Motivational Evening

Wednesday night I was finally able to get back to the pool. I was looking for a reason not to go, but I made myself and I'm glad I did. It felt good to be back in the pool. Only they need to figure out how to keep a pool temperature constant. Back in February and March, the water was so cold that I never did get warm, even swimming 2,000 meters. Wednesday night, the minute I hopped in I knew it was too warm. By the time I was done swimming, I was hot. That usually doesn't happen.

When I got home my parents were at my house. My parents are planning on walking the Disney marathon in January and I've given them a schedule to follow, including track workouts. Even though they are walking, I'm hoping that if they do some speed work on the track they will be able to incorporate a little bit of jogging here and there or at least be able to walk faster. Disney has a 7 hour cutoff and we need to make sure they make it. So, we headed to the high school track for their first lesson: straights and curves. After warming up and showing them what to do I set off for my workout and they began theirs. And the next thing I know, they are jogging the straights. Wahoo!

Thursday night I skipped my workout and for a good reason. I had been invited to an awards ceremony and reception by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The ceremony was meant to honor their volunteers. It was a very nice evening. There were several awards given out - to the individual, school and company who had raised/donated the most money, etc. One award was given out that I thought was very special. It was named after one of the honored heroes who lost her battle in 2005. She was actually one of the honored heroes for the team my very first season with TNT. The person who received the award has been a participant, mentor, or somehow involved with every season for the past 10 years! I'd say she deserved that award.

And then the keynote speaker got up. The speaker was Meg Brown. Meg played basketball for the University of Texas and was diagnosed with lymphoma her senior year of college (she had already finished her eligibility). Hearing her story of how she was diagnosed was amazing. Her doctor just kept telling her it was allergies. Then her face puffed up and eventually she had a difficult time swallowing and breathing. It took 3-4 months from the time the symptoms started until they figured out she had lymphoma. She is a great speaker and very inspiring. I ended up buying her book and have already started reading it.

Tomorrow morning I'll be running with the fall TNT team. We are doing the honored hero run in the morning and then having a breakfast with the honored heroes after. So while the Nike team is out there pounding out 18 miles, I'll be taking it easy with a short 6. I'll probably pay for that later, but if will feel good in the morning.