Words to run by

Lately, VTNT members have been circulating group emails reporting on their training and encouraging one another on. One email tonight made me want to cry and laugh and yell "whoopee" all at the same time. It came from my teammate Gill Grant who will be running the Chicago Marathon as well. Here's an excerpt:

When I run feeling good about myself, when I run with a friend who makes me laugh or who just listens, when I run after a good sleep, when I run without the pressure to be an elite kenyan champion....then I breathe better, my shoulders loosen up and man oh man do I love running. I am a blood cancer survivor. I felt the same ups and downs in chemo. But back then, I chose to believe in myself. What I need to remember now is that I can choose to believe in myself running this race...I can choose to be me on these long runs....I can feel good about simply making the effort. I run because I can....perhaps your honouree isn't so lucky. WE can do THIS. WE CAN and WE WILL! I'm going to do it slowly, I'm going to do it talking the whole way, I'm going to do it and complain about my knee, I'm going to blow kisses at the crowd, I'm going to think purple and think of me and think of all of you and think about cancer and think about the cure and think: YAH BABY!!!

Thanks, Gill. We all needed that! I can hardly wait to meet you in person.

I’m a member of the Virtual Team in Training (VTNT). At this stage, the team is made up of 43 individuals from around the country, with 5 of us planning to run the Chicago Marathon. The remainder will walk or run full and half marathons in Toronto and San Francisco. More information about VTNT is available here.

VTNT is coordinated out of TNT’s office in Toronto by Cheryl Pollock. Cheryl’s role is to handle all the administrative details, and provide team members with fundraising mentoring and support. She is also our head cheerleader.

The team is also supported by two coaches who provide advice on various training issues, answer training-related questions, and monitor our progress.

There are at least 8 other VTNT members training in Ottawa. I met four of them a few weeks ago. They seem like great women so I was disappointed to learn they are all planning to run the Nike Women’s Half Marathon in San Francisco.




However, I can at still look forward to joining forces with them later this summer to do some fundraising and hill training. If only I could persuade them to run a few of those 30-ish km runs with me in August and September.

For more information on my teammates, go to this page and search by "event" and "VTNT".