"In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love." ~ Mother Teresa

You may have noticed my two new links to the right. They will take you directly to my fundraising page if you care to follow them. I put those up the other day and bombarded my friends on Facebook asking for donations. If you are my friend over on FB, so sorry for the repeat here. But to me, its well worth it. And it may happen a lot over the next 5 months until I reach my goal. 

Come mid Saturday morning I will have completed my first training run with my other fall season teammates. I am not at all ready. Just am not. My head and my body have been less then cooperative. I ran the Huntington Beach Half Marathon at the beginning of February and then a mere week and a half later, Danny and Caitlin lost our sweet Gracie. And my running, stopped. Completely. I have been trying to work back up to, at the very least, not gasping for air on a 3 miler but boy, when you haven't run for that long of time, it is like starting from scratch. But start I will and by October 20th I will hopefully be more then ready. Fitting I should be running in October as October the 29th will be the 5 year mark since Zoey's diagnosis of Actute Myelogenous Leukemia. 5 years.Crazy how times goes.

And, it will have been nearly 4 years since I decided to jump head first or rather feet first, into my first marathon. Zoey was just newly out of treatment and I thought what better way to give back then to raise funds for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Sounded easy enough. Boy, was I ever wrong.

I was emotionally and physically exhausted after spending nearly 8 months on the oncology floor at CHLA with Zoey and the last thing I should have been doing was training for a marathon. But I did and it was hard. Really hard. But I expected that. However, what I did not expect was the emotions attached to the experience. The joy and sadness that I carried with me on that run through San Francisco. The images of my daughters face and all of her friends and their precious faces, that propelled me forward at every turn and with every breath sucking hill. And wow, were there hills. I thought about all the kids I had met over the months and thought about one very special adult,another mom, Pat, who should be here in this world with their families but were inexplicably not. All because we have no cure yet for these blood cancers. So simple but yet so completely complicated. Have we made great strides? Absolutely we have. But we need cure. We must get to cure.

4 years later and here we are. And there have been other new diagnoses of people we have come to know and love. There have been relapses, a few times over for some, of those that we love. And with broken and shattered hearts, we have lost far too many of those we have loved. That little litany that I just wrote, has got to end. And that is why I have chosen to fundraise and run in the Nike Women's Marathon once again. This will be my 4th time on that course. My 4th time that my motivation is borne from a desire to see all blood cancers eradicated. For good.

Last year I believe that the Nike Women's Marathon was able to raise upwards of 18 million dollars for LLS. Isn't that incredible? This year another 25,000 or so runners will strive to surpass that amount. I intend to do my part. Will you please consider helping me? No amount is too little. And all amounts are greatly and most humbly appreciate. Go here to make a donation.

I will thank you in advance from my little warrior girl, who in a few weeks, June 2nd to be exact, will hit 4 years since she was released from treatment. We are so grateful to reach that milestone. So blessed to be at this juncture. We move forward each day knowing how tremendously lucky we are. How tremendously lucky Zoey is, that she remains in remission. We want everyone who is diagnosed to reach this milestone. And one day, as we hope, to be able to confidently speak the word ... CURED.

Until next time,

Heather