Joy's Story

Joy Hughes is one of our teammates with Team in Training. She is friends with Lindsey Oswalt, one of the girls I wouldn't make it through law school without!! Oswalt told me months ago that Joy was doing Team in Training and that I needed to meet her but Steve and I just found her 2 weeks ago. We ran with her some during the 12 miler and she was definitely a blessing to me that day! Joy had an encouraging experience lately that she shared with the Team and I wanted to share with you all.

Here is Joy's story:

"A few weeks ago on a Sunday evening, I was just about to begin jogging at the boat launch near Palisades when a man approached me. He recognized the Team in Training jersey I was wearing, and asked about it. I let him know that I was participating in the Team in Training program, and then he told me that his daughter is Marganie Dumas, one of the two children that for whom are raising money; she is six years old and has leukemia. His actual words were, "My daughter...well, we get a lot of help from them." He motioned towards his shaved head and said, “We had to shave her head this weekend, and so she made me shave mine.” He proudly held up his TNT bracelet, choked up, let me know how much it meant to him to meet someone from the Team, and hugged me. Mr. Dumas’s spirit of appreciation was overwhelming. Seeing firsthand that our efforts mean the world to this family has given me so much motivation to keep pushing, and it is really humbling to see how much hope a little help from a team of runners can give. I'm glad I signed up."
-Joy Hughes

Training Day 76

12 miles today! 150 miles total so far!

Training Day 69!

In just a few days we will be at the halfway point of our training - that is hard to believe! We are running over 20 miles a week total now. This morning we ran 10 miles at the reservoir. We have been running out there on Saturdays for about a month, it’s a nice change of pace from our day-to-day runs. We have been very blessed during the month of July – every week for our Saturday morning "long run" there has been a great breeze and the temperature has been relatively low for this time of year. (Who really believes in global warming??) Next Saturday is 12 miles and then 15 the next – ahh!

Please continue keep us in your prayers. In some ways this challenge is getting harder rather than easier as time goes on. We have both dealt with serious injuries from the running and as the runs get longer we have to be careful. Pray that we will build up the endurance to finish this race strong and that we will be free from pain and injury! Another thing is that our fundraising has pretty much come to a halt and we are still far short of our goal. We lack over $2,000 of the required amount we have to raise and we are $5,000 short of our personal goal. Please pray that we will have direction about where to go next to raise money.

Thanks for checking in on us!!

Training Day 56 - 1/3 of the way....

We have reached the 1/3 mark on everything -
- we are over one third of the way through training, 91 days to go
- we ran 8 miles Saturday, a third of the 26 we will run at the marathon
- we have raised $3800, over one third of our $10,000 goal

Thank you for your continuing support!!

Training Day 41

We ran 6 miles this morning! Steve ran the whole 6 this week, he is back on track and doing great. He is still being careful with his knee but it is so much better. I am glad to have him back, it is much more fun than running by myself!

Steve and I are blessed to have such wonderful friends and family - your support and words of encouragement are more helpful than you know. AND, y'all have donated almost $3,000 in a month! THANK YOU so much for supporting us and the L&L Society.

If you cannot afford to donate - believe me, we totally understand. But you can still help in a huge way - if you would send an email to your friends and family and tell them about this, that would be great. So many people are affected by cancer and we want to reach as many people as possible. ALSO, we are looking for corporate sponsors - Businesses who donate over $500 are provided with numerous advertising benefits through Team in Training. Talk to your company and see if they are interested. If so, we can contact them with the details.

Thanks for checking in on our progress!

Websites for Jake and Marganie

Our two Honored Heroes have their own websites - please check these out. You can read their journals, see pictures and follow their progress.

Jake Craig's site: www.caringbridge.org/visit/jakecraig
Marganie Dumas' site: www.caringbridge.org/visit/marganiedumas

Day 25

I think I had a break-through this week. Running has actually not been awful lately...I almost enjoyed it one morning and I sort missed it on my cross training day. I don't know what this is all about but I hope it will last!! This Saturday we are supposed to do 6 miles - ouch. It will be Steve's first day back running since the knee problems. I probably will not let him do all 6 miles - even though you know he will try to!

Keep your comments coming and send your friends and family to our website. Thanks!
Lindz