e-mail: November 8

mollyjo.com

marathon home

November 8, 1999

Have I told you that I love Michelle? Probably not, since she just appeared in my life recently. She's my very own trainer and I feel really pampered by the experience. Michelle is an athletic trainer at Palmetto High School and works with me two days a week to improve the strength, flexibility and endurance of my legs, hips, etc. Did I tell you I hate Michelle? Like when she makes me do crunches and lunges and other hard things to my muscles and joints? But then there are the times she spends stretching my legs (which is right up there with a massage). Did I tell you that I love Michelle?

We're finally into the longer mileage for endurance interspersed with shorter distances for speed. Last week I completed 16 miles and have been riding such a high…..Now I know I can do it!!! I can't ever remember being so pumped about something before. One of my training teammates and I decided that we know our physical limitations and that we don't have the capacity to do 26 miles. What we do have is lots of determination and, hopefully, enough emotion to make up for what we lack in physical capacity. I'm really counting on a good shot of adrenaline as well. This week, we only have to do 8 miles. Who would have thought that I'd think in terms of ONLY 8. I'm planning on running a lot more this week to improve my times.

After the last long session of 14 miles a couple of weeks ago, I was very discouraged because I just didn't have anything left long before the end. It was especially disheartening when I've been in the gym 5 days a week working hard. What we finally decided was that I wasn't eating enough. Go figure that I'd ever have that problem…..but, I deferred to the expert and upped the amount of protein and carbs. And Voila! The 16 miles were not only doable, but I had some stuff left when I was done. That doesn't mean that I wanted to go any further (four and a half hours was more fun than I needed on a Sat morning). And the Advil at the halfway point didn't hurt either.

My fund raising is now at $4000 with two corporate gifts to go. I'm going to reach my goal of $6000 in the next couple of weeks. That too is an exciting part of this experience. You have all been unbelievable. While we were walking last week and the going was getting tough, I kiddingly asked our coach, "tell me why I'm here doing this" and her response was "Joel Green". Joel wasn't my sponsored patient. He was a little boy who fought Leukemia for several years and finally died a week or two ago when his second bone marrow transplant failed. And she was right. Despite all of the personal satisfaction and challenge that I've received from this experience, Joel and Mark and Justin are the reasons our team gets up at 4:00am on Saturday morning to force ourselves to endure 16 miles. You've contributed to the cause and will enable research to prevent or cure. I continue to thank all of you.

Best wishes to all for a Happy Thanksgiving!