Today's Rhodes Race 5K for LLS

Today I ran the Rhodes Race 5K at Lake Merritt in Oakland for the second year. Matt and Claire are the inspiring, super nice and funny couple who launched this race last year to raise money for their perennial cause, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). Claire is, in addition to being a blazing-fast runner, a dynamo at organizing such things. There were age group medals, post-race baggies and three tents promoting various causes. There was also a larger group, proof that even in a down economy people will come to be a part of what you have built. I am truly impressed because dealing with bureaucracy and paperwork is one of my absolute peeves (I can't seem to drag myself to the post office even), and I know this event required permits galore.

While I wasn't able to beat my time last year, I did more or less adhere to it: My official time was 24:56, or 7 seconds slower than last year.

Anyway, the cool thing about it was that I started fast, but probably not too fast, and then settled in a 8-minute/mile pace and stayed there. I was talking to myself in my head the whole time, telling myself to loosen my shoulders, pick up my feet, quick feet, quick turnover, stay focused, look we're halfway done, etc. The last mile made me want to puke but I didn't do what I have done recently a lot, which is to give up 3/4 of the way through and slow down drastically, then kick it in at the end.

Once that was over, it was fun chatting with all the people I now know through last year's and this year's Team in Training experiences, as well as through other races.

The most moving moment came when one of our honorees, Ben, ran across the finish line. He's only just off chemo, a little boy with straw-blond hair and cherub cheeks who has been going to the hospital for blood draws and spinal taps and chemo and steroids to treat leukemia for the last three years. Only a week before, his dad told me, he wouldn't have been able to do this, but today he biked nearly three miles and ran up the last hill to the finish line. He looks perfectly healthy. But his parents and older brother have been through hell, almost losing him three times, according to his dad. The steroids he takes give him "'roid rage" -- they dose him with "the same quantity Jose Canseco would take, in his tiny body." Apparently leukemia doesn't like steroids, for reasons unknown.

I thought of my healthy boys and felt so blessed. There, but for the grace of God ... I also prayed Ben would be one of the lucky ones whose chances for health are all the better thanks to research funded in part by LLS. My grandmother lost her life to leukemia as a young mother. When LLS was founded in 1949, a diagnosis of leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma was almost always fatal. Today, survival rates have doubled and tripled for some blood cancers. Now, 88 percent of children with the most common form of leukemia will be cured.

I am slowly making my way toward raising $2500 for LLS for the second year in a row (last year I raised over $3000). But I don't have much time left -- only until the end of this month! You can make a donation online and receive your tax receipt immediately via email. Please click here and make a donation now!

http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/wildtri09/awebermorales

Thank you and race on!