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Blood Cancer Awareness Month, 6 weeks from race day, and we’re 75% of the way there

Blood Cancer Awareness Month, 6 weeks from race day, and we’re 75% of the way there

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Alas, it is September. School has begun (or resumed); everyone is all the rage for the long-awaited PSLs and decorative gourds; and… and… did you know! It’s also Blood Cancer Awareness Month.

For the entire summer, I’ve been fundraising for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Now, just six weeks out from race day, I’m putting out another call to humbly ask for you, my readers’, support on my final fundraising push on behalf of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for the Nike Women’s San Francisco half marathon that I’ll be racing in about a month’s time. Race day is October 19th, and to date, I’ve met 75% of my fundraising goal.

 

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I know you probably receive many fundraising solicitations, and I hear you. It’s exhausting. There are so many reputable organizations doing incredible work, and I count LLS among them. For more than 60 years, LLS has invested more than $1 billion to advance cancer therapies and save lives; in fact, in ’13 alone, the organization invested nearly $74 million in research.

While it might not be as common for us to know someone who has been affected by a blood-specific cancer, LLS’s work and research is pivotal because nearly 40% of new cancer therapies approved by the FDA between 2000-13 were first approved for blood cancer patients. In other words, LLS research grants have funded many of today’s most promising advances, including targeted therapies and immunotherapies, and some of the therapies first approved for blood cancer patients are now helping patients with other types of cancers and other serious diseases. In other words, the work that LLS has done, and is continuing to do, matters; it’s not exclusively for blood cancer.

When I last wrote, I said that I will be racing the NWSF half marathon—a tough race, especially with the hills of San Francisco—to memorialize Traci’s mother, Carol, and to honor my mother, Sandy. I’m expecting this half marathon to be one of my most challenging road half marathons to date, but this race isn’t about me or my performance. I’m racing on behalf of the LLS and fundraising for this organization because I want to continue to honor Carol and my mother and the countless other women and men who continue to fight their cancer diagnoses like hell.

Traci with her parents, post Chicago Marathon 2010
Traci with her parents, post Chicago Marathon 2010
with my mom at my first Masters graduation in 2010. I am so happy that she beat the cancer and the stroke.
with my mom at my first Masters graduation in 2010.

Don’t get me wrong: truly racing a half marathon is no walk in the park—even before adding some SF-style hills into the equation. My proverbial “fighting” through a tough half marathon race, though, is absolutely inconsequential compared to what Traci’s mother and my mother endured in their cancer treatments. These two women could fight like they did because organizations like LLS are helping to find cures and ensure access to the best available treatments… and quite frankly, the LLS can’t function without the support of generous donors like you.

Nike Women's SF fundraising

Asking for money, even for good causes and reputable charities like the LLS, admittedly is kinda awkward. What’s worse though—what makes me more uneasy—is when I hear of another friend, or another family member, or an acquaintance, or hell, even a stranger, getting a cancer diagnosis. Let’s put an end to this nonsense; it’s 2014. We should be, we need to be, beyond this.

It is absolutely an honor to be fundraising for the LLS again, and I humbly ask for your support in my fundraising endeavors. I’ve met 75% of my $1,800 goal—so very close, but not quite there yet—and I’d love to have your support before October. Every donation is 100% tax-deductible, and of course, every donation matters. Additionally, you can make your donation stretch even farther by seeing if your employer participates in matching gift opportunities.

Please know that you have my heartfelt thanks for your generosity and your consideration. Every donation helps us get one step closer to a world without cancer, and I appreciate knowing that you will be with me in spirit as I take on what will surely be an incredible and challenging race.

All my love. 🙂

http://pages.teamintraining.org/gba/nikesf14/eminkgarvey

why LLS?: my storyimage002

2014, from the halfway point

2014, from the halfway point

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It’s a bit strange to think that we’re already at the halfway point, or past the halfway point, anyway, of 2014. In the absence of doing weekly training recaps as I had done from January-March for Oakland, I figured I could post a quick update with how training has been going here in SJ.  (Related: we’ve already lived here as a family for six months. Whoa).

family time at Daddy's work party
family time at Daddy’s work party

More often than not, training seems like it’s an experiment of one. What works for you may produce horrific results for me, what works for me could possibly make you want to keel–or whatever–but the funny thing is that regardless of what does or doesn’t work for us, we don’t know anything until and unless we try. And my experiment, thus far in 2014? Four marathons, five months… and with the intention of racing three of them. I wouldn’t necessarily advise that anyone do this, but hey, if you want to, the roads are yours and yours alone.

get after it!
the roads are a-callin. get after it!

 

how it's gone down. Week 12: Oakland Marathon (3/23); Week 22: Newport Marathon (5/31); Week 26: ZOOMA Napa Valley Half Marathon (6/25); Week 28: Jungle Run Half Marathon (7/13)
how it’s gone down.

That training screenshot isn’t the clearest, but basically:

I’m elated to say that the past six months of training and racing have gone really well and have been pretty consistent. Sure, I made some stupid mistakes that cost me the performances I wanted at Oakland or Newport, but when I step back and look at my training and racing from a bigger perspective–much as I try to do when I look at my weekly and monthly training logs–I’m actually pretty satisfied. The consistency is there, and in that regard, I’ve used and have more or less continued to use Pfitz’s 70/12, and combining that with remaining healthy, and thanks to Coach Jay Johnson’s GSM and Matt Fitzgerald’s brain training techniques (which I keep typing as “braining”), getting physically and mentally stronger, I think I’m setting myself up for a favorable year. Time will tell.

Oakland-ing
Oakland-ing
Newport-ing with Kel and Austin
Newport-ing with Kel and Austin
Napa-ing, home of a beautiful and potentially fast course, but one that wasn't mine for the taking
Napa half-ing, home of a beautiful and potentially fast course … and also a good opportunity for me to run super poorly. At least the scenery was pretty!
being awkward on the podium for the Jungle Run half. Pretty sure this is my first race wherein my race bounty was a tiger.
being awkward on the podium for the Jungle Run half. Pretty sure this is my first race wherein my race bounty was a tiger. also: a redemptive run, even with a shit stop at mile 7, considering the hot mess that was Napa. The JR was a harder course, yet it was a better run for me. Universe, you win.

That said, I’m heading into the second half of 2014 with a fiery determination to (continue to) work hard and realize that which I’m after…and you know that which I’m after is some crazyass goals because really? If your goals aren’t crazyass, you’re wasting your time.

It’s wild to think that marathon #3 of the year, the San Francisco Marathon, is in less than two weeks now, but I’m super excited for it. As was the case with Bay to Breakers, more than anything, I’m really looking forward to another weekend of QT with friends in San Francisco. I haven’t figured out exactly what I want to do there, in terms of my racing, but that’ll surely come within the next 10 days or so. It’ll be my first time running that race since 2010, when I ran it freshly and unknowingly pregnant (and on not-great training), so I’m really looking forward to the experience this time around.

And! Even more exciting! Not only will I soon get to see Austin in August for the Santa Rosa Marathon, I’ll also be serving as a 3:35 co-pacer with my RunningAddicts buddy Ko (who was one of my 3:20 pacers in Oakland), at a marathon that is one of the fastest in the nation, in terms of how many BQs it produces. This will be my first time officially pacing a 26.2, so while I am a tad nervous, I am seriously thrilled (and honored) to be doing this.  🙂

with some of my RA family post-Jungle Run. L-R: Ko (co-pacer for SRM!), Johnny (decapitated, poor guy), Deanna, Linh, and Adam (1:45 co-pacer from Santa Cruz HM a few months ago). cred: Linh
with some of my RA family post-Jungle Run. L-R: Ko (co-pacer for SRM!), Johnny (decapitated, poor guy), Deanna, Linh, and Adam (1:45 co-pacer from Santa Cruz HM a few months ago). cred: Linh

Finally, I’m in the beginning stages of a very long training cycle–twice as long as what I usually run–for CIM in December.  In the build-up to CIM, I’ll be racing the Nike Women’s San Francisco 13.1 to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society–and for which I am fundraising (and have already met nearly 40% of my goal, thanks to your amazing generosity). In keeping with the “I am so excited about everything” right now attitude, I am super jazzed to be fundraising for an organization that’s so near and dear to my heart and one to which I owe my marathoning and running history for the past seven years. (And in case you missed it, here’s why I’m returnin’ to my TNT roots this fall).

Nike Women's SF fundraising

2014 has already been an incredible year, full of tons of surprises and many opportunities, and I’m stoked to see how the rest of the year will unfold, one mile at a time. Thank you for all that you’ve given me so far, and stay tuned for more adventures!

What about you? How’s your year going so far?