Update!
Ran the Glass City Marathon yesterday with lots of rain, great volunteers, and some awesome runners. Made my goal of new best GCM time of 3:38:42 which was 4:16 faster than my previous time set way back in 2006! Don’t feel so old today! Woohoo!
That’s one race down, 2 to go…for my Honorees…for LLS…for a cure! Go Team! If you missed it, check out the plan.
Next race is the North Country 50 Miler on August 24th so ultra-marathon training starts today!
Fundraising Update
Thanks to Liz Schier, Dave Schlaudecker, Deb Spero, Karen Landis, and Steve Grindle and the staff at Champion Credit Union for early donations and pledges for the cause. You guys are awesome! We are on our way!
Honoree Update
We are adding Michael Warren to our Honoree list for our friend Jessica Blattner. Here is what she shared:
“…my nephew Michael Warren in Dayton who suffers from lymphoma after being diagnosed about a year ago. He’s undergone many rounds of chemo so far and the prognosis isn’t good due to his on-going infections….but he’s gotten cleared enough for a bone marrow transplant in the next month and has his match. It’s grim based on the health he’s in and withering away of his body and strength. However, it’s his only real hope and he’s prepared to fight hard. He’s only 28. He was a full time airman at Wright Patterson AFB in the aerospace medicine field when he was diagnosed. Michael was always a star athlete, very successful in soccer. He misses it a lot. He loves sports, the Cincinnati Reds & OSU anything.
He ended up with some gastrointestinal issues through all of the chemo, developed a fissure and it got infected, the infection spread and went to his blood I believe….it all kept getting bad. As soon as he’d get strength there’d be a setback. A couple months ago he underwent a couple surgeries including a reversible colostomy among some other gastro things. He’s in remission with maintenance chemo ongoing. It’s been quite the road, and he plowed through and worked at the base as long as he possibly could in the early months. He was told by the transplant dr that he was not ready to handle it and it kept getting moved back, and back, and back. Then just a couple wks ago he was told no again by the transplant dr. A no that was final. It left him with about a 20% chance of living without this bone marrow. His oncologist went to bat for him believing that couldn’t be the final answer. After some more reviewing and consulting they agreed to go forward and Michael wants to fight. His parents are bracing for a big what if. He’s not as stable ideally as he should be to endure this. As you know a bone marrow transplant is agonizingly hellish. They have to go through the re evaluation of his donor again bc it’s been so many months. He’s not giving up though. And he lives life FULL. He’s moving and active and doing anything that his body allows him to. He and Lexy were at a reds game the other day…..he’s a fantastic guy who reminds us all what to do every day to capture every single solitary moment we can.”
Keep Michael in your prayers as well as all of our 152 Honorees so they know that we are with them every single solitary moment! Fight the good fight Baby!
Finally, we need your help to reach our $5,000 fundraising goal! Please make a donation in support of all of our efforts with Team In Training and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to help advance the research for cures for all! It won’t be easy…it never is…but it will be worth it!
You can donate online at: http://pages.teamintraining.org/noh/detroit13/ernestlewis
If you have a family member or friend with cancer or lost to cancer that I can run for, send me their name and their story. I would be honored to run for them!
And, thank you for your support… Run Steady, Run Strong!