Who's Afraid of 10 Miles?

This week's training was an exciting one! It was the Nike Preview - when we get to preview part of the official course and train on it. I'm not gonna lie, when Coach Doug said we'd be doing 10 miles (after just doing 7 miles the weekend before), I was pretty nauseous. I was so intimidated by the idea of 10 miles and I thought to myself, "I can't do that." I spent all of last Thursday in a mild panic attack, worrying about how I would make it through. Luckily, I got some amazing pep talks from my seasoned marathon friends Uyen and April - they had so much confidence in me and kept telling me that I could do it, that I started to believe them. And then I thought about my mom and all the battles she fought...and all the patients out there fighting blood cancers every single day and I knew that these 10 miles were nothing compared to what they faced. After allowing myself a one-day-freak-out, I shook it off and got focused.

Saturday morning I was up at 4:45, got dressed, ate a light breakfast and drove down to Fairfield to meet my teammates. We caravaned to the Marin Headlands side of the Golden Gate Bridge where we met up with our Sonoma/Napa counterparts. Unlike most of the times I've visited the GG Bridge, it was a fairly clear morning, only light winds and beautiful shining sun...it was breathtaking! Being with the TNT group always fills me with positivity just to be around a group of people whose sole purpose is to raise as much money as possible for the Leukemia & Lyphoma Society - it's awesome!

One of my walking buddies Gil and I set off and the course didn't disappoint. The changing scenery was so pretty and we had such great conversation the whole time that the 10 miles just flew by, and before we knew it, it was over. I still can't believe I did it, and now I feel so empowered!

Moral of the story: fighting cancer is hard, walking 10 miles is EASY!

Now I know I'm going to be ready on October 14 and not only will I be ready, but I'm going to rock those 13.1 miles!