Cancer Sucks!

I borrowed this post's title from my friend Elizabeth. She completed her first half marathon in April with the The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team In Training. She used "Cancer Sucks!" as her one of her mantras, and I thought it was the most simple way to describe everyone's thoughts about the disease. 

My dad has also decided to run his first half marathon through LLS's Team in Training. He will be doing this at the Rock 'N' Roll Half Marathon in San Diego on Sunday. He set an ambitious fundraising goal, and has made good progress. He still has a little way to go, and I am asking everyone to help him reach it. At the time of my writing he is a little under $800 short of his $2900 goal. 

He has put a lot of work into training for this, and we are incredibly proud of him for everything he has done. He is also running as part of Running With Ryan, which you know is incredibly close to our hearts. I would like to ask you to go to his page and donate anything you can, be it $5, $20, $50 or even $100. I am very excited to be there in person when he finishes this challenge, and I will take pictures and post an update next week letting everyone know how he does. In advance, thank you so much for your help and generosity... and remember CANCER SUCKS!

Love You Angel Ryan!

P.S. My training for the AFC in August hasn't kicked in yet, as I've been travelling halfway across the country to visit Whitney and Natalie. It's been awesome! Training will begin in earnest next week, and I'll keep you updated. 

Rededication

I can't believe it's been 18 months... 18 months since Ryan's birthday and passing. It's something I think about everyday. Getting the phone call from my mom while I was at work, driving to the ocean and just wondering why it happened. It's all still so clear in my memory.

Since then my sister, myself and others have run in Ryan's memory. My sister completed her first half marathon in October, and I have finished two myself. In a little over a week my dad will run his first half marathon out here in San Diego. We're so proud of him and wish him the best!

Running is one of our ways to remember and honor Ryan. My training and races have been a way for me to keep her in my thoughts and to talk to her. I really enjoy this when I'm out by the ocean. My second half marathon was in Big Sur right around Ryan's 1st birthday. It was just an amazing experience and to this day I have trouble describing it to others.

After that race, I had trouble with a few things. First, I couldn't find the words to write on this blog. I felt a little bad about not sharing my experiences with everyone, but I liked keeping that special experience to myself. Second, my body wasn't totally ready to jump back into race training mode.

I've decided it's time for rededications. A rededication to this blog and a rededication to my training. I've decided on two half marathon races to run later this year. The first is America's Finest City Half Marathon in mid-August. It takes place around downtown San Diego. For the second I will once again run the Big Sur Half Marathon on Monterey Bay in late November. Like last year I will use that to celebrate Ryan's birthday.

I'm looking forward to these two challenges as well as the time and effort I'll put into preparing for them. As I did last year, I will appreciate all the support from everyone; so thank you ahead of time. I'll be sure to keep you updated on my rededications as they go along.

Love You Angel Ryan!