Miami to Key West & Dad is doing good!

Ragnar Relay Florida Keys 2010 "It's a Sickness" Team

To read the story behind this blog go here:
http://thepurplemenace.blogspot.com/2011/12/enter-purple-menace.html

WOW! I am truly inspired by the support we have received over the past 3 weeks. In less than a month we have raised $1700. I want to personally thank all of you that have made donations so far! I can't tell you how much it means to me personally and to my family. I am currently working out ideas for some other fundraising that would be a lot more fun than making an online donation, so keep your eyes peeled for that!
Dad is doing AWESOME!!! He is done with all of the chemotherapy treatments!!!! He is going in for a scan this week which will tell us a little bit more about how successful the treatments were. Starting in February he will go to radiation treatments for about 3 and a half weeks. Good news is he will be a little fatigued and some other irritating but not horrible side effects, which is nothing compared to the chemotherapy side effects. He will be able to drive himself to and from the appointments and can start to live his life the way he is used to doing again. So far so good, Dad is continuing to KICK CANCER'S ASS!!
Training is just now starting to pick up for me. I will be laying out my training plan this weekend and getting organized. Had a very fun weekend a couple of weeks ago as I participated in a relay running race from Miami to Key West. We had a blast and made a bunch of memories. Just as everyone else did on our team I had three turns to run during the relay. My three turns were split into distances of 4.7 miles, 4.2 miles and 9.2 miles for a grand total of 18.1 miles. My first run was through southern Miami. The odd thing about running a relay of this distance is that the general public is not aware that there is a race going on. So as you run as fast as you can through the streets and down the sidewalks with a number pinned to you people look at you a little funny. We were one of the last teams to start and the field spreads out very quickly. My first run started out looking pretty nice. I was running past a very nice part of town, past several outdoor shops and restaurants. Then I turned and very quickly realized I was in the hood. I ran through a very rough looking group of individuals that were post up outside of a convenience store. One of them made an off hand comment about my shoes. I ran up on an older lady who pulled her purse up like she was going to hit me with it and let out a short squeal as I went by. Shortly there after I would arrive at my destination, only to not have my crew there. They got held up in traffic and I made a little better time than expected. Thus I got to wait for them to get there. Second run was less eventful, it was mainly down a canal road. The road was all large gravel, it hurt my feet to run on. It ran next to a drainage canal through the swampy part of Florida. The best part was that it was at night, late at night. I was lucky enough to have the crew behind me in the van for about half of it, but the last half was just me and my headlamp and flash light. Super dark in the swamp for 4 miles, a little erie but fun! My final leg was to run the famous 7 mile bridge in the Keys. I soaked in the sun and the view and passed 22 folks along the way. We ended up finishing 12th out of nearly 500 teams overall and 3rd in our division, which made up half of the race!! Very proud of our team, "It's a Sicness.", yes thats our team's name.

Thanks for all the support lets keep it coming!!!
You can make a donation here: My Leukemia & Lymphoma Donation page
Back to work,
Cale