Marathons, triathlons, and a walk around Lake Union

No, that's not me in this photo. That's my friend, Nic, who is running a series of marathons to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. He'll be running 13 marathons in all, and attempting to do them all in 12 weeks. I don't think my brain has fully grasped how incredible this is. But after raising money for the LLS by regularly running the Big Climb for Leukemia, a herculean effort in itself that involves running up 71 flights of stairs at the Columbia Tower, his cause became a little more personal after he discovered that I was diagnosed with leukemia. He decided to raise funds for the LLS on his own and started a blog called 13 in 12. Nic likes a good challenge, and by running 13 marathons in 12 weeks it also puts him in the top tier of the Marathon Maniacs group, a small, hardcore group of folks from around the world who can actually do stuff like this. He's completed 3 of the 13 marathons so far and has raised $1,386 as of last Tuesday. Please consider making a donation. The LLS is a great organization and making a donation is a great way for you to help out. Nic will be running a total of 388 miles in 66 days, and all you have to do is click a few buttons, whisk a few bucks (or 20 or 50) his way, and you're set. Not a bad deal, eh? You can read more about it on his blog. Nic was also mentioned in the UW Weekly newspaper. Cool!

My battle with leukemia has also inspired my brother-in-law's friend, Trevor, to enter a triathlon called the Ironman 70.3 Boise. Instead of raising funds for a particular organization, Trevor is just asking that you support him by signing up to be a donor in the National Bone Marrow Registry. Please, please, please do this. All it takes is $52, they send you a kit in the mail, you send back a cheek swab, and you're done. Out of 10 million people in the registry, I only had 3 matches, and only one of them was good enough to be my donor. Trevor is an oncologist-in-training and sees patients who are in need of transplants on a regular basis. By becoming a donor you're not only helping people like me, you're helping all the oncologists (and oncologists-in-training) who care deeply for their patients and want to see them cured. Read Trevor's post on the subject.

I did my own little part today by walking around Lake Union this morning with my laptop and backpack in tow. Total mileage: 8.1 miles. It took me about 3 hours, not including a stop at Starbucks to refuel and to get online. After this walk I was finally a little sore. With the others I felt like I could keep going and didn't feel sore at all. Though I think I'm sore because I sped up quite a bit during the last 2 miles to make sure I got back to my car in time before the parking meter expired. But I made it with 15 minutes to spare. Here's the route I took:


Here's a picture I took around the 4-mile point. It's a power station with the Seattle skyline in the background. Those buildings in the skyline are near where I started, and you can see the other end of the lake on the right side of the picture.