My first involvement with Team in Training was as a participant. I had signed up to run the Honolulu Marathon. My primary motivation was fitness, initially, but as I thought more about why I was doing this, I realized that it was like a circle closing.

Nearly twenty years previous to that first season, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease. I went through a year of weekly chemotherapy sessions and three months of radiation treatments. I lost a lot of weight (and most of my hair.) My knees did not function well, due to one of the drugs (fortunately, this was reversible once I finished treatment), so my infant running routine disappeared. I was left with a lot of fatigue and no endurance.

I had a recurrence of Hodgkin’s not quite five years later. This time I was treated at Stanford, and it was six months of “aggressive” chemotherapy. This left me with even less energy than before (but I was alive!)

Thus, years later – after many well-intentioned but short-lived exercise routines – I signed up with TNT. I figured that the structure and the support (as well as promising hundreds of friends, family, and friends-of-my-mother that I was running a marathon) would keep me on track and help me through the inevitable aches and pains. I was right, and in December 1997, I finished the Honolulu Marathon.

I had so much fun I signed up for the next season as well – aiming to run the first ever Rock n Roll Marathon in San Diego. But about a month into the season I noticed a lump in my left breast. After another month of doctors, consultations, mammograms and a biopsy, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I learned later that it was extremely likely that it was connected to the earlier radiation treatments.

Finishing the Rock n Roll Marathon became a life-affirming goal for me. I continued training for it, around my mastectomy and then chemotherapy appointments. The TNT staff were quite supportive, and the coaches helped me devise a slightly altered training plan.

The first Rock n Roll Marathon had some difficulties - it started late, it was hot, and they ran out of water before slow runners like me got to some stops [they’ve since corrected that deficiency!] But I actually felt pretty good - the fact that I was there at all overshadowed any problems. I finished just a few minutes slower than Honolulu, and I felt much better.

I celebrated my last chemo with the 1-mile walk at the Race For the Cure, with a number of friends there with me. One of my coaches won his division in the 5k for me – it was a gloriously beautiful morning in Golden Gate Park.

I came back the following Spring season to run the Mayor’s Midnight Sun Marathon, and have since switched to mountain biking. I was a “newbie” when I joined the first MTB team, in the Summer of 2000. I learned a lot about bike handling and pacing, and finished all 55 miles at Moab, amidst gorgeous red rock and canyons. When TNT offered a multi-day event (Adventure on the Arizona Trail) the next year, I signed up for that, too, and rode every day, amazed at how much I learned even from day to day.

To keep things interesting, I signed up for an Adventure Race with TNT in Spring 2004. I’m not sure I’ll ever do that again, but it was (mostly) fun. Ask me about it and I’ll tell you about our three-person team rolling in the mud (fun) and swimming fully clothed (not.)

I’m married (he surfs and dives); we’re doing a lot of work on our 100-year old Victorian, and we have more cats than we should (anybody want one?)

GO LONG!

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 15th, 2005 at 9:33 pm and is filed under 2005, 2006 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.