Marathon for IBC Research

I’ve made a decision.  One decision in the right direction.  I’ve been saying for the past year I would do a marathon for my 5 year cancerversary…..and I’m quite certain I can achieve this goal now that I have run 4 half-marathons.  But I needed to decide two things.  I’ve made at least once of those decisions.

I’ve decided where the money should go.

Some of you might remember I was treated here in Kalamazoo, Michigan at the wonderful West Michigan Cancer Center, but I also went over to the University of Michigan every few months during treatment to concur with an oncologist over there who deals more specifically with Inflammatory Breast Cancer.  Over the past few years I have occasionally looked online to see what research she has been doing.  I knew she traveled often to Tunisia because the rate of IBC is so high over there.

So I contacted her a few days ago to see if I could help support her research.  And one thing I really wanted to know was that she would get the money for her team and it wouldn’t get swallowed in all the bureaucracy of a big university.  I figure I lived through this horrible disease and I’m going to run my booty off to try to raise as much money as I can so another mother doesn’t have to die from this disease….I want to be sure I know where the money goes.

She said that U of M has allowed her to keep ALL the money she raises for her research…..and this is a significant honor because this doesn’t always happen.  That’s how much they believe in her research.

So I’m very excited to have one decision made.

Now to figure out which marathon I want to run.  I’m shooting for November or December.  I really wanted to run near February 4th when I was diagnosed, but I think preparing for a marathon in January with my longest runs would be really hard, so then I was thinking about running the Las Vegas Rock-n-Roll on December 2…..because that would be my birthday!  But the reviews are HORRIBLE!  Worst reviews I’ve ever read.  Do I dare run it in 2013 in the hopes they will get some of the kinks worked out?

Advice from marathoners would be good.

Here’s a link to this great research and Dr. Merajver’s team!