Thoughts.

"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy."

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
Irish playwright and critic

I found this quote on another blog and now I can't remember whose I found it on. Argh. So thank you to whoever you are! I think after you read it, you will understand. It's one of my new favs.

Running
...it's going really well. No thanks to the weather. Well, maybe I shouldn't complain because Thursday was practically the best day of my life. As you probably recall, it was a lovely 60 degrees outside so I decided to take advantage and go for a long bike ride...

It was absolutely amazing. I got my bike last year, right before it turned cold and yuck so I never really had a chance to get out and enjoy it. Thursday, I rode for almost 2 hours! Where did I go? Everywhere! I found a couple trails, rode through some really nice neighborhoods, and basically explored the northeast side of Wichita. I almost got ran over by a big white truck one time, but then realized it was just my friend Tyler.. so I just laughed, waved, and kept on my journey.

Because of the snowstorm, our Saturday morning TNT group run was cancelled. Bummer. I decided I was going to wake up on Saturday morning anyway to see how the weather was and either tough it out and run outside or go to the dreaded treadmills at the Y. 6am rolls around, look outside..HA! There was like 80mph winds and it was still snowing. Off to the Y I go...

Ended with a good 10 mile run. On the treadmill...bluhhh. Physically, I felt awesome. Mentally, a different story. I find it very hard to stay focused and not get bored when running in one spot for that long, especially when the dang TV is on cartoons! I kept hoping someone would walk by in front of me and I could ask them to please change it for me...but by the time I had the chance, I was almost finished so no need to bother. There was a guy running next to me, probably mid-late 30s, for about 5 miles of my run. I noticed he kept looking over at my treadmill, reading my screen...which kind of started to irritate me! Mind your own business sir. Well, once I was finished he took off his earphones and said "Do you always run that far?" Although irritating at first, it actually kind of made me feel good that someone noticed how far I had actually ran! It was kind of like last week, when I wanted to yell to all the cars driving by that I was on mile 10, 11, 12!!

Fundraising
...guess what?! I hit the 50% mark of my fundraising goal!!!!!!!! I am soooo very thankful for everyone who has donated. I could not do this without you. The fundraising aspect of Team in Training has really been eye opening to me. I have never really put this much effort into raising such a large amount of money. When I first joined TNT, I knew we had to raise this much money, but I was unaware of the amount of time and effort that is actually put into raising it. Since day one I have been writing letters, sending emails, brainstorming, making phone calls, setting up events...I would not take back any of that time for anything.

One day, we will find a cure. One day, Leukemia & Lymphoma will no longer take the lives of our loved ones. One day, I will be able to say...I helped.

Papa...this is for you. I love you and miss you.