Week 9 Update

Hello fellow bloggers! How are you all doing? Hope you're hanging in there with this chilly weather - I'm soo ready for summer! This weekend was great ~ I did 12 miles on Saturday morning at the river. Wahoo ~ 12 miles! I was worried my ankle wasn't going to hold out but I think because the river was all flat- I made it through okay. Then the real highlight of my weekend I had lunch with Erin and Jenna at Olive Garden! It was great to catch up and and I'm looking forward to spending time at home this summer to hang out with those girls. Erin goes in for a Bone Marrow Biopsy tomorrow to tell her whether she will need a Bone Marrow Transplant or not. Please pray that she won't have to go through the transplant and the Drs will speak the word remission!

Anyone run the ING on Sunday (today)? The runners ran right through GT's campus and they shut down several of Tech's roads for many hours. I thought about jumping in for a short run with some of the people I know running the race or at least going to cheer them on but didn't wake up in time (oops). I guess you gotta catch up on sleep some time right? But, hopefully there were a few more water stops than reported last year, although everyone was probably not as thirsty cause it was soo cold. Anyway, that's about all I got for right now- I need to go study. Enjoy the week and go find an April Fools joke to play on someone (just not me :p).
Love,
Denise

Week 8 Update

Happy Easter! (or day after Easter that is). Hope everyone enjoyed the holiday. I went to Theresa & Joey (sister/brother-in-law) for the Easter weekend in Ringgold, GA. It was nice quick trip up for the weekend with some good food. This past weekend was gorgeous for running weather, although there didn't seem to be a lot of people there, I guess because it was a holiday weekend. I ran 10 miles again this weekend. I wanted to keep going when I got to the end- had plenty of energy so that was good but my left ankle was starting to not feel so great. I didn't want to push it so I decided to call it quits for the morning. I've iced it for the past couple of days but it's still sore. Hopefully by doing some cross training (swimming or cycling) will help relieve it of the impact of running and let it heal a little bit. With all of my learning about the feet/ankles I've been trying to deduce what is wrong with it but haven't come to any conclusions yet. I'm just going to try and take it easy so hopefully it'll feel better soon.

This past week was our Spring Break. The time off was nice but like always, goes by too fast! I also realized I missed the Peachtree Road Race sign ups last week!! How sad :(. But, I still have a chance of being one of the randomly selected 10,000 people if I get my registration in my March 31. Hopefully I'll get in, I love the P-tree.

Fundraising is going good ~ about 75% there so just a little more to go! And Erin is back at home with her family so what better news can you ask for? Thanks always for your constant support. Have an awesome week!
Love,
Denise

Week 7 Update

So I guess I'm a little behind on my posting for this week. But better late then never. This past weekend I survived through the tornado weather here in Atlanta. On Friday night a tornado touched down about a couple miles away from me in downtown Atlanta. If you've been watching the news I'm sure you're familiar with all the destruction that happened at the GA dome, CNN center, Centennial Olympic Park, etc. But, thankfully everything turned out okay. On Saturday morning our Team in Training Practice was canceled due to severe weather again (actually a good thing cause I accidentally slept in). But, after it cleared up I went to run in Piedmont Park. And then that afternoon I was sitting in the bottom of our Campus Recreation Center in the bathroom waiting for another tornado to pass through Atlanta. I told you Georgia doesn't mess around when it comes to insane weather. It was snowing last week, tornadoes this past weekend and now it's getting into the upper 70's!! On Sunday I got in a long run, ran up to piedmont park where there were a ton of people out because it was beautiful weather. I was dodging dogs, adults, children, frisbees and footballs left and right. I ran about 8 miles and then walked a couple more miles back home. I didn't want to push it too hard because last week I was still recovering from being sick/having a sore ankle all week. But, I feel much better now :). So this week is our Spring Break and yes I am at school (I need the break to catch up - not take a break!)

On a different note from training- please continue to pray for Erin. She is back in the hospital this week. They hope to send her back home soon, but right now she is battling a lot of "bone pain" and nausea as a result of this second round of chemo. I am so amazed by her and her family's strength through all of this, they are such amazing people.

Oh and I also found at that another one of my good friends is moving to San Diego this week. And some of my family in CA said they may be able to come down to San Diego for the weekend of my race - so yay for familiar smiling faces I get to look forward to seeing in San Diego. If you're planning on being in the San Diego area around June 1st let me know ~ would love to see you there!

Well, until next time, enjoy your week and have a very Happy Easter!
Love,
Denise

Week 6 Update

Hi everyone ~ hope you all are doing well :). This weekend has been a little under the weather for me. Saturday morning at 6:30am I awoke to snow flurries in Atlanta... and I think I was wearing shorts at some point last week- go figure, it's GA weather for you. So, needless to say it was a little difficult to not just role over in bed and go back to sleep (especially after trying to recover from an all day final exam on Friday). But I managed to get up and make my way to Team in Training practice. Every time I don't feel like getting up to run I think about how Erin and so many people fighting cancer are much more courageous than myself and the least I can do is get my butt up and run (and its amazing how motivating it is to run when you have a big group turn out to run in the freezing cold, that's really hard to do by yourself). This week I ran 10 miles (actually it was probably a little over 10 miles, we got to talking and passed the road we were supposed to turn on and had to run a little ways back). It was so crazy, we would be running while it was snowing and then the sun would come out from behind the clouds and warm up a little and then it would start to snow again- but like I mentioned...its Georgia, enough said. I planned on running 7 or 8 miles but the people I were running with were running 10 and since I don't like to try and read maps and run at the same time I just let them be the navigators and I ran a little more.

Anyway, not sure if it was the running, the snow, lack of sleep this past week, the flu going around everywhere or combination of everything but I came down with a fever on Saturday afternoon and took a 3 hour nap before going to bed at 9:00pm. Then on Sunday my fever went away but I still had a persistent cough that wouldn't go away and still felt kind of lousy so I proceeded to go back to sleep that afternoon for another 3 hours. I wish you could stock pile on sleep because if so...I would be golden for this week :). Anyway, there's my story for this weekend, hopefully I'll be a little more up to par next week.

Thanks to all who have contributed to the fundraising...it's progressing slowly but surely! I'm about 57% there!! And to keep you posted on my Hero, Erin, she got to go home on Friday after completing round 2 of chemo- yay for being home with family, home cooking and warm cozy beds! Please pray for her speedy recovery and road to remission!

Have a great week! Love to all!
:) Denise

WEEK 5 UPDATE

Hello all ~ hope you have had a good weekend! I just got back from Orlando yesterday after being gone all week at my conference. You would think Orlando would be warmer than Atlanta, but not this past week. I was freezing most of the time- and it doesn't help I'm one to get cold really easily. The hotel was super nice though (and the pool was pretty to look at). It was finally perfect weather the day we had too leave. Oh well- back to the ATL and looks like its going to be pretty nice this week.

So as far as running...I missed my first Team in Training practice yet this past Saturday because I was gone :(. But, I made up for it by running my 6 miles today. Yes...only 20.2 more miles to go! But I must admit it's much more fun to run with people than my mp3 player. Kudos to Traci for getting up and running with me in Orlando in the wee morning hours. We were going to run around the hotel but decided not to brave the windchill in the morning as we took to the treadmills.

Also, Erin began her second round of chemo this week back at Emory Hospital. She is continuing the tough fight to knock out Leukemia in this battle. Please continue to keep Erin and her family in your prayers as she travels this journey.

And as far as my fundraising is going....I'm almost half way there!! How exciting :). Thank you all to your contributions, I can never thank you enough. And I posted this on my website but I just want to make sure everyone knows that if you have a special family member/friend that has been affected by cancer please send me their name and I would be more than happy to run for them as well with a ribbon on my back in the race.

I think that's all for now. Hope you have a super week!
Love, Denise