Making up for Last Week

During the last few days work has been pretty busy. So we didn’t have as much time to train, on Wednesday, we returned back from the long holiday for lovely coached swim at Burgess Pool in Menlo Park. And I’ll admit, I wasn’t in the mood to swim. I was feeling under the weather and just wanted to plop on the couch with a egg nuggets and boba (milk tea tapioca). The practice was relatively easy (nothing nerve racking like snake swimming) just regular drills. But boy were my lungs gasping. Who knew that taking a week off of swimming would mess with my endurance? This was going to have to make up for last week’s laziness. During our weekly announcements, coach Meggen shared a letter that Jensen’s mom had written to our team. If you recall, Jensen is one of our team honorees and is the little girl undergoing chemo treatment for cancer. Last January, her past few rounds of chemo had not been good. In the letter, her mom was sharing the struggles that Jensen, her brother and sister and the rest of the family have been coping with. In the letter you can hear the emotion and the hardship in her voice. It was very touching. It always a reality check when you hear the personal journey of one of our honorees. Sometimes in the thick of work, training and just living life, I must remember why we are doing this. Evelyn’s (Jensen’s mom) letter shares the personal ups and downs of battling cancer. It was a good reminder that each individual can make an impact in so many lives. This will surly help motivate us thru this week’s rainy training.

Inspired by a Little Girl

Get Well Jensen!

Last Tuesday was our weekly track work out at Foothill. As usual we got our normal team updates and also updates some of the cancer patient/honorees that we are running in honor of.

OK, rewind…..back in November (during the 1st kick-off  and the day we signed up for Team In Training)   we met our team,  coaches and the team honorees . During the session we were asked to turn to the person next to us and introduce ourselves. Tony and I turned to a Filipino mother with her 1/2 Filipino 1/2 white daughter. At the time, we didn’t think much of it. We thought they were possible teammates. Towards the end of the session, our coaches had all the honorees introduce themselves. At the end, they mentioned that there was little girl named Jensen, who had just learned that she had a rare form of cancer.  Jensen was  unable to meet all of us b/k   she was in the hospital undergoing treatment.  We also found out the woman and girl  next to us was Jensen’s mother and Jensen’s twin sister. As months went by we would get uplifting progress on her. In November we heard that her treatment was going well.

Earlier in the day, one of our coaches visited the family at the hospital and was telling us about Jensen and the family, her voice was cracking and she started to tear. Sadly, this past month hasn’t been as easy, she has not responding to her latest round of chemo and she and the family have been going through some tough times. She in going into another round of Chemo on Friday and the family is very nervous about it. To pump up her spirits the team sent a gift basket and the we all  signed a get well poster.

I was telling Tony that I was kinda bummed out about the news. You always want to hear the positive and uplifting stories about caner patients overcoming and beating cancer. The inspiring stories about the cancer patients who are running the Ironmans, in remission, strong and enjoying life. But unfortuntaly, that’s not always the case. Afterwards, Tony gave me an uplifting pep talk and reminded me, that it is the the reality of the disease. Tony and his family experienced the ups and downs of cancer all too well. His mom, suffered a long battle with cancer for seven years and passed away in 2004. This moment was a reminder for me, we’re not only running for the success stories, but for the individuals actively suffering and fighting for their lives. During the times, I’m too sleepy to get up and train…these are the heroes  that really motivate and  inspire us.