It is hard to believe that in about 6 weeks, I will have successfully worked with my friends and family to raise $3000 to help end blood cancers AND I will have swum 1 mile, biked 25 and run 6 on a hilly, hot course in central CA. So far, I am halfway to my fundraising goal and I am so grateful to everyone who has been supportive so far in this journey. Training is going well - I have some work to do on the running component as the race will be hilly, but I am, albeit breathlessly, on it.
In addition to attacking hills on foot, we've done two open-water swims so far - one of which was in the San Francisco Bay. Between accidentally taking in gulps of salty waves and nearly freezing my toes off, I was happy to catch glimpses of the Golden Gate Bridge, Ghirardelli Square, and Alcatraz. I've also begun to master the art of putting on a wetsuit - essentially you treat the whole thing like a giant pair of pantyhose! We've been biking a lot on hills, too. I got a great challenge two weekends ago because the "granny gear" or easiest gear, wasn't working on my bike for a tough, switch-back, monster hill-filled ride. I worked through MOST of it and finally had to walk the last 20 feet of a huge hill. Today we biked 25 miles on hills, some of which are named "the 3 Bears" - baby bear is hard, momma bear is harder, papa bear is nearly impossible. haha.
In closing, my teammates, coaches, and TNT staff are amazing. I am really enjoying the group. A few of our teammates are blood-cancer survivors ("honorees"). It's inspiring to be on a team with people who have successfully overcome these cancers - particularly because everyone I have been close to with a blood cancer has had their life taken from the disease. The honorees also help us to understand the challenges and supports needed for people battling blood cancers. It is inspiring and reminds me why finding a cure is so important.
Fundraising updates here: http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/wildtri10/cbaetens
