HEROES II
I was in the city on Saturday for the Team In Training (TNT) Pasta Party before the Nike Women’s Marathon. I was invited by the team as one of their honoree/patients. It was time for me to say thank you for the many wonderful participants who raise money for cancer research by completing an endurance event. There were over 4000 TNT participants, and an incredible $4 million+ raised from this event alone, that’s $140,000/mile!

AMAZING!
In his keynote address, Dwayne Howell, Leukemia and Lymphoma President and CEO remarked on how effective the medicine Gleevec is, 85% of CML patients have survived for over four years with manageable conditions and side effects. I’m one who is responding well to the treatment, going on three(!) years in January 2006. The most exciting part is that with the continuing research in complementary therapy (combining Gleevec with other drugs, a ‘drug cocktail’) that according to one of the Society’s senior staff, “in a few years there is the realistic belief that the greatest danger facing CML patients will be not buckling up (their seatbelt) to take a drive.” Hearing these updates that affect me personally brought tears to my eyes. With my daughter in my lap, I tried not to lose it with all my friends around the table.

VACCINE
They’re also making progress in developing a vaccine to restore the immune system of those having a bone marrow transplant, shortening part of the treatment and recovery from one month down to two weeks! A BMT is a very invasive, painful procedure and treatment with a lengthy recovery, where all your bad, cancerous blood is killed and replaced by new, good blood from another matching donor. The immune system is purposefully wiped out to allow the body to accept the new blood (simple explanation). The danger from infection is very high in the critical recovery period. Most deaths are not from the cancer, but from treatment-related infection and complications. Hopefully I’ll remain responsive to the Gleevec and won’t need a BMT, though I have a donor just in case. Shout out to my buddy Phil who’s in month three after his BMT. Love you man! That’s why TNTer’s are my heroes, they make research like this possible.


BARBIE
At the Season Kick Off, I told the dozens of new participants the story about my first Century Ride and my Pink Barbie Bandaid:
“Someone asked me what was the most memorable part of the ride. I have many, but one of the most memorable was also the worst part of my ride. Around mile 50 I started feeling what I had imagined riding a century would be like: fatigue, pain, the onset of cramps, legs which felt like stumps of dead wood, struggling into a headwind in my granny gear. I thought of these words I’d heard earlier “when you get to that point in the ride, enjoy it because you can.”

A couple of months earlier during a training ride, I injured myself on the bike and my daughter Gillian gave me a Barbie Bandaid for my ‘owee.’ Before the ride I stuck one of her pink Barbie band-aids on my handlebar stem as a touchstone, a reminder for my reason for riding. When things got tough, I gently touched it with my fingers and just kept pedaling through the pain and wind as I thought of my 2 year-old.

Cycling makes me feel alive. When I ride, there are unmistakable signs of life, my steady breathing, the tension in the muscles in my legs, the pounding of my heart. Even pain reminds me that I am alive. So I don’t view pain as an enemy, it’s only temporary. It’s a reminder of life, which is good.

What happened next is hard to explain. After a few miles I caught my second wind. Whether it was a endorphin or adrenalin or a tailwind I found myself cycling at speeds that were very fast for me, and pedaling was almost effortless, like I was floating. I wish I could ride that way all the time...”

Ashleigh and Cara of the San Francisco team surprised me by showing me a team “Spirit Cape” they made with the words ‘STRIVE’ spelled out with pink Barbie Bandaids! I was speechless and extremely touched by their gesture. I introduced them to Gillian, the inspiration of the Barbie Bandaids, which made the moment even more poignant.


What a wonderful evening. I saw so many old and new friends, too many to name, all heroes in my book. Love you guys! Go Team!