TNT Kick Off

Yesterday morning was the official Kick Off for the new Team In Training season. When I first pulled into the parking lot a woman with a TNT shirt told me the lot was full and gave me directions to park somewhere else. At first I was a little annoyed that they hadn't accounted for parking, but when I finally parked and got into the building, I could see why. There were SO many TNTers, new and old. The place was overflowing with Purple and White.

Once I got inside, there was a rather large "Expo" going on. There were tables set up with people talking about the different ways they fundraised --- letter writing, house parties, TNT apparel, cook books, car washes, corporate sponsers.... LOTS of ideas. I liked some of the ideas, others I wasn't so sure of. Fortunately, seeing that there are so many different ways to fundraise did make me feel a little more at ease about that aspect. There were also tables set up for vendors with free samples and running merchandise but I didn't even make it over to that side.

After the expo, there was a program where they introduced staff from all the different teams, LA is big so there are about 5 sub groups including mine, San Gabriel Valley (SGV). The top fundraiser from last season won an award and spoke. She raised over $115,000!!! Everyone in the room was shocked by that. In her speech she explained that her husband was diagnosed with a blood cancer. He is now in remission fortunately. This woman was so strong when talking about her husband and their little girl and I couldn't believe how matter of fact she was.

We also got to meet our "Honor" team members. These are all people who are or have battled with a blood cancer. My honor teammate is Virginia. Unfortunately, I don't know too much about her yet, but she has such a kind and wise spirit when she speaks. She was telling us how the money raised by one of her team members helped pay for her medications.

After that we broke up into our different teams. I finally got to meet my coaches, mentors and other staff members. Only a few of the actual team members were there. Our coach said we have about 40-50 team members total. That's a lot of people to be running with!! My head coach, Kiley, didn't talk too much about our training. Our first group session is next Saturday and he said he'd get more in depth then. The whole thing was mostly putting faces to names. That meeting made me nervous and excited all at the same time -- something I've been feeling a majority of the time now. Kiley gave us our first schedule for this week. I have to run for 30mins three times this week. He said we're starting out nice and slow -- thank goodness!!!

Once it was all over, I walked away with my welcome packet, a TNT water bottle and my TNT jersey. As one woman said, "you have the jersey. It's official now - you're one of us".

No turning back now! ... YIKES!!!