Where does all the money go?  I asked that same question when I started on this fundraising and training endeavor over 6 months ago.  As I am coming up on my final weekend of fundraising prior to my half-marathon on 11/15, I wanted to tell you a little story about where the money raised through LLS goes and how those funds may help a friend or family member.

It’s hard to say that my daughter Allison has a single best friend, as she has her mother’s personality and general likability; nevertheless, one of her best friend’s mom is the reason for me telling this story.  This story is about a close family friend Sara Winterhoff and how her treatment and success is a beacon of hope for all that struggle with various forms of blood cancers.

A few years back Sara was going through a cycle where she was feeling perpetually tired. She naturally attributed it to recently having her second child.  It wasn’t until she noticed some odd veins protruding out of her chest that she started to have concerns.  Her next step was a visit to a vascular surgeon, which is where her life quickly changed.

The vascular surgeon performed a CT scan and quickly noticed a large tumor in Sara’s chest.  After a litany of tests over the next few days, she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma.  Two days after that, treatment began.  Talk about a quick turn of events. Within four days of the initial symptoms triggering her visit to the doctor, Sara was undergoing chemo treatments and would spend the next six months aggressively fighting her lymphoma.

One of the medications Sara took during her treatment was Rituximab.  In Sara’s own words, “we were told that this drug was the new game changer for my particular type of cancer.”  It’s because of investments in research into the causes of lymphoma and other blood cancers that drugs like this exist.  Without the investment there would be no medicine, and the race for a cure would continue to be a distant dream.

This is my last weekend of fundraising.  I have miraculously raised $3000 towards blood cancer research.  Help me make my last push this weekend so that the next miracle drug or even a cure is right around the corner.  Please check out my donation site for additional information and where you can make a 100% tax-deductible donation to a great organization.  Even a small donation helps contribute to additional research that will help find the next miracle drug that will continue to increase the overall survival rates.

Luckily for all of us, this story has a happy ending.  Sara will celebrate being 5 years cancer-free in March of 2015.

Keep up the good fight and I’ll keep running for a cure.

Chuck Collins was a great man and a great basketball coach. Those of you that knew him know the truth in this not-so-profound statement. I had the privilege of knowing him for the final two years of my high school career as he was the head basketball coach at James River High School.  Let me shine a bit of light into this by telling a few stories, two of which are guiding principles that still stick with me today.

Who is George Mikan?

I’m optimistically guessing that maybe 10% of the people reading this post have actually heard of George Mikan, even fewer know why his name is familiar. Who Mikan is really isn’t that important for this story other than to know that he created and taught one of the simplest yet most effective drills for “big men” in the game of basketball. The Mikan Drill is basically a one-man layup drill where the player shoots a layup with one hand, rebounds with the other, then shoots another layup from the other side of the lane with the other hand. Rinse, repeat… indefinitely.

Why am I mentioning the Mikan drill? Because Chuck Collins loved it. Or at least he loved to make me do it; I never really figured that one out. Coach used to make me do this drill at least 3-4 days a week during season and “encouraged” me to make this part of my off-season regimen as well.

One instance specifically sticks out in my mind. We were at Shippensburg University in the summer of 1995 at George Lehmann’s House of Basketball camp. It was probably day 3 and we had just finished up the morning sessions and all of us exhausted players were heading out to lunch. Everyone that is except me. Chuck had arranged a workout with Ken Tyler who was the head coach at Albright college in Reading, PA. Ken was in town to see me workout, I just didn’t know it at the time. So after exhausting all my energy in the morning workouts, Chuck kept me around for another 20 minutes of strenuous workouts so that Ken could evaluate me as a player. Elbow jumpers, triple-threat, etc. etc. Then the dreaded words were spoken, “Bischoff – Mikan Drill!”

Now I remember feeling as if I did that drill for about 5 minutes, which in the world of Mikan drills has to be close to a Guiness Book world record. I snuck a glance about half way through and see Chuck and Ken chatting about old times (I can’t remember the connection they had) while I’m sweating bullets and my stomach is about to turn inside out with starvation. “Why am I doing this drill if they aren’t even paying attention?”, I asked myself. He finally called it off, we shook hands and chatted for a bit. Then I raced to the mess hall to down my usual lunch of some sort of hot ham/cheese sandwich, probably 2-3 bowls of cereal, chocolate milk and likely an ice cream sandwich. I had a ridiculous metabolism at the time, don’t judge me.

At the time I didn’t think much of it other than to loathe any mention of George Mikan, but as I look back and reflect I realize this taught me a number of things. These likely sound cliche, but perseverance and dedication to the task at hand. One of my mantra’s in life is if you aren’t going to do it right don’t bother. Don’t half-ass things just to get it done. Do it right, do it hard, or don’t do it at all. I’m not a perfectionist, just make sure it’s done right. Some would question the difference. Coach Collins would not.

How Does this Relate to the Book of Job?

It doesn’t, at least not on the surface. It was January 1996 and we were in the middle of some of the worst winter weather the mid-atlantic had seen in quite a while. We missed weeks of school at a time, which of coarse meant that we missed and eventually never made up almost a third of our games that season. I was unhappy. My senior season was literally melting away. To top it off, I got bit by a brown recluse spider on the back of my leg and was out of commission for over a week walking around on crutches with a bulls-eye on the back of my leg.

Needless to say, I came into practice after that with a chip on my shoulder complaining about how bad the season was and that we would probably miss the rest of the season. Coach Collins pulled me aside and asked a simple question. “Do you know who Job is?” I looked at him kind of dumbfounded. “Not really”, I responded.

Let me explain. I was in high school and quickly found that I would much rather spend my Sunday mornings sleeping in or watching American Gladiators than go to church. I went to sunday school and church as a young child but as I grew older I slowly lost the connection. So, my knowledge of Job stopped past the fact that it was a book of the Old Testament, somewhere in the middle.

Back to the story – Coach calls another player over and says, “Nehemiah, tell Bischoff who Job is”. Nehemiah quickly retorted, “The patience of Job”. That’s all Coach Chuck needed to hear and sent Nehemiah back to continue his drill . Coach said, “Brian, I want you to go home and read the book of Job and think about how that relates to our current situation.” That was all, and he sent me off to run some drills (probably the Mikan drill, I can’t remember).

I’ll admit now that I didn’t go home and read it. It wasn’t until a few years later that I went back and read it and it taught me another lesson I have kept with me all these years. For those that don’t know, Job is a sad story. Job’s trust in God is tested when his children and all belongings are taken from him. His spirits ebbed and flowed but in the end he never lost faith and all was restored to him. It’s worth the read if you haven’t.

What this story <eventually> taught me is that no matter how bad things get, you have to have faith that things will get better. Things will turn in the right direction. This story and the optimism that it exudes is what gets me through tough times. Patience is the key, and Job had it. I can only hope that anyone dealing with a disease or illness can have the optimism and outlook that Job displayed during his weakest times.

My Ask of You

I am writing you these stories because they have had a profound impact on me. I only knew Chuck Collins for three years but it is amazing the impact such a positive person can have on your life. At the end of my senior year (1996) Chuck was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Leukemia. Just over a year later in July of 1997 he lost his fight. I didn’t handle it very well. Kept it bottled up inside until years later when I slowly started to reflect on Chuck’s impact on my life. I am now glad that I can tell these stories so that others can learn from them.

Help me raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society so that together we can support ongoing research for treatments and cures for all forms of blood cancers. I am raising money by putting myself through a physical challenge of a new PR in November’s Richmond Half Marathon. Please consider a 100% tax-deductible donation to help me reach my fundraising goals. Every little bit helps and is greatly appreciated.

http://pages.teamintraining.org/va/richmar14/brianbischoff

Be persistent and humble, and God Bless.

Brian

Boy, did it get hot last week.  The heat and humidity was a cruel reminder to what I have in store for me for the next few months as the dog days of summer are officially upon us.  I took the opportunity on Thursday to try to start mixing in hill workouts on a regular basis.  My TNT team canceled our training due to the threat of thunderstorms; however, I braved the weather and persisted through a pretty tough hill workout.  For those that have never done it, basically find a hill nearby that is a couple hundred yards long, sprint up it, jog back down, and repeat.  I managed to repeat 5 times, progressively increasing my speed with each interval.  I am going to need these speed workouts if I’m going to break my 1:42 half marathon goal come November.

Unfortunately it took Hurricane Arthur to come through later in the week to create a break the weather.  Luckily for us, once he came barreling through, the resulting 4th of July weekend was a wonderful combination of low heat and virtually no humidity.  Saturday my family took part in what is now a 4th of July tradition, running in the Deltaville 5k.  I’ve even managed to corrupt my kids to the point where they ask to run the Kids Run every year as well.  Here’s a picture of them as we walk up to the starting line and another with their cousins and finisher medals!

The kids did great and I managed to place 4th in my division and 47th overall out of 430, finishing in 22:56.  Now if only I can keep this pace up for the 13.1 miles I will reach my goal!

Please help me reach my fundraising goal by visiting my Team in Training fundraising site below.  Remember all donations are 100% tax-deductible and go directly to support research to find a cure for blood cancers.

http://pages.teamintraining.org/va/richmar14/brianbischoff

That was an experience.  Only two weeks into my formal training for the half marathon I jumped head first into the Tough Mudder with a few of my college buddies.  Leading up to the event I wasn’t quite sure that I my training (which consisted of running 1-2 times a week and tennis a couple days a week) would be enough to run 10 miles plus be able to fulfill on all the obstacles.

I’d have to say that the Warrier Carry was THE hardest obstacle.  Unfortunately for my friend Mike, he ended up getting paired up with the tallest guy on the team.  I went first and carried him 100 yards on my shoulders and then he reluctantly did the same with me.  I’m glad that specific obstacle was towards the end of the 10 miles because otherwise I would have been spent.

All in all it was a great experience and I will definitely do it again.  The only thing I didn’t enjoy was getting shocked – 3 times – for the final challenge.  Each time I got dropped to the ground.  Other than that I’ll definitely consider doing it again.  If you haven’t had a chance, check it out as it raises money for a great cause – the Wounded Warrier project.

Well, onward and upward to the remainder of my training for the Richmond half and time to get serious about my fundraising.  More on that to come…

Have a great week.

I’m trying something new this year.  Something I’ve never done before but am extremely excited about.  Now I’ve run races before.  A marathon, 5 half marathons, countless 10ks and other shorter charity races, but never have I run a race with the primary intention of raising money for a good cause.

Well, that has now changed.  After only some moderate coercing from my friend Kris Conner, I signed up for my first Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Team in Training.  I have recently felt that my running can provide more than one value.  More value than just a means to stay in decent shape and I can’t think of a better way to raise money for a very worthy cause.

My goal is to blog throughout the entire preparation leading up to the Richmond Half Marathon in November.  Over the coming weeks I will have more information on my fundraising goal and what I am doing to try to meet that goal.  In the meantime, stay tuned for updates from me as I navigate my training and fundraising process.

Blood cancers have most likely touched each and every one of us.  I will share my stories here knowing that the money we raise will go directly to helping find a cure.

Stay tuned, and GO TEAM.