved in Light the Night and raised thousands of dollars. Here are Faith and I, both HL survivors, just before training started:

Today was the first time in over a month since I managed to see the spring team. They are a great group of people, they truly are. And today, we did one of my favorite training routes: across the James and along Riverside Drive. Here are three of the walk team on the Boulevard Bridge - Coach Kristi, Angie, and Mindy:

The views of the river along this route are beautiful:

I did about seven miles today, counting two laps around the lake. Mostly I walked, but I got in a mile or two of running on the way back. Here is another view of the James from further along the route:

There are four major types of blood cancer. This group of six of us involved with the Spring Team have survived all four types between us. Everyone of us has or shortly will have done a marathon, half-marathon, triathlon, or 100 mile cycle event, all as cancer survivors. So if you or someone you know has cancer, take heart! You can not only survive, not only regain health, but you can regain strength and endurance. From left: Ed (leukemia survivor, as well as three other cancers), Barb (multiple myeloma survivor), Art (Hodgkin lymphoma survivor), Mindy (multiple myeloma survivor), Kristi (Hodgkin lymphoma and thyroid cancer survivor), and Nicki (non-Hodgkin lymphoma survivor)

We survivors humbly and gratefully thank everyone anywhere doing Team in Training or are involved in some other way in the war against cancers. Included in this group is the Richmond Spring Team, some of whom are pictured below: all warm and content with full bellies. GO TEAM!