Thursday, September 15, 2011

Outer Banks Team In Training And The Colony Lost And Found 5K Run.

This is my friend, Marilyn.
Marilyn is a member of Team In Training. What is Team In Training, you ask? Team in Training is the world's largest endurance sports training program. Their mission is to raise funds to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease, and myeloma, and to improve the quality of life of cancer patients and their families. Since it's inception in 1988, Team In Training has trained almost a million runners, walkers, triathletes, cyclists, and hikers, and has raised over $1 billion for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to fund lifesaving cancer research. The Outer Banks Team in Training, of which Marilyn is a member, has been raising funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society under the leadership of team coach, Ed Beckley. Coach Beckley, a lifelong runner, has logged more than 38,000 miles himself and is certified by Team In Training National Coach, Jack Daniels. Beckley ran competitively in high school and college and is a founder of the Outer Banks Running Club. He's coached cross country and track and field at First Flight Middle School, First Flight High School, and Manteo High School. One of the highlights of his running career was carrying the Olympic Torch over 60 miles on the road to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. Currently, Beckley is also coach and a founder of Team Kilmarlic Running Club and President of Go The Distance Personal Run Training and Outer Banks Running Tours. The "Team" in Team In Training stands for Train, Endure, Achieve, and Matter. Coach Beckley creates a customized training schedule geared personally for each of his Team members. Beckley's philosophy is to "coach from the heart, and leave nobody behind ... and help you sanely and safely complete the endurance event of your dreams." Locally, hundreds of thousands of dollars have been raised for research and aiding patients and families. Marilyn joined Team in Training five years ago and has since raised $10,000. Currently, Marilyn is training to participate in the 2011 Colony Lost and Found 5K Race on October 15. As always, Marilyn is participating in memory of her husband, John, who lost his battle with cancer in 2005, and in memory of others who are still valiantly fighting their battles. Team members commit to train for and participate in a marathon, century ride, triathlon, or hike and are asked to honor a blood cancer patient on whose behalf they will be competing. For the 2011 Colony Lost And Found Race, the patient honoree will be Thomas Ray, of Kitty Hawk. A member of the Outer Banks Running Club, Ray ran his last race in June of this year. Members of the Outer Banks Team In Training Team include: Coach Ed Beckley Bobbie Beckley, mentor Daniel Barth Noel Basnight Georgia Hennessy Ruth Bechtel Melissa Anglin Nancy Kosanovich Marilyn Kosemple. The level of personal commitment shown by these people is inspiring. Each one of them has had their lives touched, in some way, by cancer. Even former patient honorees, such as Lori Campbell, was recovering from her leukemia, and completed her first marathon this past April. Outer Banks Team In Training ran for Lori several years ago and now she is able to do it for herself. As Georgia, one of the team members, wrote:
I don't have an inspiring story. A friend asked me to join TNT then she moved away from the area, but I stayed. I've been so inspired by others and their stories. Also I've had the tremendous joy of caring professionally for some families touched by leukemia/lymphoma. They show such strength and positive attitudes. It really makes me SHUT UP when I think about complaining about ... how sore my legs are (how fortunate I am to be able to go on long runs), how hot it is (how lucky I am not to be confined to an air-conditioned hospital room), how slow I am on my runs (many of those with cancer would love to go on a little run even at my pace).
TNT is life changing, even for those peripherally involved as I am. I knew that as I emerged from that depression I would heal so much more quickly if I surrounded myself with the inspiring and accepting team-mates of OBX TNT. So I guess you could say TNT cures depression as well as cancer!
Georgia, to me, that is an inspiring story! Coach Beckley sent me an email about another runner on my list who had to drop off the team this year, Nancy Kosanovich. Nancy is a longtime alumna who is about ready to undergo a kidney transplant, for which she has been waiting for years.
Nancy has had to drop off the team this year, of course, because of this good news. The story for Nancy is her son had Hodgkins disease and she originally joined us several years ago to run in his honor, as he is a survivor. She walked her first marathon with TNT several years ago, and has stayed on the team ever since. Ironically, her husband then died of a blood cancer, which made her more vigilant. When Nancy re-joined the team this year, she was taking weekly dialysis, and she was in a cast with a broken arm after becoming disoriented and falling. This did NOT stop her from walking with us every week, and this is the spirit of Team in Training.
I just received an email from Nancy:
Why I walk for TNT.
Dear Rosie/  This will be short... 
I am leaving the Outer Banks on Thursday
to go to Pittsburgh for a kidney transplant
next Wednesday.
I started walking for TNT
after my 30 year old son was diagonosed
with Hodgkin's Disease.
He is, now 43, and doing well-
disease-free.
I have walked 2 marathons
(Country Music Marathon in Nashville
and Disney Marathon in Orlando)
and many half marathons.
Unfortunately, my husband developed
non-Hodgkins lymphoma, and died in 2004.
The last year, I have been pretty ill,
but I had started to train for the 5K
in Manteo in October when I received the call
that my donor had "cleared"
and transplant was imminent!
Team in Training has been a wonderful,
important part of my life,
and Ed and Bobbie Beckley have trained me well.
Thanks/Nancy Kosanovich
Nancy, I wish you the best. I believe you to be the embodiment of team spirit. You signed on to the team this year knowing you might not finish. But I truly believe you'll be back on the team again.
Here's Melissa's story:
I first joined OBX TNT in 2010, our family had just lost a talented teacher and musician to leukemia, combined with the fact that I had been looking for an opportunity to start running again.
So, in addition to raising money for a cure in 2010, I ran a 5K race at the end of the 11 week program.
TNT continues to be well-coached and allows me to train with a great group of motivated, caring folks who comprise every Team.
I've re-joined in 2011. This year I'm out there running for Diane and Susan, two close friends who have both recently lost their fight with different cancers.
I continue to raise money for LLS due to it's outstanding success in funding research resulting in treatments and cures for blood cancers and other cancers as well.
And here's Coach Beckley's story: My wife, Bobbie, the team mentor, and I joined TNT in 1994 after Bobbie's father died of Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia. It was a death sentence then, and he was in the hospital for eight months. He was sequestered for many weeks at the end of his life, only able to see his medical staff and immediate family. I swore after he died that if there was anything I could do to help cure the disease, I would do it. But I didn't know what I could do. A few months later I read an article in Runners World Magazine about Team in Training, and I told myself that if the program were ever offered where I was living, I would join it. But there was no program in Richmond, VA, at that time. Shortly thereafter I was running with a good friend who said, "Ed, have you ever heard of Team in Training?" I told him my story. He said, "I have just volunteered to be the coach of the first team here." Ever since that day, such God-kissed serendipities have been a part of Bobbie's and my life with TNT. I will run three TNT events this year, and will celebrate my 28th TNT event when I run the Kiawah Island Half Marathon in South Carolina in December. Bobbie and I have had the honor of helping to raise over a million dollars for the cause, and this is my 11th year of coaching TNT on the Outer Banks. Of great note: Bobbie and I were at the national meeting of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in St. Louis a few years ago. It was there that we had a few private minutes with Dr. Brian Drucker, the researcher who developed the CURE for Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia, which killed my father-in-law so many years before. We were humbled to meet him, and he said, "Oh no. It's not me. It's you. And all the others who raised the money to help keep my laboratory doors open." Since then, Dr. Drucker has also joined TNT and run a marathon for the cause. We are tremendously blessed to see the major drugs and therapies that have been developed by LLS researchers to keep people alive, and to give them great quality of life as they manage their blood cancers instead of leaving their families way to soon.
These are empowering statements.
If you care to participate, please go to Marilyn's Fundraising Page and make a donation. Rosie thanks you. Marilyn thanks you. And so many others will thank you. You can make a difference.
Did you know that my pool is one of Marilyn's training venues?
And Dixie is her pool coach. Here are Dixie and Marilyn training:
Dixie swims laps around Marilyn.
Here's Dixie in her Team In Training hat.
Actually, Dixie is an honorary member of TIT. TIT - That's Team In Training. But for some reason, Team In Training uses the acronym TNT. Beats me.
Marilyn assured Rosie she wasn't in the picture. But XKT said my legs looked good, so I left the picture in.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those gams go on for miles! Great story Rosie.

Marilyn said...

That is a wonderful story, Rosie.

And my word verification is "anywin."

Lane said...

Marilyn,
Thank you so much for taking that last picture. Yesterday looked like it was Dixie's favorite kind of day :) Lane

DH said...

BTW Rosie your legs do look fabulous. <3