One, For the Money ...

The money.  When you get down to it, that is what Team in Training is all about - to raise money in support of the mission of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, which is to cure blood cancers and give to support to patients and their families.  It is a big, big job and requires lots of money.  I can't, on my own, raise but a tiny fraction of what is needed - but I can do that.  As I wrote several years ago, little raindrops can turn into raging rivers, and so the generous people I know will provide some of those "raindrops."  Someday, I pray that the raging river will sweep cancers of all kinds away.  This is the 25th year of Team in Training, and collectively, we have raised $1.3 billion to support that mission.  That's a lot of raindrops!

With TNT, I raise most of my money with my web page, which I am still setting up.  We get a "plain vanilla" web site all set up when we join, but I always want to customize that with my own message.  So that is my first task to prepare for raising the money.  I hope to finish that by the weekend.  An artist friend is going to help me with a clever (I think) photo for it.  And I've set my theme for the Crawlin' Crab Half Marathon: "I'm Feeling Crabby About Cancer."

Actually, I am more than crabby: I'm steamed!  I personally know 8 people who are battling cancer right now.  Two of them are terminal, a third learned yesterday that he will likely be on chemo the rest of his life because it is more or less keeping the cancer in check for now but not reducing it.  Two of my four step-sisters have learned in the last few months that they have cancer: uterine and lymphoma.  And the list of 8 people does not include the wife of a co-worker who is dying of stomach cancer at 40-something or the mother of a friend who has lymphoma.

I've set my fundraising goal: $6,511.  Odd number?  Well:

• 6 for my sixth TNT event (Anchorage, San Diego, and Arizona marathons, and the Country Music and Seattle half-marathons were my prior ones)
• 5 for the friends and family who have died from cancer since I last did Team in Training in 2010: my friend Judy from myeloma in 2011, my step-mother-in-law Magdalena in 2011 from pancreatic, my sister Ann from breast in 2011, my friend Faith from Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2012, and my friend Ed from melanoma in 2013 (after suriving leukemia 24 years before).  Two were in their early 40's, two were in their early to mid 60's, and one was in her 80's.
• 11 for me becoming an 11 year survivor of Hodgkin's lymphoma officially later this month

Now, hopefully by next week, I can have website finished and get my first fundraising emails out to start making progress towards my goal.  I went to a recruiting meeting Tuesday night, and since I have already signed up, it was a chance to catch up with some friends and some friends-to-be who are involved with Team in Training.  It is a really good group of people, all trying to make a tiny difference in the world.  To ultimately cure cancer, and that takes money - lots and lots of money.