Less than one week until race day!

Despite 20 weeks of training and preparation, it really doesn't seem possible I'll be on my way to Chicago in just 5 days. I'm incredibly nervous and excited -- and expect I'll be even more so by the time I fly out on Friday.

The first thing to report this week is that I have finally reached my initial fundraising goal of $6,000! I remember how nervous I was about whether it would be possible to raise so much when I signed up. Now, at nearly $6,700, I am hoping to raise 8,000 in total.

Another high point of the week was a fundraising fashion show and auction put on by the Ottawa members of the virtual team. It turned out to be a really fun night that raised almost $4,700. Here's a picture of the team (minus one member) taken at the end of the evening.


My favourite part of the festivities was when the members of the team were lead into the room by two bagpipers in full regalia - kilts and all. Leave it to our fearless leader, Jane (the other member of the group from NS), to come up with pipers! They certainly made an impression!

The team also enjoyed appearing on A Channel's morning show on Wednesday to promote the event and the work of Team in Training.

Finally, this week there was a flurry of email traffic amongst the members of VTNT who will be running in Chicago as we sorted out when and how we'll meet up. I also had the pleasure of chatting today with Sonia, the woman I'll be rooming with who is a member of the Montreal TNT team. I can hardly wait to meet everyone in person on the weekend. They all seem like lovely folks!

At this point, my lists are made but I still have quite a few things to pull together before I fly out -- the most important of which is, of course, my "inspiration band". I've been collecting names all summer and want to be sure I've included everyone I want to be thinking about on race day.

Speaking of which, my law school friend, Nancy posted a note on my fundraising page this week reminding me that her daughter Maeve would have been 16 years old if she hadn't died of leukemia 10 years ago. Thinking of that beautiful little girl and all she bore during 2 1/2 years of treatment is a sobering reminder of why LLSC's work is so important. As Nancy put it, "Hopefully with more research no other child will ever miss their 16th birthday because of leukemia." Here, here, Nancy.