Berbee Derby and Coffee Sales

Ahhh Thanksgiving... A day to eat too much food, watch too much football, hang out with family, and run 3.1 miles in the cold and wind,... wait, what????

Yep, I started Thanksgiving morning out running the 2009 Madison Berbee Derby at 9:10 am. It was cold and windy, but lots of great people made it much more tolerable. We had 20 or so TNT alum, participants, and family there to represent TNT. Although many of our marathoners ran the 10K, we also had family and friends (and yours truly) who ran/walked the 5K. I dragged my dearly beloved husband out of his nice warm bed to be at the starting area by 8 am in an attempt to get some photos of me crossing the finish line of my first TNT race. He's a good sport with things like that.

We were lucky that the rain that had been in the area for several days decided to give us a break for the run, but the morning still broke fairly cold with a brisk wind. That didn't stop a large group of people from starting their Turkey Day with a bit of exercise and comraderie. There were the hard-core runners (like the 1st place finisher of the 5K that ran it in a bit over 15 minutes), there were also families with baby joggers, groups of walking friends, and at least 1 person in a full-body turkey costume. Although I do not have a total count on how many people overall were at the Berbee Derby, it was over 1000. The 10K started 10 minutes before the 5K (9:00 and 9:10 respectively), which was really nice because you could see all the 10K runners starting out and in many cases you could see them finish as well. Although they were running twice the distance, it wasn't uncommon for the 10Kers to finish at approximately the same time as some of the 5K runners and joggers. Case in point, I ran my 5K in 33:05 and many of the 10Kers ran in about 40 minutes.

I was just thrilled that I was able to run the whole thing, quite an accomplishment for me as I've been mostly doing a 8 minute run/2 minute walk combination on my runs. Although my pace could have been a little quicker (10:37/mile), it was steady enough that I felt like I could have kept going when I crossed the finish line. That's an important piece of information when I'm intending to run 13.1 miles. This pace will let me finish my half-marathon in about 2 hours 30 minutes. I'll admit that I did run for about 15-20 feet at the halfway point, but it wasn't because I was tired. They handed me a small cup of water at that point and I quickly determined that I couldn't run and drink at the same time (and I was thirsty). Wearing your beverage on a chilly day is not a good idea, so I walked and chugged my refreshment.

After the traditional family Thanksgiving meal with my in-laws we returned home where I grabbed a 2 hour nap to prepare for my fundraising that evening. How many of you went shopping on Black Friday? Were you those people that got up really early, or the ones that pitch a tent outside your chosen store in an attempt to secure the best deal for that ideal purchase? If you happened to do that on Madison's East Side Old Navy and Best Buy on this past shopping day, you may very well have seen me and my mom out and about. We were shopping, but not for a big screen TV or a new outfit; we were shopping for donations.

At 2am on Black Friday my mother and I loaded up my car with hot coffee, hot water, cocoa, and my father-in-laws little wagon and headed out to try to fill the shoppers with Christmas cheer and caffeine while raising money for cancer research. Stores in this area started opening around 3 am, so we carted our wares along the lines waiting to get in and offered hot beverages for donations. I typically avoid stores on Black Friday, I'm not that fond of crowds or shopping and this day combines those two things in the pressure cooker of holiday shopping stress. However, I found that the people waiting to shop were not only generous, but were very appreciative of hot beverages on a cold morning.

I was really surprised that few people wanted coffee, almost exclusively people wanted hot cocoa. That wouldn't have been a problem had the stores had well-lit parking lots and such, but we were not that lucky. Have you ever tried to fill a foam cup with hot water in the dark? It's about as easy as you would guess. My poor mom had to keep trying to stir hot cocoa mix in glasses that were near to overflowing. Made a bit of a mess. But I got lots of thanks for the cocoa and the cause, along with raising almost $200 in donations! I think it was worth a little chocolate on my clothes.

Overall the cocoa activity was fun and paid off, but if any of you know someone who needs several hundred foam cups and 300 coffee creamers, let me know. My brother-in-law works for Sysco, so he got me my supplies, but in a bit larger quantity than I ended up needing...

Why we run

I told you previously that the reasons that I signed up for this event are many and varied. I'll admit I think I've tried to downplay my reasoning, but over the past couple of week, I've found myself getting very emotional when I think about my run and the reasons and people behind the formation of Team in Training. Maybe it's the holidays making me sentimental, but I feel that maybe it is time to let you a little deeper into the soul of my participation.

Most of the family: Back row l-r; Jacob, Juli, Jerrica, Jason. Front row l-r; Jade, me, Mom, and Jess.

I have a very large family. I am the oldest of 8 kids. I grew up on a Wisconsin dairy farm. I adore all of my siblings, even when they drive me to distraction or make choices in their lives that I don't agree with. Being the oldest child, I grew up worrying about everybody, wanting to be sure that they were safe, happy, and healthy. To say that I can be overprotective is probably the understatement of the century. I've been known to refer to my brothers and sisters as my 'kids', which may seem odd to some people but I'm guessing most of the big brothers/big sisters out there understand where I'm coming from. We're the ones that blaze the trail, even if we never conciously think that we are trying to set a good example and ensure they have an easier time of things than we did. No matter how old they get, they are always going to be my little brother/sister, and I'm sure that my habit of calling even my 20-something siblings 'kiddo' is a source of never-ending frustration to them. But I love them, and so I worry.

I worry that someday our family luck will run out, and that illness will overtake one of my 'kids'. Cancer would be something that I could not make easier for them, it's not something that I can protect them from, and it scares me to death. For years I have donated to cancer research through places like St. Judes Children's Research Hospital, hoping that karma would smile on my family because of that and figuring that I was doing my small part to help if the unthinkable would ever happen. So far, the fates have continued to smile on my family, but I know that others are not so lucky. Every 4 minutes someone is diagnosed with blood cancer, and every 10 minutes someone succumbs to the disease (http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/all_page?item_id=12486), which means that in the 30 minutes or so that it takes me to write this blog, 3 people will die of blood cancer. Donating a small amount every month was no longer enough for me.

Many of the people in TNT that I am training with have personal stories about being touched by cancer. We have people who have lost loved ones, people who have loved ones fighting, and cancer survivors themselves. While the stories of loss break my heart, the stories of survival keep me going. I may not be able to save everyone, but I know that in doing this event I am helping to get the world one mile closer to a time when these losses no longer occur. I dream of a time when families do not have to fear cancer, when children don't have to go through chemo, when hope is realized.

I run toward a time when we can all run together.