Doctors who Care

Hi Everyone:
I want to share something very significant with you today. When I woke up this morning, Jason, my husband, insisted that I check out my fundraising website (www.active.com/donate/tntnyc/tntnycsblack). I went to the kitchen for coffee first and he followed with his laptop. This is a first for the laptop! So I wait as the out-of-date half-n-half curdles in my coffee-ARGH!- and the computer comes on and the site is opened. I have no reached $3200 of my $4000 goal! How?

So we watch as the names of those who have chosen to show the world what they donated to the site...and it comes up: Dr. Michael Kovacs $250. Now three people have generously donated $250 each to my site, including Dr. Kovacs. This one, however, is extra special to me.

When I was first diagnosed, I was encouraged to get a journal to record my appointments in. When you go through any kind of cancer treatment this is a good idea as your appointments are numerous, each very important. So I did. Dr. Kovacs wins hands down for the person I visited the most during my treatment, 12 years ago, in London, Ontario, Canada at the London Regional Cancer Center. He was the head of my oncology team. And after all this time,I've not so much as sent a note or visited. But I send him a letter now, telling him how grateful I am for his efforts in my survival and explaining to him what I am finally doing to show the world how grateful I am...and he donates to my site!

This means so much to me. I can physically, emotionally, and spiritually feel a huge part of me healing like some kind of miracle. The feeling is similar to the one I experienced durning my last appoinment on April 23, 1996 when I was told that I was clear of cancer. With Dr. Kovac's help, and his team of doctors, nurses, radiologists, hematologists and my family and friends, I have not had to look back. And yet now, I feel like I am standing on a mountain and as I turn around to look at the path that I have tread to this moment, I feel so much love and honor for the life I have been given a second chance at.

Thank you for reading this, I know it's been funny up until today. I promise to give you all the detailed antics of my continued training. But today I wanted to share with you the significance of this donation. There are others who have made my day brighter and brought me closer to my goal as well: my cousin Barb, whose father is my uncle who lost his battle to leukemia when he was twenty, my best friend Lil, whose mom lost her battle to breast cancer, my best friend Rachael whose mom lost her battle to lung cancer..the list goes on.

I want to thank everyone for their generosity, their opening of hearts and wallets alike. We are making it possible for those who cannot afford treatment to receive the financial aid they so desperately need, we are making it possible for researchers to make more and more sense out of what blood cancer is and how it works and how to stop it from taking more lives. We are making it possible for more people to have a second chance at life...and possibly creating an opportunity for more people to find their way to whatever marathon they have always dreamed of conquering.

The journal my mom gave me to record my appointments in is a journal I cherish. She picked it because of a poem it had on the front of it. Reading it now, is like a huge shining ray of light from heaven telling me that I have always been on the right path and it has led me to this very journey that I am on now:

Don't Quit- by Jill Wolf

Don't quit when the tide is lowest,
For it's just about to turn;
Don't quit over doubts and questions,
For there's something you may learn.

Don't quit when the night is darkest,
For it's just a while 'til dawn;
Don't quit when you've run the farthest,
For the race is almost won.

Don't quit when the hill is steepest,
For your goal is almost nigh;
Don't quit, for you're not a failure
Until you fail to try.

Weird, huh? More like Divine Intervention!

With love and gratitude for the morning sun everyday,
Shannon

Lunging Lunatic!

Why on earth does your body not scream at you half way through 90 lunges saying, " STOP ALREADY, you STUPID HUMAN?!" I was so excited, after doing some reading about my knee pain. My quad is weak and causing a "beginner injury or soreness." DUH, who said I was anything but a beginner! So I wanted to deal with the knee weakness and kick up my muscle strengthening exercises.

The plan organically unfolded at the gym this past weekend after sucking down a gel pack of energy pudding like substance containing caffeine. I began with core work on the stability ball, in between those sets I did squats. After that I began the lunging lunacy. I read that when strengthening for running it's recommended to do 3 sets of 15 reps. When you do alternating lunges doing 15 reps means that ultimately you only do 7 lunges with one leg and 8 on the other. I can't do that! One pant leg of my pants will be tighter than the other. YUCK! In order to even it all out, I decide to do 3 sets of 30 alternating lunges!!!! It gets worse...I mean I feel GOOD! Keep going, girl! So I took care of the abductors, and even managed, though I could feel "spaghetti" legs beginning, quad extensions. At this point, I have only a slight sense that I may have over done it. So to counteract the aformentioned exercises I decide to hit the elliptical for 20 mins and then 15 mins on the moving stair machine (not sure of official name for this cardio equipment). I stretch, shower and head out for the day.

After seeing an Evening School performance of no less than 2 and 1/2 hours, I tell my husband that I would benefit from a short walk to keep my legs from seizing up completely. Spaghetti legs has now turned into a sensation similar to that prior to fainting, when your legs give out. The short walks turns into a mile..we are on our way to our friend Camille's for dinner. We finally opt for public transportation to find that the "weekend" service of the 1/2/3 line is quite different from weekday service. This leads to another mile of walking (or more, it certainly felt this way) to finally find her apt! And what do we do upon arrival? Drink wine! Hello! Dehydration!!

The ultimate conclusion to this over training, over walking, over indulgence? I now walk like an 90 year old woman. No amount of arniflora, asprecreme, Epsom salt bathing or drugs can change the gait I now have!! I hope to be good for a short run tonight, as long as my knee doesn't feel anything like my thighs and butt do right now. After that I can take on any pain!!! Feelin' the burn, feelin' the burn...

love, the lunging lunatic!

P.S. So far I have raised $2550.00 of my $4000.00 goal. Check out my fundraising website to help me closer to my goal!
http://www.active.com/donate/tntnyc/tntnycsblack

long time no post

Hi all:
Thanks for checking in on my progress. This past week I have had some soreness in my left knee. Some of you may not know this, but I had an accident (caused by mischieviousness) when I was young. I split open my right knee. Without quite the right medical care, I managed to hobble around on my left leg until the right knee healed. However, in doing this I created this insanely bad habit of standing (unconsciously) with all my weight on my left leg for close to 20 years. My AMAZING Alexander teacher Rebecca Poole has been diligently coaching into true alignment and full muscle coordination. Email me and I will send you her info, if you like. She is the BEST! (even Jason is seeing her !) In this process, which is a long one, a lot can happen. I think I am experiencing some psychological stress and physical stress that is making running a little rough at the moment.

So! I have spent the last couple of weeks really cross training: elliptical (on very challenging levels of difficulty, I might add) doing abs, and squats galore!!! I should be having some trouble getting my pants to fit soon, as my behind defies gravity and grows (in a good way!)

Fundraising wise we (Jason and I) are slowly but surely gaining strength. We have a huge fundraiser planned for the first weekend in May. Be sure to check your emails late April for your evite. If I don't have your email address please send it soon! (sjbrooklyn2002@aol.com)
We are also hosting Easter Sunday Hospitality at the 10AM service at St. Michael's (our church) and doing a little Starbucks for Bucks fundraiser there!!

Please be sure to check out our fundraising websites if you haven't already-and while you're there- please donate! Whether you give up one latte and donate $5 or you give up 10 lattes for $50 it all adds up and goes to making cancer survival a possiblity for more people everyday.
www.active.com/donate/tntnyc/tntnycsblack
www.active.com/donate/tntnyc/tntnycjblack


Keep checking in, I promise to tell you all about how far I can run and what lovely blisters and pains I have added to the notch of my belt!!!!! Yeah!!!!!

Ticki Ticki Torture

Holy Moly! I am exhausted! Last night I begged off work to attend a GTS (earlier referred to as Group Training Session-new name: Group Torture Session!!) What was I thinking asking off work on an evening meant to be no more than 18 degrees out? Geez. So we arrive at Urban Athletics, a store at 92nd and Madison (awsome for running gear, fyi) and find out our team has already taken off to the park a block and a half away. So we check-in, strip our gear and go out. It doesn't feel too cold. At least not yet. When we arrive at the Central Park meeting point there are at least 50 other people!!! Wow. As it turns out there are 190 people running either the San Diego marathon or one other marathon set for summer. Amazing! Even more amazing-50 freezing people prepared to train in the pitch dark! So Coach Ramone, who is from Spain and uses his favorite adjective "freaking" in front of everything, teaches us a move called "Ticki, Ticki." Tikki would have been better, that brings to mind warm weather, beaches and drinks with umbrellas in it. Needless to say that is not at all what "ticki, ticki" means. It entails running like a crazy person, tiny, bouncy steps and quickly swinging arms. We run this bizarre way, back and forth between lampposts. Ok. The lamposts are over 10 blocks apart!!!!!! There is snow on the ground and once you make the first lampost, you turn around into the gusting wind and continue to the opposite one. There is not set number of times you do this. You do it until Coach Ramone says you can, "freaking, stop!" Before I even made it to the first lampost my arches were screaming and my nose dripping down my face like a faucet, and yet, I enjoyed it. Uh oh...did I just say that out loud??? I must be delirious! But the truth is, I did enjoy it. Running with a group of people, talking when you can, and just thinking about where we are what we are doing and what it all means in the end is such an incredible feeling of joy.

After the run (about and hour and a half, mind you) we stretched and returned to Urban Athletics for our things. It was our mentor, Peter's birthday so we had our first official team social! Where do training wannabe athletes go to socialize after a long painful, cold run? You may be thinking, a juice bar, or health food restaurant...Not even close! Reif's Tavern, with $10 pitchers and pizza ordered from the pizza place next door! It was so great! We met Elise and Donna who are running the Alaska marathon and their friend Pete whom they are trying to coerce into swtiching from running the San Diego marathon to running the Alaska marathon! We also got a wonderful opportunity to stand around and really get to know our mentor Peter. He's quite an amazing guy, as are all the folks we are training with and have the amazing opportunity to meet. This journey with its pain, hyperventalations, joy, frustration, snot running, elation, anxiety, leg pain, and happiness has filled my heart with so much love and gratitude. God is good! Well, so is lot of Asprecreme, ibprofen and long hot baths!! Gosh, I hope I can put my heels on the ground before I leave for work. I guess I may have to consider wearing high heels today!

Where are we running to?

One of my very best friend's Angie, met with me for breakfast this past Sunday and we were of course talking about my training with TNT. She said, "You know when I see people running, or meet people who are runners, I am always tempted to ask: Where are you running to?" She was talking about the drive, the addiction to running that avid runners often talk about. Well, I haven't figured that out yet. I mean during training we run around the park...IN CIRCLES!! So...yeah. I wish I knew. The head coach says that the first 5-6 weeks of training will suck, and then it gets worse! Way to sell it coach! Actually, I am getting the feeling that it will get better. Somehow, someway I have convinced myself I can do this. That is, of course, until Jason printed out the map of the course we will be running in SanDiego-NOT HELPFUL! We have to run a LONG WAYS! And let us not forget it is in San Diego. Not NYC. Therefore, I HAVE to fininsh the run. If I stop at anytime I won't know where I am! And thank goodness there will be other people running it ( THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE, mind you) so I guess that makes it easier to know where we are running to...I hope. What am I thinking!!

Al Gordon Snowflake 4 mile Race

My first day of group training and guess what? We have to run a race!!! That's right. The head marathon coach Ramone, said he wanted us to do the race to pracitce what it's like to run with lots of people. Cool, I guess. I mean so far all I have done is run on a treadmill for my training, and even that is an overstatement. With the warm spell we were having this past week, I figured it wouldn't be too bad. But you know how the weather is: never like the weather guy says it'll be. In fact it's, 20 degrees outside! GAH!!! I have on my dance pants (I don't have running pants, yet), a sports top, a dry fit longsleeve shirt, the race shirt, my TNT shirt, a fleece, a puffy jacket, a scarf, a hat, gloves and for extra warmth those pants you put on over your clothes-they make that swishy sound when you walk and have zippers at the ankles so you can take them off over your shoes. About 10 mins before we start the race, coach tells us to strip down to what we are running in. That's funny, I am planning on running in all of the above. My toes are frozen and I can't feel my fingertips, how am I going to decide what to take off?? So coach suggests that I lose the puffy jacket and the over pants. It's a hard deal, but I do it. In fact I am glad I did. About 1/2 mile into the race I am HOT-can you believe it, hot!! Well, that is until we turn a corner and the wind takes my breath away. Man I could have used some carmex on my lips!
By the end of the first mile, my lungs are burning, my nose is running and my tounge is freezing to solid ice in my mouth from mouth breathing. YUCK! Why do people do this???
Then I remembered what coach Ramon had said, somewhere in one of his novel length emails, to take it in what you are doing: running with hundreds of people in Central park!! He was right. I took a look around, and it was incredible. I think it's how I managed to run the entire race. I mean save for walking up to get water at re-hydration tables. The cups of water were frozen, so you had to squish it hard in your hand, or poke a hole in the first layer of ice to get the water out. But as I said, and this really is what I am most proud of: I RAN all 4 MILES!! My time: 42min. A little long, but for someone who is not a runner, pretty darn good-if I may say so! Best of all our TNT teammates hung out and cheered us on at the 3/4 mile mark and about the last 3/4 mile mark. What a great feeling to hear others who know you cheering you on. We should have that for everyday life. It would certainly make getting out of bed and going to work a LOT easier for everybody!

Let the running begin!!

Hi!
So if you are viewing my blog right now, that means you know all about how I am training with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training(TNT) to run a the "Rock n' Roll" Marathon in San Diego, CA this June. You also know, that in doing this, I am rasising $4,000 for the Society's mission to cure blood cancers. Thank you for checking out my blog, where I will wax on about my training and experiences leading up to San Diego!

I want to talk about how I came to do this. Well, a friend, Megan McCourt, has been doing 100 mile bike rides with TNT for awhile. By now I would estimate she has raised over $10,000 alone! Her motivation came when she lost her fiance during 9/11. He was doing the 100mile bike races with TNT in honor of a family member that was diagnosed with Leukemia. Without hesitation, she picked up where he left off to continue his work and honor his memory. Amazing! She had been after me to get a bike and join her. My excuse was that when I was about 10, I flew over the handle bars of my bike so fast that I scraped the BACK of my hands. She didn't buy it.

A short time later, I was thinking about her amazing work. It really made me consider what I could do. My first step was to become a patient-to-patient volunteer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. During this process, my volunteer supervisor mentioned that she thought my passion would be well used to help raise funds for cancer research. That's when I started to really allow myself to open up to the idea that maybe I could do an event with TNT.

Two weeks ago while at church, our Associate Priest, Kate Flexer, who is an avid runner, encouraged me to check out TNT-in fact she said, "if you do it I will give you money." Talk about some incentive. Before I even check out what's involved, I have a donor!!!

The following Saturday, the first thing I did was look up the TNT website:
www.teamintraining.org. As it turned out, there was a "last chance meeting" on that Tuesday. Better yet, and perhaps a result of Divine Intervention, the NYC chapter of TNT is exactly one block from my work. How much of a sign do I need??

That's it. I told Jason what I was doing. He's response-I'm coming with you!

Now we are both on our way to raising a total of $8,000 and runnning 26.2 miles on June 3!!

Continue to read...the training begins!!!