No dog maulings here

Sorry for being a delinquent about posting! I was pretty nervous before the 20 mile run, so my parents gave me their love and support. Mom shared the story of her first 20 mile run and her harrowing encounter with an aggressive, snarling Great Dane that wanted to eat her for breakfast. Dad told me to go buy some therapeutic beer at the 11-Eleven down the street (yep, that’s 11th Street’s own liquor store, coming at you through plexiglass 11 hours a day, 11 days a week).

Despite my parents’ useful advice, the 20 miles itself didn’t go well. The first 12 miles were fine, but I had to completely stop for the first time in our training runs because of a strange knee pain. I was disappointed that I couldn’t do the whole 20, but my knee is much better now.

I want to say a special thank you to those of you who have donated, helping raise over $4000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. On the 20 mile Saturday, I met one of the leukemia survivors on our team, a friendly man in his 60s named Tom. He told me that when he was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia five years ago, the five-year survival rate for someone in his age group was about 10%. Tom’s cells had a chromosomal abnormality called the Philadelphia chromosome that led to his leukemia – some of you may remember that our orchestra teacher Mr. Huneycutt also had the Philadelphia chromosome. But Tom is healthy today and training to walk the Nike Marathon with us because of a drug called Gleevec, a drug that was developed with the help of grants from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. So thank you all again.