Back Again!

(For those close to my age, I totally have Backstreet Boys "Backstreet's Back" running through my head. And I wasn't even a BB fan... NKOTB all the way!!!)

Anway, I'M BACK!!!

This year, I joined Team In Training (TNT) as a "Team Captain." This means I am raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to help cure blood cancers! But I am also helping other members of Tucson TNT with their fundraising.

Please help those with blood cancers and their families by making a donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society at http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/nikesf09/jwellborn

Reason We Run

Why Team In Training and Leukemia & Lymphoma Society?

What is Team In Training?
In 1988, a team of 38 runners in West Chester County, NY train for the New York City Marathon while raising $320,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Their nickname Team In Training (TNT) stuck. Since 1988, over 340,000 people have raised over $800 million in support of TNT’s mission: cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life for patients and their families. Participants train for an endurance event - marathon, half marathon, triathlon or century (100-mile) bicycle ride - while raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Each participant is paired with an Honored Teammate, someone locally whose life has been affected by a blood related cancer.

1-800-482-TEAM
teamintraining.org


The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is the world's largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research, education and patient services. The mission of LLS is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families. Since its founding in 1949, LLS has invested more than $550 million for research specifically targeting blood cancers. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has 68 chapters throughout the US & Canada and is headquartered in White Plains, NY.

http://www.lls.org/
888-HELP-LLS


Your 100% Tax-Deductible Donation

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society uses the donations for a variety of purposes.“The Society is committed to curing leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma, and helping patients and their families. The support you provide is invested wisely.
Source: http://www.teamintraining.org/firsttimehere/themissionandhistory/wherethemoneygoes/


Why I Joined Team In Training

Joining Team In Training is something I wanted to do for quite some time. My mom, Linda Schiefelbein, participated with the Phoenix-area chapter for the past year.Throughout my life, I’ve known a few people whose lives were affected by one of the blood cancers, most notably my step-grandmother Lorraine. She’s battled multiple myeloma for the past several years. My training for the Nike Women’s Marathon is nothing compared to the marathon fight she’s been through.I can only hope to be as strong as her. She is with me in spirit each time I run for this cause and she will be with me when I cross the finish line of the Nike Women’s Marathon on October 18th in San Francisco.I raise money for LLS so other families do not have to endure what Lorraine has gone through.I run and train in honor and memory of your loved ones. Please share their names with me & I will carry them with me as I run.


How YOU can help

MAKE A DONATION TO THE LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOCIETY!

Check the cushions of your couch, I’ll bet you find some change. Every dollar can make a difference! Please look in your heart (and wallet) to find $5, $10 or $20 to donate.

I committed to raising at least $5000 for LLS, and I appreciate all the assistance. I would love for you to donate $50 but $5 is all I am asking. Please join me in this effort to help save lives and find a cure for blood cancers.

There are 2 easy ways to donate by July 31*:
1. Visit my donation page at http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/nikesf09/jwellborn
2. Email me at jennifer.wellborn@gmail.com and I will send you a form you can fill out and mail back to me with your check to LLS.

I would love to run in honor or in memory of your loved ones. Please let me know your loved ones names and I will carry them with me throughout training and race day. (jennifer.wellborn@gmail.com)

*Donations can be made after July 31 but I want to make my fundraising goal early so I can focus on training.

Over $4700 raised and 26.2 miles complete!!!

Team Tucson - on our way to the Pasta Party

Whew! It feels good to say that we raised over $4700 together for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Oh yeah, and I completed all 26.2 miles of the Nike Women's Marathon. Both were an uphill battle but definitely worth the effort!

On October 19, 2008, over 20,000 runners completed the Nike Women's Marathon or Half Marathon. Team Tucson had a great, but challenging, day! Our Team Marisa ran in honor of Marisa Gallego who lost her battle just six months before the marathon. We all carried Marisa in our hearts and minds throughout the day and I am happy to say that all 6 members of Team Marisa showed us their hearts that day and completed either the marathon or half marathon. I am still in awe of their strength.

I decided not to give you a blow-by-blow report of the day but give you a few highlights and some photos. I am also including a couple links to more photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2009947&l=4db53&id=1177912287 and http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2009980&l=38ccc&id=1177912287.

Even though we did hill training and I knew it was hilly San Francisco, I was more challenged by the hills than I expected. However, the hills were definitely worth the views. We started before sunrise in Union Square in downtown San Francisco, ran to the Embarcadero, then ran along the bay to Golden Gate Park. At the top of a challenging hill, we got our first glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge. We were so lucky that the bridge was not fogged over and we got several great views as we ran closer and closer. I ran the first half (or so) of the race with my mentor Kristin and we stopped to take a couple pictures of ourselves in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. My friend Tracey says this makes me a penguin (as in a John Bingham penguin) and I told her that I've never denied I was a penguin. I think never completing a marathon in less than 5 hours probably means that you will always be a penguin. Like John says, waddle on friends! John Bingham was one of our speakers for the Team In Training pasta party the night before the race along with renowned women's marathoner Joan Benoit Samuelson (1984 Olympic Gold medalist).

I finished the marathon in 5 hours, 27 minutes and 53 seconds (check out my results here). About 28 minutes slower than my goal of finishing in under 5 hours but I was so happy to see the finish line, I didn't even care. I struggled during the second half of the marathon. It was hard not to have my family, especially my husband Dan, there to cheer me on but my second family (Team In Training) provided great support. Over the last few miles of the race, I ran with or saw all 4 of the Tucson coaches and coach Ryan ran most of the last 2 miles of the race with me. I don't know that my butt could have made it across the finish line in the time it did if it hadn't been for them. And my mentor Kristin's dad was a fantastic substitute for my own dad. Kristin made sign for each of us and her dad stood along the race route holding the signs and cheering for all of us. He even decorated his jacket with our honored teammates! I got choked up seeing him around mile 16. It was also great to see the survivors out cheering for us. I think we all should cheer for them instead. I can run 26.2 but I don't know if I could make it through chemo.

I am sad to say that from the time I started training with Team In Training in late May, two of my honored teammates lost their battles, one in August and the other in November.

Kidnapped! Need your help ASAP!

My brother's beloved stuffed panda bear was kidnapped and is being held for $1,000,000,000 ransom. My brother is unable to pay the full amount. Won't you please help?

Ransom (aka a donation) can be paid at http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/nikesf08/jwellborn

We've got Spirit, yes we do!

16 Miles Down... 26.2 still to go!!!

We completed our 16 mile run. I am not going to say it was easy but... 3 of us completed all 16 miles. I ran further on the Rillito River path than I've ever run before. I have run further distances a few times but I usually doubled back in a section to complete the miles. This time, we ran all the way to Swan. One of the bridges over the river had a pretty steep incline and decline so that was an interesting challenge when you are at about 9 or 10 miles into the run. I guess it's good practice for San Francisco, right? There were a few people that are doing the marathon that only did 14 miles instead of the 16 (our mileage for the day was 14-16 but I usually do the longest distance). I kept thinking to myself after I heard that that those people will have a harder time in a couple weeks when we are supposed to do 18 miles.

After our 16 miler, our coaches greeted me with the "Spirit Quilt". A friend of TNT makes a quilt for each traning "season" and the one you see pictured above is the one for the fall season. Most of the people I am training with are doing the Nike Women's Marathon or half marathon but we have a couple people doing the Maui Half Marathon. So this is our quilt for our season. It must have taken a ton of work because it actually mimics the logo for the Nike Women's Marathon. Also featured on it is our honored teammate, Marisa Gallego. As I mentioned in one of my previous blogs, our training is dedicated to her memory. She lost her battle in April and several of her family members are training with us for Nike. I get to keep the quilt for a week and then it goes to someone else.

Also, some of our Saturday runs with Team in Training have been at Sabino Canyon. Since Dan & I moved to Tucson over 4 years ago, we have a list of local places that we keep meaning to visit but have not yet. Sabino Canyon is one of those places. Well, now I have been but it's still on Dan's list. Literally, we run in the canyon, which has a paved path for 3.7 miles. However, it's hilly. And did I mention we have to run through water? Because it is a canyon, at certain times of the year, the water runs over the man-made bridges. This was the case with 2 of the 8(?) bridges and we ended up running through the water 6 times to get our 10 miles in for the day. The first time I went through it, I was kind of mad. I could feel the water sloshing around in my shoes and I was worried about blisters. But as the run/walk (there are some HILLS) went on, I found the water refreshing. We'll be going back one more time, I think. I missed the first couple visits there because they happened to be when Dan & I were on vacation. Next time, I will bring my camera so you can see the beauty. Oh, and since we are in the canyon, nearly all of the run is shady. I love shade!

I am fast like Michael Phelps?

Photo courtesy of Mark Schiefelbein

Like most Americans, watching the Olympics on TV has filled much of my free time during the past week & a half. So much so, I found myself staying up until 11:30pm or midnight to watch swimming, gymnastics, etc and found myself exhausted and not wanting to get up to run at 5am. I also found myself with a sinus infection this past week which gave me horrible sinus pressure, so bad at one point it made me nausous (no, I am NOT pregnant!). I am trying to get rid of it with over-the-counter medication so that I don't have to take antibiotics if I don't need to.

Speaking of the Olympics, I am insanely jealous that my brother Mark & my sister-in-law Didi are there. Mark got to see Michael Phelps win his last 3 medals and has some amazing photos of the events he's attended (visit Didi's blog at http://mychinajourney.blogspot.com/ to see some of his photos). Didi is working for the Associated Press and by the end of August will have spent 4 months in Beijing covering the Olympics & other stories leading up to the Games.

So back to my headline... I ran on Saturday with Team In Training for the first time in three weeks. (I was on vacation for 2 Saturday runs & missed last weeks because I felt like I was coming with a cold or something.) Our scheduled run for Nike full-marathoners was 12-14 miles and I usually try to push myself to go the furthest distance. My occasional running buddy Emily was not there so I took off by myself. Even though we meet at 5:30am, it was another hot and humid morning. I was getting tired toward the last 3-4 miles but I made myself keep moving - partially because I found it's easier to keep running than walk and try to get moving again & partially because it was sunny (not a cloud in the sky) and hot so I wanted to get back as soon as I could.

What we typically do is run one way to a certain point, turn around & run to another point and then come back to where we started to get our full mileage. About halfway through the mileage, I hadn't seen another TNT person or coach for a couple miles. I was worried that I had heard the trunaround points wrong. Once I got close to the second turnaround point, I saw our water station and was a little less concerned. Usually I see other people during the course of my run but had only seen Carolyn (a Maui half-marathoner who runs different distances than the rest of us) about 3 miles before the turnaround point. Once I turned around, I expected to see other TNT runners within a few minutes. I did not see anyone for over a mile after I turned around! Which meant I was over 2 miles ahead of everyone! I was shocked since I felt like I had slowed down after my first 3-4 miles and usually was much closer to the other TNT members.

I finished my 14 miles in about 2:50 (my watch didn't pick up the satellite until I was already running for a couple minutes so I don't know my exact time). This is a little over a 12-minute mile pace, a pace I have run faster than other times. However, I finished about 20-25 minutes before any of the other marathoners. How am I that much faster than the rest of them? I've seen some of the other participants finish ahead of me and usually the mentors finish ahead of me too.

So am I fast like Michael Phelps? No! But apparently I am faster than the other Tucson TNT participants, at least on August 16th I was.

Now for the fundraising update: I received a donation in the mail from my grandpa & step-grandma this week. If I didn't know it would cause more trouble, I would mail it back to her. After all, I am doing this for her and others like her! The $250 check also included a note that made me tear up a bit.

Another $80 this past week came from Dan's birthday party (aka The Beer Olympics). Dan decided that the money people gave for the keg should go to LLS. So if you came to the party & didn't contribute to the keg, make a donation on my website at http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/nikesf08/jwellborn.

Thanks to everyone for their support & contributions. It's not too late to make a dontation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society! We are still only halfway to our goal!

New Honored Teammates & Technical Issues

I planned to write an update before Dan's and my vacation to the upper Midwest but time was not my friend. So this blog covers about 3 weeks.

First, the newest honored teammates:

Cindy Wool - my dentist's good friend is at TMC awaiting a bone marrow match after her recent leukemia diagnosis

(name to be added, can't remember) - my co-worker Joseph Espinoza-Gonzales' cousin who lost his battle with leukemia last week

Both of these stories touched me when I heard about them. Joseph's family was hopeful when his cousin first received the diagnosis a couple months ago. These lives and the lives of others just like them is why we need to find a cure for blood cancers (and ALL cancers). No more lives should be cut short by a cancer diagnosis! Together, we can make a difference through the donations we make towards research, patient & family support and the advocacy we do to get the word out to those around us. If you'd like to make a small difference today, you can make a donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society at http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/nikesf08/jwellborn

And now I will get down from my soap box and fill you in on the recent training experiences. Let me start by saying I thought the recent summer monsoons & accompanying humidity would prepare me for my visit to Wisconsin & Iowa. It kind of did...

On the first day of our trip to Wisconsin, I intended to get up & run the planned 12-14 miles. I got up at about 6:30am Wisconsin time (my usual 4:30am Tucson time) and left my Aunt Jan's house for my run. At the end of her street, I glanced down at my Garmin & it was off, which was weird because it had been on outside her house when I hit "start" at the beginning of my run. I charged my Garmin overnight before we left so I wouldn't need to bring the charger with me on the trip - we had enough charger between the cell phones, digital camera, etc. I turned it back on and it immediately died. I'd gotten the "low battery" warning when it turned on but have run for 4 hours after the low battery warning before so I figured I could make it through this run & some of the shorter ones. Boy was I wrong! Since I hadn't mapped a route in her neighborhood, figuring I would use my Garmin to figure out distance and make up a route as I went, I moved on to plan B. I figured if I ran for about 2 hours, I should be close to the 2 hour mark. About 2-3 miles (as best I can figure) from her house, I realized I hadn't brought GU or a Luna Bar with me so I had nothing to refuel my body halfway through my run. So I moved to plan C and decided to run for an hour to hour and a half. I think I ended up running about 6 miles but I am not sure. I wasn't able to drive my route later to check.

Needless to say, since Dan & I were visiting family & staying with them, I didn't run as much as I planned.

This past Friday, the day before gorgeous bride Inga's wedding to Soren, I ran with my father-in-law Dennis, my brother-in-law Trevor (aka the Marine), and the father of the groom Rex. I told Dennis that I needed to do a 10 to 12 mile run & he told me he had a route planned in McGregor. We met at 6:30am, although I didn't get as much sleep as I'd planned since we spent a lot of time the night before hanging out at the Hattery's (Dan's mom's side of the family) Riverhouse on the Mississippi. I was greeted by heavy humidity (I was ON the Mississippi so I should have expected it) and a pack of runners a bit faster than myself. I was contantly bringing up the rear but resisted the urge to try to keep up because I knew that would only spell trouble. After we ran down picturesque Main Street McGregor, we ran through some of the surrounding neighborhoods and up an insane hill. I felt like I was crawling up the hill but couldn't keep my breath steady (I guess even though I missed our Sabino Canyon training, I got my own hill training). Since the hill also was curvy, there were times when I couldn't see the others. However, when I got to the top they were all waiting & cheering for me. I really appreciated their support, even though I am sure Dan's brother was annoyed by my slowness. He's used to PT with the Marine Corps and I couldn't keep up with the rest.

That morning, the humidity really zapped me. I struggled through the second half of the 11 miles I eventually ran, even walking for about a 1/3 to 1/2 mile stretch. But I finished & finished strong. I purposely planned the run for Friday so I would be fresh & rested for the wedding & reception on Saturday. What a great time we had. It was fantastic to see Inga & Soren get married. I love those two, they are awesome. Since the very first time I met Inga, I loved her and it's impossible not to love her (and Soren). I am sad the DJ did not have Perry Como's "Papa Loves Mambo" for Dan & I to dedicate to them. There's a special memory of the 4 of us tied to that song.

I resolve to complete the rest of my training program in it's entirety. I can't keep cutting corners & skipping days of training. Those with cancer don't get to skip a day, why should I? Remember, you can make a difference & donate to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Please see the blog titled " Newsletter Vol. 1" for more information about Leukemia & Lymphoma Society & Team In Training

Dan during the Leinenkugel''s Brewery Tour
Me during the New Galrus Brewery tour (no, I didn't partake in the tasting)
Dan's happy place - boating on the Mississippi
Dan & our niece Alex
The Riverhouse
Inga & Soren as husband & wife
Lynn (mother of the bride), Inga & Alex

Soren, Inga, Dan & me (Is it just me or do I look chubby?)