The Reason

Hello, it is I, Claudia, once again. Here to explain the reason why we are riding for a cure. In June 2009, my dad was not feeling well and ended up in emergency at the Rockyview Hospital. While there, the ER doctor, without ceremony proceeded to say to my dad, "So you have cancer."

A scary word, and scarier when there is no bedside manner, and during the wee hours of the morning when you are alone in a room of strangers.

He was sent for a number of tests during the following month, where on the morning of my 39th birthday, we discovered that it was Type 4 Non Small Cell Lung Cancer, which had metastasized to his brain. The battle for his life began.

He began radiation treatment, and as the doctors were dragging their feet, and not forthcoming with any information, and a complete sense of aloneness and uncertainty fell upon our family. My sisters and I started researching. I dragged my dad to a Chinese Doctor and a Naturopath and began reading books written by stage 4 survivors. My sister Jackie went with my dad to many of his appointments at the Cancer Hospital. Meanwhile, my sister Debbie, researched nutrition and supplementation.

After Stereotactic surgery on his brain, there was a bit of a waiting game, until his chemotherapy was to begin. To date, he has completed two of four chemo cycles, just started the third today, has fought infections, and had a battery of tests. Good news came when his bone scan came back clean (an incredibly scary appointment I went to with my dad, as my mum had a breakdown that morning). The CT scan of his brain came back without any change, the main tumor in the right lobe of his lung decreased by one quarter it's original size. Finally, the tumor on his lymph node (where they were worried it would grow and block off his airway, resolved itself (disappeared).

However, the battle rages on. This was a battle that my Uncle Tony, Zia (Aunt) Gigetta, Uncle Frank, Grandpa, and my Nonno (Italian grandpa), and Asti (my dog) all lost.

So, when my friend Tom signed up for the ride I donated money towards his fundraising, and thought, "maybe I should ride." I went to work for a few days, and when I got back home I was skyping Tom and Pam, during that conversation I signed up. Pam signed up, and I knew I could count on Sabrina to join the fun. After all it will be great training for the death race.

Defeated by a $0.30 piece of plastic

You would think that in a show-down with a two-button piece of plastic that I would win. Well, I think I should win but no, no... that's not the case. AGAIN!

I have one of these lovely Nike + SportBand. This exact one to be precise. It's great because I am nerdy and this keeps track of all my runs. As well as having access to coaching programs and other goodies, it broadcasts all my runs onto the internet for my entertainment and tortures my friends with it's inanity. I'll probably have to address a slight attention-whore syndrome in the future, but I am not entirely owning it right now.

So anyways, I have occasionally come up against the sportband by thinking that just because I pushed a button, it's working. If you are guessing that this thinking = fail, you'd be one up on me. What makes this whole thing even more embarrassing is the fact this has happened to me many times, which means I'm not exactly the sharpest tool in the box when it comes to repeat experiences. *SO* mortified.

Bottom line: Technology is only as good as it's user! HAHA. Here's hoping I won't do it again. :)

~Pam

And last but not least

Hello Everyone....So I'm the one that started this blog and yet the last to write in it.

Once in awhile people that come into your life that push you to do things that you would have never thought about doing on your own. I’m normally the type of person that comes up with those crazy ideas and goes out looking for a partner in crime only to be told I’m crazy. Luckily, or maybe unluckily I managed to find some friends that are just as crazy as me! I'm the crazy runner that started it all. A year ago started running agina after 7 years away from it, and again I fell in love with this sport!!! But alas like most love affairs it was not smooth sailing. It April after getting up to 16km I hurt myself and couldn't run for 3 months, like most other women I turned to my friends when I was heartbroken, and there may have been some eating of ice cream as well. I'm sure just to get me to shut up Pam tried it, and well in came Claudia. It killed me in May to watch the people I trained with finish their Half Marathons, when I couldn't even run 1 min without pain. But in Aug I was back in full swing, and started teaching a Beginners Running Class, with the best pacers I could have asked for(Pam, Claudia and another great friend). I was right back in love with running, I continued on to teach another class, and that's when the Death race idea came to play.

Too be clear I didn't think of the Death Race idea by myself, but I did run with.
I had heard about the death race years ago when I was sane and wouldn't even have come close to trying it, but deep down inside I always wanted too. I've have quickly learned that when you come up with a crazy idea it's best to recuit another egually crazy person...So off I went to call the craziest person I know....Pam! It was pretty easy to sell her on the idea, I little bit of jumping up and down and this will be so amazing will normally do :) Plus I know Pam and Claudia are a package deal, so get one and I get both, the more the merrier . Much to our surprise Claudia didn't take much convincing, and was actually was up for the idea!!! This was almost eerie, because she is the sanest out of the three of us, and no that's not saying much. Yikes what type of Monster had we created??? If she did lose her mind then that's probably a good thing, because you can't be sane to decide to do even part of a 125km run through the mountains with 17,000ft of elevation change in it. There will be 2 others on our team for that. Check out the website site for that part of our adventure. http://www.canadiandeathrace.com/schedule2010.html

And decide for yourself are we really that crazy???

I will know get to work and leave it to Claudia to explain more about the Ride to Conquer Cancer, and how 3 wmone without bike must ride for 2 days and each raise $2500. Yikes I don't know what part scares me more the raising the money, or sitting on a bike seat for 2 days. OUCH!!! I should invest in a donut cushion just so I can sit at my desk, after I start the training.

Cheers.....Sabrina

The Crew Part Deux.....or is it Part Three?

Hi everyone, you have already met Pam (the first of the three crazies), and I am sure you will meet Sabrina (crazy part deux) in no time, so that leaves me…..My name is Claudia, and I am terzina in this group of ladies.

What makes me a little nutty? As of April 30, 2008 I had not run since Junior High School (which was finished in the ‘80s), and I have not been on a bicycle since elementary (which ended in the early ‘80s).

Whilst sitting by the pool in Orlando, I decided to go to my hotel room, change, and head for the gym. It was May 1^st, and Pammie was starting her running program, so on the spur of the moment I decided to run. Luckily I had a pair of shorts and running shoes, but no other gear designed for runners.

I had noooooo intention of ever running more than 5 km, because really what for? So when Pam mentioned that I should join her and Sabrina in training for a 10k, I replied “Ah, no.”

But Sabrina is a crafty one, and suckered me into being a rogue group leader in her "learn to run class." I agreed, and that is when she dropped the bomb on poor unsuspecting Pammie and I.

Sabrina decided it would be a great idea if we signed up for the death race, she twisted Pammie’s rubber arm, and Pammie in turn twisted my rubber arm. Let me reiterate, at this point I was still running a maximum of 5k. So I headed to M.E.C and purchased some running gear J

Little did they know I would get my revenge. I signed up to cycle 200k in 2 days, Ride to Conquer Cancer, and just like dominos Pam and Sabrina joined the team. I need to point out that I don’t own anything remotely resembling a bike, or biking gear. I figured I would start safe, on a stationary bike, where I really can’t hurt myself to bad. What are the chances I will fall off, and hit my noodle on the curb? Fairly slim.

So I ask, who is the nuttiest of the nuts?

Let's get this party started!!

Hey folks, thanks for stopping by and taking a look at our little adventure! My name is Pam, and I am one of the Three Crazy Ladies (TM pending). The other two are Sabrina and Claudia, and will all be introducing themselves in short order.

The reason I call myself crazy is just this: I agreed to run the DeathRace before I had even run 10km. The DeathRace is Sabrina's venture, so I will leave that to her to describe. Then I let Claudia talk me into joining our friend Tom's team for the Alberta Ride to Conquer Cancer - neither of us own bikes, let alone ride. Since she talked Sabrina into that one as well, I'll leave that to her to describe.

Ooh, but now I have nothing to describe. Wewt! Good job passing the buck!

Meh, that's just boring. Hmmm. Well today I started weight training again, since now it's not just running muscles I need to develop. My dirty little secret is that I really like weight machines; there is just something about seeing how much you can actually lift/pull/push that is kind of titillating. Now I know my weak points - my quads are a wee bit tragic after 7 months of only running, and well, I have Kermit the Frog arms but fortunately I am not using them to do either of these events! Tomorrow is a double run day, good times. :)

~Pam