Silent Mile

Today, Team in Training had its Silent Mile Ceremony. Although I am not officially on the team, I was invited to come and speak. It is always wonderful to see the various teams - cycle, run/walk, and triathlon - in one place. In this case, it was the newly formed Summer Team. However, a couple members of the Spring team were there as well. One of these is my fellow-survivor Nicki, who has a big "birthday" coming up Monday. Nicki will be the subject of Monday's post. She and I will both be running the Shamrock Half Marathon in three weeks.

The last time I was at a Silent Mile for me, it was a big day - my birthday back in July! Yesterday, we had people present who have survived every one of the four major blood cancers - Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, leukemia, Hodgkin's lymphoma, and multiple myeloma. One survivor, Paul, is currently undergoing chemo for CLL, had to get radiation for a tumor behind his eye, and is looking into a very risky bone marrow transplant, but he has not given up on the idea of riding 100 miles in June at Lake Tahoe! How's that for true grit? I always feel inspired by the stories of the survivors, and their bravery in facing their never-fun treatments.

After the speaking was finished we posed for a group photo, and then we were off to do the first mile in silence as remembrance of those who have lost their fight with cancer. 12 miles was on the training schedule for Shamrock yesterday, and that is what Nicki was doing. But I had a meeting in Virginia Beach at 2, and had to leave her after a mile and a half. I felt bad knowing she would be running alone that long. Of course, so would I later, but I would have rather run with Nicki. Along our route for that first mile and a half were signs reminding us of the mission, and I will share a few photos of these. Later this week, I will report on my long run Saturday afternoon in a wildlife refuge through what felt like a gale.