It's Here!

This time tomorrow I will be on the road to Austin. Saturday is filled with the pre-race activities. Then Sunday is Race Day!

My wave starts at 8:25. That's where I will start the 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run. The total miles is where the term 70.3 Ironman comes from. I am about as ready as I can be. I have had 4 months of consistent training with no setbacks. If you are really bored on Sunday you can go to http://www.endorfunsports.com/ to watch the live broadcast of the finish line. You can also track me at http://www.myathletegps.com/. My race number is 1911. If all goes well I should be finishing sometime between 1:45 PM and 2:00 PM.



I want to end this campaign by saying "Thank you" again to all the people who have shared their stories. Thank you to those who have donated to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. I also want to end with an update of survival. Sharon Washburn has completed all of her treatments and is cancer free. Please visit her blog http://www.sharonwashburn.blogspot.com/ to see her inspirational story and her sweet thoughts. She wrote something in her last post that struck a chord with me. "I am also learning to be more tender to others."

This sentence sums up the reason I wanted to do this campaign. I long to be more tender to others, to make time, to be aware of other's needs and how they are hurting. Tender hearts make people more aware of cancer and how it can affect people. Being more tender to others can cause us to give money, time, or more importantly to pray.

I hope these stories have encouraged you to be more tender to others, specifically to friends and family affected by cancer.

Thanks for reading!

Paul

Derek's Story

The race is 4 days away. I will have one final pre-race blog post after this one. It was my intent in joining in this Livestrong campaign to raise funds and bring awareness to the fight against cancer. The most important part of this, though, was to honor my friends and family members who have fought the battle by sharing their stories. This story is told from my friend, Derek, about his mom, Glenda.

"I am not a writer. However, I will write to tell you about my mother Glenda Rawls. She died as the result of breast cancer in 1996.
I remember coming home one day in 7th grade and her being upset about a lump in her breast. As it turns out, she had noticed the lump months earlier but didn't tell anyone or go to the doctor. It was too late.
She was the bedrock of our family working all the time to support my sister and me. Her work provided health insurance for our family. Her attitude was “I can't possibly get sick.” We needed her.
She went to the doctor and came back with the news, it was breast cancer. I'm sitting here in 7th grade worried about pimples and the ladies and my mom is continuing to work and worry about getting through the next day and year. At first nothing changed until the chemo/radiation cocktail treatments that they did back then. I remember coming home from church and she was standing in the bathroom sobbing holding her hair in one hand. I told her she was still pretty to me. It did freak me out seeing her in a wig knowing that must be humiliating for her. Also when she lost her breast she seemed to want to give in and give up… but she never did. I have never seen someone suffer this much and not give up. This is not to say she didn't have her moments but she fought through the treatments, got really sick, lost a lot of weight, but got back to work as soon as she could. Like an answered prayer she was totally back to normal by my 9th grade year in high school. I thought that was behind us for good. I even started to forget that horrible time, until she started coughing. That started in the fall of 1994 when I was a senior. Come to find out the cancer spread almost everywhere. She had a tumor between her heart and her lungs, also she had it in her brain. She fought it but couldn't hang on. She died a little over a year later.
When I got the call from my dad that she was gone I just couldn't believe the mom that was always there for me no matter what was gone. It seemed like unconditional love, true love was dead. The only relief I had during this time was when I saw her in the coffin at the funeral home. Her body was still. She wasn't struggling to breathe anymore. No tubes going in and out of her body, just her again. She looked so peaceful but when I touched her she was as cold as ice. At this moment I knew she wasn't there. She was in a place of no more suffering and that gave me all the hope in the world.
It's still hard to talk about and hard during those "big events" in life, like my wedding, when my kids were born things like that. I wish more than anything I could ask her what she thinks of Katie’s award winning mashed potatoes or call her and tell her about something crazy Jonas, my son, just said. But I know she is there and she is smiling and still cheering me on telling me to continue the fight and never give up. This life does have it's struggles but I will keep fighting and I know someday I will see her again. Thanks for reading my story."

Derek and I go to church together. He and his wife, Katie, own a Dalworth carpet cleaning franchise. I can say first hand this man works hard to make sure he does a good job. I am in pretty good shape and after I spent a couple of days with Derek cleaning carpets and I was wore out! So if you want a good cleaning job done for your carpets call Dalworth and ask for Derek and Katie.
Thank you Derek for your friendship and thanks for sharing your story!