Gorgeous sunshine for our Team in Training day today! (photos)

Beautiful view along our TNT training route today.  Who knew 6 miles could be so easy?

Beautiful smiles to match a beautiful day! 

Training Friday 2/19

Cross training today, exercycle & STRETCH, STRETCH, STRETCH.  Oh & breathing exercises to help increase lung capacity (concern d/t radiation treatment after breast cancer!)

Group TNT training tomorrow am.  Will try to snap some better pics.

2010 Race for the Roses Team in Training photos & notes

We're all excited about taking on the commitment to raise funds for LLS & train together for better health.

Retail therapy...er...proper footwear purchases.

A training outing with new friends, one of our Honored Teammates, and Mentor Ceara.

NO, THAT'S WARM UP STRETCHES!

Our walk/run mentor Ceara (left). She's a tiny little thing, and FAST!

Walking on the track can be boring but winds up being a lot of fun when shared w/ great comrades!

I Believe in Miracles

I have experienced what I consider miracles, of a sort.
Experiences so astounding to me that I cannot relegate them to the category of ordinary expectations.
Miracles both spiritual and physical.

The one that's easiest to share? I grew an inch when I was 22. Weird to consider this a miracle, huh?

But here's the focal part for me: I grew because I intensely YEARNED to grow that inch.

I know, that's an odd thing to really WANT, right? But the yearning is a memory almost visceral: I remember how I was sitting on my sofa, what direction I was facing, the position in which I was sitting, and how I felt in that moment. And then ... I just forgot about it & went on with life. Yet I can still remember that exact moment in my living room.

And guess what? A couple months later I was silently cursing my dry cleaners who must have shrunk my now too-short wool pants! But when I laughingly stood up against a wall for my friend to measure my height while she was measuring her kids I just about fainted with surprise! There was my inch! I made her check 3 times!!!

No, really, you say, what's the big deal?

Well actually, it's very unusual for women, especially those who are petite, to grow any taller in their 20's. I'm still not all that tall (probably part of why I wanted it so much!)

Other experiences are so emotionally profound that expressing in words is like letting the air out of a balloon - words fail.

I believe it is only these experiences that allow me to love and hope.

I want a lot of things:
I want my grandchildren, when they are adults, to ask "Cancer? What was that?"
I want chemotherapy and radiation treatments to be obsolete.
I want Oncology practitioners and nurses to have to look for another line of work because of lack of need for their expertise.
I want all parents never to fear that dreaded news from a doctor.

I want, out of a crowd of thousands, when a speaker asks "Who knows someone who has been touched by cancer?" for one hand of a VERY elderly person to be the only one raised.

I YEARN for this day.

Some might think this is impossible, but please remember one important thing:
I believe in miracles.