Team in Training

I’m taking a break from recipes today to ask for your help.  I mentioned before that for the last 3 years, my husband and I participated in Team in Training and completed the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon for two years, and that I did the Half marathon in Chicago last year.  Well, this year I decided to take a break because….it’s hard!  My husband still has a lot of desire and ambition to do it again, so earlier this year, he went back to training and due to some ice on the ground, fell and broke his leg.  It’s all healed, and he had weeks of physical therapy after the cast was off, and now he is running again training for the Rock in Roll Marathon in January in Arizona.  One of the reasons we chose Team in Training was because in lieu of us raising money to help fight blood cancers, we get top notch training and the support of all our coaches as well as tons of other people who join and the camaraderie of completing such a challenging event with other fantastic people. This is where I need your help, if you could check out his web page  and donate what you can, that would be fantastic!

I just want to share a story about a couple we met our first year of training.  Mimi and Doug.  They were running and raising money for their son Keegan who was diagnosed with Leukemia when he was 7.  He came to training with his parents and older brother and younger sister.  When I was looking at their family, my husband and I noticed their kids were about the exact same age as our kids.  The kids came to several training runs as motivation to why we were out there and what the money we were raising for was actually for, saving kids like Keegan.  Afterwards, we spoke with the parents and not only was their 7 year old battling cancer, their young daughter who was about 2 at the time was born with a chromosomal disorder and she needed constant care as well.  As we were driving home from that training, I thought to myself how lucky my husband and I were that we had three healthy kids and we were healthy, and how sad I was for this family.  Fast forward to the next year, David and I trained again. Their family was back.  Keegan needed a bone marrow transplant and no one in his immediate family was a match.  We went to a bone marrow/blood drive for Keegan.  A match was finally found and we hoped the best for their family.  Meanwhile, their daughter was getting sicker and she passed away at the age of 3 from complications from the disorder she was born with.  I thought, what else can this family endure?  Keegan had the bone marrow transplant, we got updates each week about his prognosis.  We kept training for our event, when one week about a month before the marathon, we got the news everyone was dreading.  Keegan had a reaction to the bone marrow transplant and passed away at the age of 8.  I’ll never forget going to their house after the funeral. (I get tears in my eyes just thinking about it).  The Mom, Mimi had set out all the foods he loved, big bowls of M&M’s, cracker jacks, candy corn, his favorite cereal. There were tons of pictures of all their kids which now was down to one.  I felt almost guilty going there with my 3 healthy children who were an exact replica of what their family had been.  So, that is one reason why my husband is running again, to prevent things like this from happening to another family.  If you are interested in learning more about Team in Training, or would like to train for a marathon, half marathon, triathlon, go to www.teamintraining.org.

Thanks for your support!