The Swimming Gazelle

Last night's training went great. I'm pretty sore today and my shoulder hurts, but the training was awesome. I did a little two mile run that included several intervals of sprints. I am NOT a sprinter. Being a grand height of 5'2" on a good day, these little legs do not go very fast. From an outside perspective it probably didn't even look like I was sprinting. I tried to imagine that I was a gazelle, with long lean legs that could bound at lightening speeds. I was alone and therefore definitely looked a little crazy and or possible a little special as I did it. But it was fun.

About an hour after my run I did the same thing in the water. No, I did not pretend that I was a swimming gazelle, that's just silly. I did do sprints though. I swam my ass off in fact. 25 meter sprints I do really well. I haul ass and can keep my speed up. But when I have to do 50 meter sprints, that's well I die. About mid-way through I completely lose my energy and I feel like I'm swimming through oatmeal. It doesn't matter really, because I'm still moving and getting in a great workout. I'm paying for it a little today. But it was totally worth it.

I don't know if I spend more time thinking about this event than other people do. I keep a blog, I send out monthly letters to people who have contributed to me, I talk about it all the dang time, but I think that a lot of my fellow TNTers think about the event as much as me, if not more. I do see both sides of this coin. The one side is training and the other side is fundraising. And while I reached my fundraising minimum a while ago, I won't stop until race day.

Every time someone pledges me I get to learn about that person in a way I wouldn't otherwise get to. Everyone has been touched my cancer. Actually, touched is the wrong word. Everyone has been smacked in the head, punched in the gut, pushed flat on their face by cancer in one way or another. And it pisses me off. So, I will continue to train, continue to tell people about what I'm doing and I will continue to fundraise, because what else can I do?

I wanted to thank my friend Mandy today for sharing the story of her friend's dad who has Mesothelioma. This form of cancer that is almost always caused by exposure to asbestos. He has traveled far from home for treatment and today, right now, is waiting for the doctors to decide what his next course of treatment will be. My thoughts are with him and his family.