TNT Kick-Off!

Last night we had our TNT Kick-off party at the Double Tree hotel. It was a large group containing TNT participants for a number of endurance events: The Nike Women's Marathon, Nike Women's half-marathon, The Peach of a Century (cycling event?), The Triathalon at Pacific Grove, and of course, the Portland Marathon. Many of the marathon participants were training to walk the marathon. I hadn't even considered that it'd take training to walk 26.2 miles, but come to think of it, I suppose it would!

We got to meet our team coaches, mentors, and all the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Oregon Chapter officers and contacts. We've been getting emails from our mentors for a while now, so it was nice to put a face to the names.

Also, part of the evening was dedicated to our honored teammates. These are a group of people we'll get to meet and talk with... who are intended to inspire our efforts at both fund-raising for LLS and for training towards our respective events.

As I learned earlier this week, my honored teammate is a 9-year-old boy named Gabriel. Gabriel is currently undergoing treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. I'm not sure what that is, or what Gabriel has gone through so far since he was diagnosed, but I now have 5 months to get to know him and hear all about his experiences fighting his disease.

Here is a picture of Gabriel I was sent. He wasn't able to make it to the kickoff meeting, so I haven't met him in person yet, but according to the time stamp, this picture was taken on St. Patrick's Day weekend roughly 2 months ago.



He looks like he has loads of personality, doesn't he? I think I'm going to enjoy getting to know him. It's weird to think that 5 months is a lifetime for people being treated for a blood cancer. Sometimes months is all you have after being diagnosed. Gabriel is doing good though, he was diagnosed back in December of 2005, back when he was 7 years old. He's put up a great fight for 1.5 years so far! It's going to be interesting knowing him through his current treatment for his blood cancer. Here's hoping for remission!

Anyway, everything gets to officially start now. My first group run is Saturday. My 6-days a week training begins Saturday... it's all very exciting!

... oh yeah, and by the way, my ankle is perhaps slightly stiff late at night and early in the morning, but for the most part it feels fine now. I'm glad I didn't seriously hurt myself this week!!!