Oh, where to begin

When I last wrote I had just gotten back from my WDW Marathon experience. It's now December and my, oh my, how time has flown!! A lot of things have happened in the last 8 months. Not even sure where to begin, so I think I'll start with the yearly timeline and fill in details from there...

1/9 - Orlando bound for the WDW Marathon
1/11 - WDW Marathon
1/12 - Character Breakfast at the Grand Floridian, dinner with the Guzdar's (traditional Chinese cooked by Angie's mom)
1/13 - WDW Epcot Center
1/14 - Universal Studios, Lobster Feast night with the Guzdar's
1/15 - WDW Magic Kingdom
1/16 - Universal Studios Islands of Adventure
1/17 - WDW Hollywood Studios
1/24 - National Western Stockshow with the Guzdar's - their first rodeo
1/25 - Girls luncheon at The Market downtown - Jami, Kelly, Kay, Rachel
1/30 - Chad VanKeuren visits Denver - snowboarding ensues
2/8-2/14 - Brian in Panama
2/20-2/22 - Valentine's make-up rendezvous/Anniversary Celebration at Vail Cascade Resort & Spa; Jami and Patrick joined us for a day of skiing and dinner at the resort
3/1 - Winter Park for the Wells Fargo Cup and a day of skiing
3/5 - Kevin Taylor's at the Opera House followed by Phantom of the Opera
3/6 - Girls Night Out at Beta - went with Leigh, Monica, Katie...Monica's friends drank all of our vodka :( Brian was in Tahoe for Mike Ross' bachelor party weekend
3/20-3/22 - Beaver Creek Weekend - rented a condo with friends and skied Beaver Creek Resort...this is the weekend that Brian tricked me into going down Birds of Prey (black diamond run, very scary!!)
3/24 - Called in sick to work to take advantage of a great powder day at Vail
3/29-4/4 - Brian in Panama
4/16 - Ludacris concert in Pueblo with Steph and Maria
4/18 - Jami's Bachelorette Party at Beatrice & Woodsley
4/24-4/26 - Mike and Jaquelyn's wedding weekend in Laguna Beach, California
4/25 - San Diego Zoo, Brian's birthday dinner at Oceanaire and Rain: A Beatles Tribute
5/1 - One Eyed Jacks to see a show with Monica, ran into Jake and MaryBeth there
5/2 - Birthday party at Tony and Angie's house
5/3 - Birthday Party at Danielle's
5/8-5/9 - Jami and Patrick's Wedding Festivities
5/8 - drove to Sedona, AZ and met up with everyone for drinks pre-wedding
5/9 - Visited Sliderock Park with Nick and Rachel; visited a vortex; attended J & P's wedding at Tlaquepaque Village
5/10 -5/13 - Grand Canyon Camping Expedition
5/14 - drove to St. George Utah, visited Pipe Spring National Monument and Brigham Young's Summer Home
5/14 - Zion National Park, drove to campsite
5/15 - Bryce National Park and then back to Denver
5/17-5/29 - Brian left for Panama
5/22-5/25 - Panama for Shea!
5/27 - No Doubt at Fiddler's Green Amphitheatre with Leigh, Steph and Monica, ran into Jami and Patrick at the show
6/5 - Katie's Birthday Party
6/15 - Brian signed the paperwork for our NEW HOUSE!
6/19-6/21 - Rapid City Central High School Class of 1999 10 Year Reunion; Shedeed Family Reunion in Hermosa, SD
6/27 - White water rafting trip with Brian, Jami, Patrick, Dave, Emily, Trent, Kelly and Ty
6/28 - Volleyball Tourney with Corey, Leigh and Matt - took 2nd place
7/3 - Rockie's Baseball Game with fireworks!
7/4 - 2nd Annual O'Gorkie's BBQ
7/18-7/25 - Brian's parents (David and Mindy) visited from New York
7/18 - Indian Tacos night with Tony and Angie
7/19 - Royal Gorge Train ride and Royal Gorge visit
7/22 - Rockie's Game
7/24 - Black Hawk with Mindy while Brian and Dave worked on house stuff
7/25 - Arc Angels at the Bluebird Theatre with Rosie and Rylan
8/1 - Camping near Berthoud Pass with Kona and Tabbie
8/15 - Adopted Petra from the Western Border Collie Rescue (wbcrescue.org)
8/16 - Muddy Buddy in Boulder
8/22 - Brian and Shea's Housewarming Party!
8/25 - Nickelback at Fiddler's with Brian and Leigh
8/28 - Kelly's birthday party game night
8/29 - Date Night with Brian
9/9 - Killers at Red Rocks with Brian
9/12 - Emily Rein's birthday party at The Irish Snug
9/13 - Volleyball Tourney at Lowry Sports Complex
9/14 - Bowlero bowling league begins, teammates are Brian, Monica and Greg
9/19 - Brian and Daria's wedding at Cheesman Park, reception at The Aquarium
9/23 - Av's game with Steph
9/25 - Rockie's game with Brian and his friends Paul and Kay
9/29 - Hot Air Balloon Ride with Brian, finally!!
10/1-10/4 - Canyonlands Camping Trip with Brian, Amy, Eric, Tony, Angie, Jeff, Barbara, Megan, Ben, Todd, Deanna, Matt x2, Misty and the Puccio bros.
10/3 - Tate James Uchitel is born, my first nephew
10/8 - Cecilia Bain's birthday bbq party
10/9 - Drag Queen Bingo with Steph
10/17 - Kay's 40th birthday party at Wash Park Grille, also celebrated Danielle's 32nd bday
10/18 - Field of Corpses with Steph and friends
10/19 - Rusted Root at the Ogden Theatre with Brian, Angie, Matt S., Megan and Barbara
10/20 - Nuggets pre-season game with Brian and Steph
10/24 - Couples date day at Chatfield Corn Maze followed by Pumpkin Carving Party with Jami, Patrick, Ashlee, Chris, Trent, Kelly, Brian, Daria, Korkie and Deirdra
10/31 - Howloween dog party for Boris Henry's bday; Bassnectar at the Fillmore
11/5 - My 29th Birthday; celebrated by going to sushi with Brian, followed by a surprise candle making party at The Healing Glow studios with 7 of my closest friends: Leigh, Katie, Steph, Megan, Daria, Ashlee, Monica...I have the best boyfriend for organizing as we all had a great time!
11/13 - Nuggets vs. Lakers game
11/14 - Matt Duran's Bowling Fundraiser for this brother
11/25-11/29 - Thanksgiving in South Dakota
12/9 - Dinner at Katie and Gene's house
12/10 - Girls Night In with Kelly, Danielle, Kay and Jami
12/14 - last night of bowling league, took 2nd place out of 20 teams
12/19 - Bobbie Jiminez and Jen Stipe's birthday buffet and gambling in Black Hawk
12/25 - Xmas at home with Brian and the pups

Walt Disney World Marathon, January 11, 2009

My marathon journey began on a cool August evening in 2008. My boyfriend, Brian, and I went to the Jack Johnson concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, CO. We met up with several of our friends, including his friends, Tony and Angie Guzdar. While waiting for the show to begin, Angie turned to Brian and asked him if he’d like to run a marathon through Walt Disney World with her and Tony. Since that was one of his “life goals”, he immediately said “yes!”, without hesitation. He then turned to me and proceeded to try to talk me into it. I was definitely more hesitant than Brian was to take on this challenge, but he managed to persuade me by promising me that I could go to theme parks and ride roller coasters while we were in Orlando, and I would be helping save lives, so eventually I agreed. As it turns out, it was one of the best experiences of my life!

A little background info about our running partners…
Tony and Angie met 15 years ago while participating in an internship program at Walt Disney World.
January 11, 1999, Angie went into remission for non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.
January 11, 2009, Angie celebrated her 10-year anniversary of being cancer-free by finishing a marathon!

In order to help us train for our marathon, we joined Team in Training, an endurance athlete training program through The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. We started with the program in September 2008 and lasted through 18 grueling weeks of training at the altitude of 5,280 feet above sea level. There were some pretty cold running days and nights!

In addition to providing participants with training coaches and mentors, as well as easy to follow training schedules, LLS provided us with the emotional support that we needed to make it through the finish line. In return, each of us had a minimum obligation to raise $3,900 for blood cancer research, patients and their families. By holding various fundraisers like a Wine Party/Silent Auction at Tastes Wine Bar and Bistro, $5/day Jeans Week at work , Brunch at Buchi’s, and by securing a sponsorship for $5,000 from Compass Marketing, we all raised well over our minimum amounts for a collective total of over $22,000! Team in Training – first group long-run training session on September 13, 2008

Tony and Angie at Tastes Wine Bar Wine Party and Silent Auction – December 3, 2008 My friend Katie Bowe and I at Tastes Wine Bar Wine Party and Silent Auction
December 3, 2008

Brian and I got to Orlando, FL on January 8th, 2009 to prepare for our first marathon. From the moment we got off the plane until we left Orlando, our itinerary was jam-packed! Here’s what the week-long schedule looked like:
1/9 – Pasta and Inspiration Dinner at World Pavilion at Epcot
1/10 – Attend Marathon Expo at Disney’s Wide World of Sports
1/11 – Marathon Day
1/12 – Character Breakfast and Homemade Chinese Buffet at the Guzdar condo
1/13 – Epcot and World Showcase
1/14 – Universal Studios and Lobster Feast Dinner
1/15 – Magic Kingdom
1/16 – Islands of Adventure and Blue Man Group
1/17 – Disney’s Hollywood Studios
1/18 – Return to Denver

Brian and I at the Pasta and Inspiration Dinner on January 9, 2009

Angie was picked out of hundreds of submissions to be the keynote speaker at the Pasta and Inspiration Dinner. Tony surprised her by also giving a speech. While Angie’s speech was all about being strong and having Tony there to be her rock, Tony’s speech was about everything that Angie had to endure during her fight against cancer. He spoke about her amazing ability to overcome any challenge set before her, including climbing Mt. Elbert while still undergoing chemotherapy treatments. Angie’s speech made people laugh and Tony brought us all to tears!Angie and Tony at the Pasta and Inspiration Dinner on January 9, 2009. Tony had just surprised Angie and will also going to speak and share their story with all LLS Chapters from across the country

Angie's Speech:

"I would like to thank and congratulate all the participants for their outstanding fundraising efforts; you have persevered in your training and showed immense dedication with giving up many Saturday mornings and time during the week to be apart from your friends and family but now you can begin to visualize the start line.

Remember we are honoring our moms, dads, sisters, brothers, sons, daughters, husbands, wives, aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas and friends who have been so unfortunate to have been affected by blood cancers.

We will be raising awareness this weekend by wearing our purple jerseys that will hopefully raise participation in Team in Training so we can find a cure!

I feel honored and fortunate to be up here in front of all you telling my story.

It all began 15 years ago in the fall of 1993 on a college program here at Disney World. During our first meeting with Disney staff, we were told “the people you would meet will become your lifelong friends”. We were only here for 5 months and didn’t think that was possible. Tony (my husband now) and I, along with 800 other college students lived in an apartment complex owned by Disney called Vista Way. I met Tony as he was sitting outside his apartment. He thought he was using a pickup line when he asked me “Do you run?” Apparently he was a leg man. Interesting how life turns out… I never thought the guy who asked me that question, I would later marry and decide to run a marathon together to celebrate life.

Our first bump in the road began January of 1998. I was experiencing difficulty breathing so I decided to see a doctor. I was diagnosed with Pleurisy, an inflammation in your lung membrane. To say a difficulty in breathing is an understatement. It felt as if a 300 pound person was sitting on my chest. In the summer Tony and I decided to move to Colorado from Florida. Breathing became more difficult, I thought it was possibly the altitude and I needed to get acclimated. December rolled around and we were visiting family in Seattle. The pain in my chest was unbearable. I went to a walk-in clinic, again diagnosed with pleurisy.

January 11, 1999 I woke up coughing and spit up a glob of blood in the sink. As I was trying to wash down the evidence Tony saw the blood and demanded we go to the Doctor. I fought it because we were supposed to go snowboarding that day. Tony took me to Denver General and there I had an x-ray. We knew we were in for more serious news when 4 other doctors came in to the room to talk about, what we thought was going to be bronchitis. The next words spoken from my doctor changed our outlook on life forever, “You have either a benign or a malignant tumor.” A year of being misdiagnosed and all I needed was an x-ray. Apparently the 14 centimeter tumor was pressing on my breathing tubes causing breathing difficulty. After many tests the doctor’s diagnosis was Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. This was a very difficult time in our lives mainly because we recently moved to Colorado and didn’t know many people. . Tony was my backbone, strength, laughter and so much more. He was by my side every step of the way. Literally every step of the way…

I never let the cancer slow me down. During my chemotherapy and radiation therapy Tony and I took on the challenge of hiking the highest peak in Colorado, Mt. Elbert. As we hiked up the trail the last few hundred yards proved to be the most difficult. Tony helped by carrying my backpack and I would take 2 or 3 steps then stop and take deep breaths. Then I would take a couple more steps and repeated this process until we were finally at the top of the mountain. When we made it to the top of the 14,433 foot peak we were overwhelmed with joy and tears. It was the same joy I felt when my doctor told me 5 years after starting my treatment that I was cured and we could start a family. Within the next year we were blessed with a happy and healthy little boy. Aiden is now 3 years old.

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society has been a big part of my life since being diagnosed. I’ve been honored to be involved in a number of events to help raise money and awareness such as Light the Night, The Volvo Regatta and now TNT. You never know who would get involved…you just have to ask. We were at a concert and asked our friend Brian (as a joke) if he wanted to run a marathon and he said yes. Then he asked his girlfriend and with their help we raised another $10,000 for the L&L Society.

In August I received a flyer from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We originally thought about doing a ½ marathon but then I saw the full marathon was on January 11th.
This Sunday on race day will be the exact day I will be ten years in remission. Life to us is a celebration and that is why this year on my 10 year anniversary and our 15 year anniversary of when we met we have decided to run the Disney marathon.

So again, congratulations – we are part of an elite group of people! We now are prepared for an amazing race, just remember on race day – STOP, take a deep breath and look around – take in the amazing number of TNT participants just like yourself – we have all come together for one cause and you all have made a huge difference to so many people. Lets spread our TNT spirit onto our fellow TNT’ers – as we’re running give out a few “GO TEAM” shout outs it helps so much to hear those words!

My mantra in life has always been: Mind over Matter; if you don’t mind, it don’t matter. "

Angie made this sign for the parents to hold...Go Team STAB! (Shea, Tony, Angie, Brian) We are heading back to our hotel, Coronado Springs from the Walt Disney World Marathon EXPO at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex These pictures were taken the morning of the marathon. We had to get up at 2am to begin preparing for the big race. We got dressed, ate breakfast and met up with each other for some pre-race picture taking and ego-pumping. From here, we headed to the hotel lobby to meet up with our fellow marathon runners.
Angie’s legs say “10 Years Cancer Free”!

It’s 3:15am and our entire team is hanging out in the hotel lobby, waiting for the buses to arrive and take us to the start line at Epcot. Some of the people ran in the 1/2 marathon the day before and were getting up to give us support from the sidelines. It was amazing that we were all so awake considering most of us probably didn’t sleep much that night. I guess game-day nerves and anticipation can take you a long way (26.2 miles to be exact)! Here’s Brian displaying his Goofy side right before the fireworks went off, pre-start.
A picture of the start line. It took about 10 minutes to get thru that banner from the time the gun went off to the time we walked under it. The nerves were on-end!

Here we are coming up on mile 7, heading into the Magic Kingdom. You’ll notice that Brian isn’t in any of these pictures. He was in “the zone” at this point and totally ran by Tony and Angie’s parents. I wasn’t too far in front of Tony and Angie so I managed to stop and take a quick picture, then I continued running, trying to catch up to Brian as fast as I could. Tony and Angie stopped and said hi and gave out hugs and kisses to their son Aiden.

We finally reach the Magic Kingdom! We stopped here to take pictures with Cinderella’s Castle in the backdrop. This was a really exciting part of the race, as Main Street was filled with lots of spectators and fans cheering us on. There were quite a few opportunities to stop and get your picture taken with a Disney character here. Some of the characters I saw were Frontier Mickey, Frontier Donald and Frontier Goofy as well as Captain Jack Sparrow and some other swashbucklers. We did not stop to get pictures here other than the Castle...the lines were just too long!

Here we all are at the half-way point, Mile 13, and we’re just outside Magic Kingdom and right next to the Grand Floridian Resort. We still have smiles on our faces and we’re feeling pretty good, though we know we still have a long way to go! We met up with our LLS team coordinators, Cathie and Anisa, at this rest stop and they made sure we were doing okay and didn’t need anything, like water or Tylenol. They also kindly took these pictures of us. Brian and I changed into fresh socks (a lifesaver for me!) while Tony and Angie kept running towards the goal.
Mile 14 was just up ahead and it proved to be a very valuable milestone for us as we were given bananas to eat at that stop. Considering we had been running for 3 hours or so and all we had in us were gels and goos, the bananas were very appreciated. They would help to sustain us for another 3 hours of running. We are heading towards Disney’s Animal Kingdom and some of the toughest miles of the day!

We finally found some characters that we wanted to take pictures with and the line wasn’t long—SCORE! Launchpad McQuack and Scrooge McDuck are two of our favorite childhood characters from the cartoon DuckTales. It was a very exciting moment, as you can tell by Brian’s face! We are just about to enter Animal Kingdom and we are somewhere around mile 16.
Tony and Angie decided to briefly stop in Animal Kingdom and get a shot with the very scenic backdrop of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The run through Animal Kingdom was tougher than expected and was definitely the most difficult park to run through. The path was made of stones and winds around all of the attractions with lots of up and down sections. I was ready to get out of there!

We finally made it out of Animal Kingdom and pressed on towards Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The miles between those two parks seemed to go on forever! Once we hit mile 17, the running got a lot more difficult. We were running on a highway with hot asphalt blasting the days heat into our feet, bodies and faces. It was now around 10:30am and the temperature was around 70+ degrees—way hotter than what we were used to training in. Angie and Brian were both powering through this section while Tony and I were having a harder time. Our feet were our weakness and I managed to develop a blister around mile 19. Luckily for me, a random guy running next to me had one last band-aid that saved my heel until I could get to the next aid station at mile 20.

Brian, Tony, Angie and I regrouped before we entered Hollywood Studios. We walked and ran for the next 5 miles, stopping for pictures and taking turns on who was the leader of the pack. The most brutal part of this park was the hamburger smell being pumped from the eateries into the streets—we were starving and tired!

After a minutes worth of rest at mile marker 25, we decided collectively to finish the marathon as runners. So, after pumping each other up mentally and with our last burst of energy, we ran the last 1.2 miles to the finish line. It was the fastest mile we ran that day, with a pace of 10 minutes and 30 seconds. However, it was also the LONGEST mile of the day. As we wound through the boardwalk and back into Epcot, there were lots of people, friends, family, strangers, all cheering us on. It was quite a sight to see and was incredible to experience! Victory was just steps away! Once we saw the Finish line, our legs never moved faster. All four of us joined hands and crossed the finish line together, as a team. We started this journey together and it was more amazing than I ever imagined it would be!

My marathon experience was better than I could’ve ever imagined it to be. It was not only an extremely physical challenge, but it also tested my mental endurance. While training, there were times when I thought to myself, “I can’t do this” or “I don’t know how I’m going to make it”. But when it came to race day I never once had any of those thoughts. With the help of my 3 teammates and numerous LLS coaches, mentors, staff members and supporters, I made it through the finish line with a smile on my face. I proved to myself that I can do anything!

Here are our finisher’s pictures as well as a map of the route we ran.