Spotlight Series

Heartbreak and Hope

Teresa is a Team Mentor for Team In Training. She helps new participants like me develop and implement fundraising strategies, and supports our running goals as well. Her enthusiasm for and commitment to Team In Training is contagious in the best way possible. I hope you get a sense of this from the following post.

Teresa Holladay (left) with Hero Russ Stevens (right) and family

Hi, I’m Teresa Holladay and I’ve been with Team in Training for three seasons, the whole last year! I go at my own pace, sometimes walking, sometimes running. I’ve finished one full marathon and a lot of half-marathons and will be participating in the Denver Marathon in a few weeks. Team in Training has really shown me that this is about how the tiniest thing you do will lift another person’s spirits. I run for some dear friends who have had not one, but TWO, children with leukemia. I never thought asking them if I could run for Scotty and Russ would be any big deal. I’d wear their name on a ribbon on my shirt, that’s all. But no. It has touched my friends, Jan and Doug, so deeply that they have given me a home-made, hand-written thank you card every week for a YEAR. Let me tell you why. Their first child, Scotty, was an adorable little guy who was diagnosed back in the days when there was absolutely nothing that could be done. He was a real character, an adorable child. His dad sat down with me one night and told me the whole story, from beginning to end, including how he felt strongly impressed to get his wife and get to the hospital at a certain moment and so they were able to be there with little seven-year-old Scotty when he kissed his mom, closed his eyes, and quietly said goodbye.  When I’m out on the trail, all by myself, and the going gets tough, I think of Doug telling me that story and of sweet Jan holding her little boy. It makes all the difference to get me going again. And then, just a couple of years ago, Scotty’s brother Russ got leukemia. It’s been 38 years since Scotty’s passing but the thought of losing another son… it just can’t happen.  Russ is a father, himself.  But treatments are better, now, thanks to research.  He received a bone marrow transplant from another brother (this is an amazing family, can you tell?).  The truth is, Russ’ health has never quite recovered. He’s cancer-free but just can’t get all the way better.  So we have a long ways to go. I could never have imagined how much my simple little Saturday training activities would mean to my friends. And, to be honest, I never would have guessed how much it would mean to me.  But when THEY think things are tough, they think about me out there on the trail on Saturdays, and when I think things are tough, I think about what they’re going through. I guess you could say, somehow, we keep each other going. I love Team in Training and everything they do for both our teammates and our honored patient heros. I hope to be able to walk and run to fight cancer until we have a cure. I heard a leading researcher say, “in our lifetime”, and I want to be there to see it.