My sister made it across the finish line! It was tough going and she wondered what she had gotten herself into, but she made it! Yeah, Michele!

The thirteen mile run began at the Philadelphia art museum and wrapped through several historic sites to finish not far from the start. Less than half way, my sister saw committed runners flying past her going the opposite direction towards the finish line but she kept going. Texting "I need a leg transplant," she kept going. As we watched, she pushed all she had to finish what she began 2 1/2 hours earlier. I have never been prouder! My big sis!

Here she is with a woman who has suffered leukemia (since they were raising funds for leukemia research) and one of her coachs:

Trucks were lined up giving out bags of goodies to participants. My daughter wanted to quickly glance around the art museum while we waited. Since you don't "quickly" look around the Philadelphia Art museum we ran through the European art section, ohhing over original Monet's and Degas's and ahhing over Renoir's and Rodin's. We will definitely have to come back sometime when we absorb the intricate details of these masterpieces!

Hi all- Please say "Hi" to my sister and join me in wishing her well!

Hello and Happy Labor Day weekend!   Just wanted to give you a quick update on the Team In Training event for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.   As of this weekend, I ran my longest training distance of 11 miles.  Only a few weeks until the big day – Sunday, September 21.  I know I can make it now since I completed the longest distance in the training schedule and didn't collapse!  What an incredible journey this has been – who would have thought?!

However, the really great news is that thanks to all of your support, I have met my fundraising goal of $2,500 and am approaching the $3,000 mark.  This is an incredible effort, and I really appreciate the support that you provided.  Check out my website to see all of the contributions – what an amazing group of friends and family that I have:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/snj/phildist08/mjuliana

Thanks again!!

Michele

From my sister Michele: (Leave a comment to welcome my sister to the blogosphere fun! Thanks.)

6/28/08 UPDATE:  It's been an interesting few weeks.  I had my first athletic injury! Either a stress fracture or just painful shin splints, but I had to take a few weeks off from running.  However, the silver lining is that I've taken up other forms of cross-training, such as the elliptical trainer, biking, and pool running.  Wouldn't have done any of these otherwise, so it's been a blessing in disguise.  I'm almost back in action, and joined the Team in Training group this morning at 7am for a 45 min. walk/run.  The coaches tell me there's plenty of time to get back on schedule, so I should be fine.   Thanks to everyone again for your contributions- I'm almost to my fundraising goal!!
 
Also, great news that my sister-in-law Aimee is going to do the run with me.  Check out her site:
http://pages.teamintraining.org/epa/phildist08/ajuliana
 

From my sister, Michele who is training for a half-marathon: (check out the previous post to learn more about how this all got started.)

Hi!   My first week with Team in Training was amazing.  Below is a quick summary of events, just since Saturday:

1) Raised 1/3 of my fundraising goal, with more pledged to come!

2) Found my “honored hero”, the sister of our office manager, who has leukemia.  This run and fundraising will be dedicated to her struggle with this disease.

3) Found out that my grandfather died from this disease, which is even more motivating since I will also be honoring his memory.

4) Met my coach and got my training schedule – oh boy, this is going to be interesting!!    13 miles is a LONG way!!!

5) Ate chips and quesadillas with cheese dip at the team kickoff meeting – all this running might be painful, but at least I can eat what I want!

 Thanks for your support – this is going to be an incredible 4 months!!