Ogden Marathon - a ton of fun!

Oakley, our #1 Wacky!

Cami, Morgan & Kelsey (Kelsey couldn't participte in the 5k due to a softball tournament commitment).

We kicked off the event by attending a spaghetti dinner at the Davis Conference Center in Layton on Friday. Many had to fight with horrendous traffic, including the additional time it took to pick up the participant packets at the race expo in Ogden. With 70 family and friends in attendance, Nick welcomed all by announcing his latest set of scans proved the cancer is still not active (that we can see)! He then presented a video of a 30-minute documentary on four cancer survivors attending a First Descents camp. It elegently portrayed why First Descents is so important to young adult cancer survivors - very impactful. Tee shirts were handed out and we all got excited for the upcoming race.

Saturday morning, the marathoners and half marathoners boarded their assigned busses at 4:45 a.m. The rest of us slackers - 5k participants - boarded our very own rented school bus at a more reasonable hour of 6:00 a.m. Nick had us rolling with laughter as he donned his Buzz Lightyear costume - "To infinity and beyond!"

We all had our silly hats, costumes and very cool looking WACKY tee shirts on, ready to begin our 3.1 mile trek. Please visit http://www.nickswarriors.org/ to view all the pictures and a short video on Nick coming out of the starting gates.

Congrats to:

Marathon:

Ashley Sorenson

Paul Anderson

Ann Leoni

Carlos

Todd Raitt

Heather VanTassell

Lee Brower

Dave Sheffield

Sylvia Do

Pat Do

Half Marathon:

Jill Frey

David Vynerib

Jessica Peterson/Leigh Corbin

5k:

Ginger Balcom

Becky (with Oakley) Brower

Bo Brower

Lori Brower

Denise Cummins

Jerry Gill

Melanie Davis

Cami Griffiths

Deanna Hadley

Beth Holt

Kailey Larsen

Steve Larsen

Cory Love

Alane Macrum

Makelle Macrum

Mason Macrum

Mike Macrum

Morgan Macrum

Jennie Magnesen

Bernadette McGowan

Jon McGowan

Kelly Meacham

Brandon Newby

Carly Raitt

Nick Raitt

Erin Wilkes

We had a few that were genuinely sick with colds, a few under-trained and a few that ran with serious injuries. The weather, however, was perfect. Nick had a few kids that would look at each other when he passed and would say, "Do you know who that is!!!!" One person asked Nick why he didn't finish first, having super powers and all (he sprinted out of the starting gate, only to get a massive side-ache 50 yards later and had to walk the remaining way). Nick responded that his battery pack died. Cory Love (age 21) used Nick's grandpa's bib and as he approached the finish line, the announcer said, "And here comes 68 year-old John Balcom!" Nick's dad, Todd, finished very respectfully in his first marathon - quite a feat! And Nick's stepdad, Lee, despite suffering a dislocated shoulder, partially torn achilles and broken forearm during the past 9 months in training, finished running on a torn labrum in his hip.

I'm still working on the numbers as the pledges keep coming in, but we have raised over $20,000 between both running events! I'm stunned and enormously grateful. Our support system remains to be strong and generous!

While Nick remains to be blessed with no evidence of disease, I am reminded again about the seriousness of our cause. On Friday, a received a phone call from a mother whose son is fighting rhabdo (Nick's age). She is feeling utterly overwhelmed and frightened, not knowing where to turn next. We also are praying with a personal friend - he raised a significant amount of money for Nick's Warriors - whose wife is waiting for final results on a potentially very serious cancer diagnosis. And also on the same day, received another phone call from another personal friend of the family needing the name of a neurosurgeon from Huntsman Cancer Institute. Three new situations and all so deserving of our prayers. Thank you all for joining us, being part of a bigger family, to fight this horrible disease.

Blessings of health to everyone! We have already had our initial meeting for our next event - the WACKY Annual Charity Softball Tournament, on September 10th & 11th, 2010. And here we go!!!!!

With loads of love,

Lori