Stacy Died

Oh NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Myeloma sucked the life and the light out of a shining star.
Stacy, a young mother fought with every ounce of her being to keep the myeloma from taking her, hoping to be there for her two little girls.
And she won the fight for many months.... I think about 4 years.

I don't want to read any glorious stories of people whose lives were miraculously changed for the better by their cancer diagnosis. Not today. Stacy died.

Please see Don's Myeloma Hope blog.

Myeloma Race for Research

Keeping up the hope: every event to promote research for beating multiple myeloma.
This annual event, a 5K race/walk around Lake Phalen in St. Paul, is a family affair, with children and dogs, a live band, a speaker from Mayo Clinic.

Sweet Pea especially enjoys the dogs.

And the dogs.....

The live band.....

Down the hill, that's Don in the navy blue "survivor's shirt". There were some teams for particular myeloma survivors, wearing matching custom T-shirts.

Sunday was delightfully chilly ... for running, bright and sunny ... for pictures, until after the event was over.

Family and friends of one of the myeloma supporters.

This myeloma survivor, navy shirt, came from California. Surrounded by family and friends, she is loved!

Medals for first in age group for these two seventy-somethings.

Presque Island Half Marathon

Mighty cottonwoods are unexpected on "almost an island" formed of wind blown and wave washed sand. Miraculously, not a gated community or populated by resorts, this peaceful piece of nature is totally a Pennsylvania State Park.

Pre-race in the dark: every port-a-potty was lighted inside.

Sweet Pea and I followed a service dog and owner all the way.

Click on this one and check out all the water birds on the breakwater.

Cottonwoods, a few maples, some variety of oaks we don't see at home, and a wisp of a moon in the early part of the race.

The state park is popular, and there was a certain amount of traffic for slower marathoners. Doing only the half, we were not bothered so much.

The substantial wind was energizing for me. That is the city of Eire, across the water.

Waterstops were EVERY MILE on this race.

"Did you just take a picture of that waterfountain??!!" chided a marathoner going by. Sure, I said, we are only doing the half; I'm taking pictures of everything. I thought it was notable that water is available way out at the end of the road.

It is always fun to see the scouts at a waterstop.

We finished! Lovely weather, fun and nearly flat course, delightful day: We recommend it.

Presque Isle Full / Half Marathons

Caring for the environment goes on!

One of the special sections of the island:

Walking on the beach, Lake Erie side, the day before the races.

A great day for races!

For a super report of the marathon, see minnesotadon.blogspot.com.


Sweet Pea and I did the half marathon, with a better-than-usual time.
More about that later.

Mushroom ??

This is growing on the end of a log in our woods.

Team Continuum

And a note from my Runner Dude husband:

I'm now running on behalf of Team Continuum, raising money for people living with cancer, while I pursue my goal of running a marathon in each of the 50 states. We three have a full schedule of marathons for the rest of 2011, including the New York City Marathon, the Marine Corps Marathon, and several others.

You can help. If you go to my new E-Race Cancer Facebook Page and "like" it, a donation will be made to Team Continuum by a third party. We invite you to do that - there is no cost to you.

While you are there, you are certainly also welcome to click on the Team Continuum link and make a further contribution to the cause.

Thank you!