Okay, my meeting was cancelled (woo hoo!), so I'm back to talk about my TnT experience. I ran the 2007 Walt Disney World Marathon in January with TnT and it was amazing! Gayle put everything so brilliantly, I don't know how I can possibly add to that.
The training experience you have depends a lot on your coach. I was very fortunate to have an AWESOME coach. Since I was the ONLY full-marathon runner in my TnT chapter (the other 2 ladies on my team were doing the half marathon), I had a lot of really long and solitary runs. I could NOT have done it without my coach, driving beside me in the freezing cold, holding a Starbucks latte in his hand, yelling "Just 2 more miles and THIS is your reward!"
Fundraising was the hardest part for me. It was hard because I live in an area where I have no family and very few local friends - so it was hard to hold any kind of fundraising event. I didn't really have anyone to invite. The fundraising goal was $3900, which, as Gayle mentioned, is one of the bigger goals for TnT. I went into it knowing that I wanted to contribute about 25% of that myself (bascially cover my own travel expenses for the marathon). The rest I was able to raise through my letter-writing campaign, and some special local events. Fundraising was hard for me, but it was a really good experience - I got to meet a lot of people who had been affected by cancer, and I received a lot of really heartfelt letters - it made the effort all worthwhile.
As for my athletic ability, or lack thereof... I am not a runner (that's what I tell people, at least).
I started running in October of '05, and in May of '06 I ran my first half-marathon. I ran another half-marathon in October of '06, and then my first marathon in Jan '07. It was a fairly natural progression for me. I'm not a good runner by any stretch of the imagination. I have always been very slow. I have horrible speed, but great endurance. I think if I can run a marathon, pretty much anyone can do it with proper training. And with TnT - you will get proper training!
The marathon itself was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. Like Gayle said, the course support at Disney is outstanding! It was a good thing, because it was near-record heat on marathon day, and I was not prepared for it at all. I had trained in freezing cold, and on marathon day it was 85 degrees and 90% humidity! EEK! But the crowds helped me get through it. Complete strangers were cheering for ME - yelling MY NAME (they print your name right on your race bib at Disney, which is nice). It's a feeling like no other. I actually wrote out my entire marathon story, mile by mile and if you're interested in reading it, I can email it to you. You can also click on the link in my siggy to view my marathon pictures.
Feel free to PM or email me if you have any more questions. It was a fabulous experience and I would recommend it to anyone!
