TNT Montréal

I joined Team in Training in my hometown, Montréal, to run the Ottawa marathon on May 24, 2009.  This is going to be my very first marathon but not my first experience at racing. I've completed a few races in the past years but never with much thought about setting a goal or a PR or anything in particular. 

Of course, with no goal I pretty much got bored of running and sort of gave up for a while.  Strangely, I'm a goal oriented person but for some reason, I was scared of setting goals for my running because I didn't want it to become another thing to get all worked up about. I think I also have a problem with fear of success or failure. Anyhow, I had no goal and quit running. 

Six months ago, I re-started running seriously and started looking for an event I could participate in.  Ottawa seemed nice, it's not far from home, I could easily pack up my son and husband and we could make a nice week-end out of it. But, I wanted more. I wanted to be able to make a difference while training for a marathon. I wanted to reach more than one goal. I wanted more, much more.

Let's go back in time for a second. In 2004, my beloved son was diagnosed with Autism. His father and I were devestated. I couldn't go on and slipped in a deep depression that took almost a year away from my life. After some therapy, I started going to lectures and meetings with other parents with autistic children. After one particularly difficult meeting where most of the mothers present were crying and talking about how unfair this was and how are we going to get through this, etc, etc, I had an "AHA!" moment.  MY SON IS NOT DYING! He's alive and well, happy to be with us and learning every day. I will have my son with me for the rest of my life.

But some parents won't. Lukemia still kills too many children (and adults). As with any other cancer, research needs to be done. I wanted to be part of this. I wanted to do something for the children. I strongly believe that parent should not bury their children.  I wouldn't be able to bare that and wanted to make a difference.

So here I am, after our first group long run last Saturday.  The weather was beautiful, everyone was chatting along and 10k (6.21 miles) went by without even noticing, hey I even sprinted the last 2 blocks (I really had to go...).

This blog is my way of sharing my training, my fundraising, the fun and the frustrations of it all.

I hope you enjoy the run!