Good Evening Everyone,
Most of you live in a different time zone then the one we are at right now. It's 9 p.m. in California.
My emotions are flying high and wild as I've just returned from an exhilarating dinner, it's name, Inspiration Dinner for TNT Members. And that it was!
We walked several blocks to arrive at the Moscone Center, the sidewalk out front was packed with people wearing purple and green, representing Teams from all over the United States.
Then we entered the massive building, a crowd of many hundreds of volunteers made an aisle for the participants to walk through, all the while cheering, ringing cow bells, clapping and saying thank you. The noise level was incredible, the chills came over Colleen and I and most likely everyone who entered. I looked at Colleen with tear filled eyes, to see her eyes were filled as well. We blinked and the tears wet our faces.
We came to the escalators which were stretched it seemed two floors, on the floor below us were hundreds more people cheering, clapping and waving things all around, another aisle was formed for us to enter the meeting and eating area - there we saw the sea of people, all representing Team In Training,all working for one cause the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society. Over 4000 people in attendance in one place.
We ate our pasta and salads, then listened attentively to a few guest speakers. One young woman, I believe she is just 25 years old, is in remission almost two years now from NHL, the same disease Bill had. Her story was touching. When she was eight her mother was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease; when she was ten, her father was diagnosed the same; then when she was twenty-three, she was diagnosed with NHL. All three are doing well and all in remission.
She stated that no matter why a person is raising money for LLS, it most definitely helps someone. She and her family are ever so grateful for all of the funds. LLS personally helped her financially and, most importantly, with getting her in complete remission.
Sara wanted to give back, so, she, too, raised money to help another and will be running with us tomorrow.
In our case, Bill didn't get to experience remission, but he did without a doubt have an awesome time for most of his retirement. Yes, we cried and we hugged each other to hold one another up when a day seemed too incredibly hard to deal with, but those times were short lived as we mainly laughed and lived it up as much as we could.
We lived with hope and we lived knowing in our hearts that the medicines he was introduced to gave him a good quality of life.
It was because of research. Most of the research in LLS is funded through Team In Training.
This event we will be a part of tomorrow, alone raised more than FOURTEEN MILLION DOLLARS.
I thank you all, again, from the bottom of my heart for sharing. Most of all, thank you for your support through thoughts, prayers and many notes (and words in person) of encouragement.
My training was like many others who have trained long and hard to reach a goal, but I couldn't have done it without all of you.Knowing Bill gave me the PUSH I needed through some way, whether it was by Colleen while we were running together or any of our children over the phone or text, making a statement that would remind me of one of Bill's comments, in his dry 'get to it' way of speaking, or by experiencing kind people all over the place during rough running day. The best was the day I checked my footing and saw the piece of trash on the ground that read: P-U-S-H.
I've sat on the sidewalk and stretched, I've leaned against a tree, I've cried while running. I've come to the point of nearly throwing up some days, and have had times where I was miles from home and didn't really know how I was going to get back. But I did it.
No matter what my time is tomorrow, I will be proud as all of my team will be proud of themselves, too. We are a team and we are all in this for one reason - THE CURE.
God Bless. It is time for me to try and sleep. I'll wake at 4 a.m. and prepare to take that first step, the one out the door of my room.
Love,
Joanne/mom
The Runner! #4181 -
PS you might be able to see where my number is on race day by going to Nike Women's Marathon. Remember the number you might need that for tracking. The howpeople at the tent told me this could be done, but I'm not really sure. Guess you all need to use your technical minds.
http://pages.teamintraining.org/sc/nikesf09/jpaskewich
Thank you for all so very much!
Most of you live in a different time zone then the one we are at right now. It's 9 p.m. in California.
My emotions are flying high and wild as I've just returned from an exhilarating dinner, it's name, Inspiration Dinner for TNT Members. And that it was!
We walked several blocks to arrive at the Moscone Center, the sidewalk out front was packed with people wearing purple and green, representing Teams from all over the United States.
Then we entered the massive building, a crowd of many hundreds of volunteers made an aisle for the participants to walk through, all the while cheering, ringing cow bells, clapping and saying thank you. The noise level was incredible, the chills came over Colleen and I and most likely everyone who entered. I looked at Colleen with tear filled eyes, to see her eyes were filled as well. We blinked and the tears wet our faces.
We came to the escalators which were stretched it seemed two floors, on the floor below us were hundreds more people cheering, clapping and waving things all around, another aisle was formed for us to enter the meeting and eating area - there we saw the sea of people, all representing Team In Training,all working for one cause the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society. Over 4000 people in attendance in one place.
We ate our pasta and salads, then listened attentively to a few guest speakers. One young woman, I believe she is just 25 years old, is in remission almost two years now from NHL, the same disease Bill had. Her story was touching. When she was eight her mother was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease; when she was ten, her father was diagnosed the same; then when she was twenty-three, she was diagnosed with NHL. All three are doing well and all in remission.
She stated that no matter why a person is raising money for LLS, it most definitely helps someone. She and her family are ever so grateful for all of the funds. LLS personally helped her financially and, most importantly, with getting her in complete remission.
Sara wanted to give back, so, she, too, raised money to help another and will be running with us tomorrow.
In our case, Bill didn't get to experience remission, but he did without a doubt have an awesome time for most of his retirement. Yes, we cried and we hugged each other to hold one another up when a day seemed too incredibly hard to deal with, but those times were short lived as we mainly laughed and lived it up as much as we could.
We lived with hope and we lived knowing in our hearts that the medicines he was introduced to gave him a good quality of life.
It was because of research. Most of the research in LLS is funded through Team In Training.
This event we will be a part of tomorrow, alone raised more than FOURTEEN MILLION DOLLARS.
I thank you all, again, from the bottom of my heart for sharing. Most of all, thank you for your support through thoughts, prayers and many notes (and words in person) of encouragement.
My training was like many others who have trained long and hard to reach a goal, but I couldn't have done it without all of you.Knowing Bill gave me the PUSH I needed through some way, whether it was by Colleen while we were running together or any of our children over the phone or text, making a statement that would remind me of one of Bill's comments, in his dry 'get to it' way of speaking, or by experiencing kind people all over the place during rough running day. The best was the day I checked my footing and saw the piece of trash on the ground that read: P-U-S-H.
I've sat on the sidewalk and stretched, I've leaned against a tree, I've cried while running. I've come to the point of nearly throwing up some days, and have had times where I was miles from home and didn't really know how I was going to get back. But I did it.
No matter what my time is tomorrow, I will be proud as all of my team will be proud of themselves, too. We are a team and we are all in this for one reason - THE CURE.
God Bless. It is time for me to try and sleep. I'll wake at 4 a.m. and prepare to take that first step, the one out the door of my room.
Love,
Joanne/mom
The Runner! #4181 -
PS you might be able to see where my number is on race day by going to Nike Women's Marathon. Remember the number you might need that for tracking. The howpeople at the tent told me this could be done, but I'm not really sure. Guess you all need to use your technical minds.
http://pages.teamintraining.org/sc/nikesf09/jpaskewich
Thank you for all so very much!
Wakeup with joy, be proud of who you are and know you can make a difference in someone elses day.
Random acts of Kindness go a long way
pass it on.
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