Blood Donations Needed!!

As you probably know, I am part of Team in Training to help raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  Each team has honored teammates who are all cancer patients or survivors.  

The Long Beach team has several honored teammates, including Alyssa, a six-year-old patient who has battled cancer since 2007.  In August 2008, she suffered from a severe case of encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) which caused her to lose her ability to see and causes her to experience seizures.

Alyssa is scheduled for brain surgery on November 16 to treat the seizures and is in urgent need of blood donations, specifically O+.  If you are O+, a donation at UCLA's Blood and Platelet Center would be a direct donation for Alyssa (please ask to have your donation benefit Alyssa Howes).  Even if you aren't O+, you can make a donation and the medical staff will decide if you are compatible for Alyssa or other patients.

On behalf of Alyssa and her family, THANK YOU for your help!   If you can't make it to UCLA, please consider donating blood at your local hospital or Red Cross.  Every two seconds, someone in the U.S. needs blood and of the 60 percent of the U.S. population that is eligible to donate, only 5 percent do.  There is a huge shortage and every donation helps save lives.

We Run LA!

As the first of three Team in Training Winter events, the Rock 'N' Roll LA Half was definitely an exciting race for me.  Most of the Long Beach team participated in this event, which started in Griffith Park and ended outside of my old office in downtown LA.

The course was not that great, but being there with my teammates made the experience memorable.   Our constant screaming when we saw each other was fantastic and seeing my teammate's nephews run on to the course to hug her was - hands down - the best (and most emotional) part of the race.

Good times...and now, there's only one more race left for me in 2010:  Vegas, baby!!

San Jose RNR Recap

Race #4 is officially in the books...and so far, it's been my fastest race ever!  When I completed my first half in June, I finished in about 2:50.  San Jose, with its flat and fast course, gave me a time of 2:37.  Yay me!!

Some race highlights include:

• Running by HP Pavilion - even though I'm a Kings fan, I get a little kick out of seeing other arenas.  
• The neighborhoods - Loved!  The homes were really cute and the neighbors were so supportive...they even had bacon and donuts out for the runners!
• The elite runners - I don't think I've ever had the opportunity to see the elite runners during a race, so it was definitely a cool experience to see them run.
• The BFFs - I've been pretty fortunate to know people who are cheering at every race, but it's such a different experience to have your bestie on the course with camera in hand!  Yay!!!!
• The firemen - Oh yes, the firemen.  One of them helped me climb onto the fire truck and another one helped me down.  Loved every second of it!