Week 1: Getting started

Heading out for my long run

Kilometres this week: 29 kms
Other training - 1 hour yoga
Funds raised so far: $250

I'm rather arbitrarily referring to this as my first week of training for San Francisco. It isn't really - in the sense that I've known since January that I wanted to run the Nike Women's Marathon as a TNT participant and have been training regularly towards that goal.  But, for reporting purposes, I have to start counting somewhere.  So, let's call this Week 1.

It wasn't a big week in terms of mileage because I've begun tapering for a marathon I plan to run next month, and my husband was in town to celebrate our wedding anniversary. My total of just 29 kms was a big decrease from 70 kms I ran the week before. However, today's long run was not without its challenges.  Last weekend, when I ran 36kms, it was in cool and rainy 10 degree conditions. Today, I managed only half that distance when temperatures soared to 28 degrees (plus humidity). Neither my body nor my psyche were ready for such a sudden change in weather conditions. When I started to feel dizzy from the heat and dehydration, discretion seemed the better part of valour, and I turned towards home.  I'll try to squeeze in an extra 10km run tomorrow night to make up for the shorter distance today.


In terms of fundraising, things are starting fairly slpwly. So far, my only sponsors are my husband and myself but I plan to send initial appeals to friends and family this week, and to begin thinking about what kind of special event I can organize for later this summer. It would be nice to get most of my fundraising done by mid-summer - before the worst of my longest training weeks begins - but I'll have to get busy to make that happen.

This week, we learned that the TNT Flex Team is up to 65 members across the country - and many of them are running for loved ones they've lost to leukemia or lymphoma. We even have a few survivors on the team.  So - if ever I start feeling unmotivated in the coming months, there will be no shortage of people to inspire me to keep training and fundraising for this great cause.

Here's something to think about this week:  This year in Canada, 1 person will die from blood cancer every 72 minutes.  That's seems to me to be reason enough to keep fighting.