Hello, hello!!
So, it has been 3 ½ weeks since I joined Team In Training and I thought it was about time to update you all on what I’ve been up to in last 24 days. Let me tell you, it has been an exciting adventure!
Shortly after I joined TNT, I met my coaches, mentors, coordinator, teammates, and honored teammate at the Kick Off for the season. Coach Gurujan has been in 276 triathlons. He’s been coaching the Pacific Grove triathlon since 1999. Our assistant coach Robbie is a leukemia survivor and ran his first marathon with Team In Training a three years to the day of his first chemo treatment. My mentor Emily is one of three mentors on our team. I think she’s in her 5th year with TNT. You can see her pictures of other TNT events at http://www.mle.org. Our other mentors, Brian and Penny, have been with TNT for a long time too. Penny and Emily will be with us at Pac Grove, while Brian will be going to the Nation’s Triathlon with the other third of our team. Our coordinator Heather has been busy helping the Century Team prepare for their event tomorrow… 100 miles cycling around Lake Tahoe! So, I’ll give an update on her later.
My honored teammate Tamela is a survivor of multiple myeloma. A large tumor grew on her sternum and was detected while she was pregnant with her youngest daughter, but she feared harming her baby by having MRIs and other tests performed during the pregnancy. She found out she had cancer after her baby was born and immediately began treatment. Her younger daughter is now 2 ½ and Tamela has been cancer-free for 20 months. What a blessing! Meeting Tamela tonight was amazing and I’m so excited to begin training to honor her. She’ll be at some of our Saturday workouts and I can’t wait to get to know her better and learn more of her story (and hopefully meet her family too!). Her emotion and gratitude left a lump in my throat and I am so proud to have her on my team.
I also met two of the other honored teammates for other teams as well… one of whom as been free of AML (Acute Myelogenous Leukemia) for nine months and another still battling Multiple Myeloma (the same cancer as my honored teammate). While they’re honored teammates for marathon teams for the Fall Season, they’re both currently training for the Rock N Roll marathon on June 1st (tomorrow) here in San Diego… amazing!! I hope I’ll get to see and talk to them more throughout the season, even though they aren’t my specific team’s honored teammates.
My teammates are great and I can’t wait to spend more time with them. We train together several days a week: swim on Mondays and Wednesdays, track on Tuesdays, biking on Saturdays, and trail runs on Sundays!
I’ve learned a lot since we began training on the 17th… from what gear to buy (padded bike shorts are GENIUS) to how to wear a swim cap (you can stop laughing now). The first time I rode a road bike, I felt like I was learning all over again how to even ride a bike… it’s so different! And cages on the pedals? How am I supposed to get my feet in there? I’ve got it down now though. This week, I swam over 1400 yards, ran 3 miles at track practice, and rode over 16 miles! Incredible! I didn’t think I could do it, but I did and I can’t wait for more training next week!
Tomorrow, I’m going to volunteer and cheer on runners at the Rock N Roll Marathon. I’m really excited for them and it just makes me more amped for my own event. I’m still fundraising and have raised just over $800 thus far! Thank you to all those who have donated! Thank you SO much! I truly appreciate it.
I hope you’re all doing well! Stay tuned for the next update!
Triathlete in Training,
Breanne Leach
http://pages.teamintraining.org/sd/pactri08/bleach to donate
http://bleach226.wordpress.com for regular updates
