Vegas, Vegas, & A Triathlon

April and May have been really busy months for me with a number of trips that were personal or business. Over the last weekend in April David and I went to Vegas for the Stupid Cancer OMG Cancer Summit for Young Adults. The OMG Cancer Summit is "the premier oncology conference and social networking event for the young adult cancer movement".

 

 

Stupid Cancer Co-Founder in a Glam Runner Tutu

 

 

This was our second year coming to the conference and I enjoyed both attending the various sessions and meeting and spending time around so many other "young" (under 40) people going through cancer. My favorite session this year was the same one as last year titled "Cancer as Chronic". In this session almost everyone in room was in the same boat as me. We're fighting chronic/incurable cancers, living three months at a time between scans, and trying to enjoy a normal life in the mean time. Looking around the room you would have never guessed what had brought us all together. For the most part everyone looked healthy. One of the panelists even commented on that and everyone nodded in agreement. Some of the other sessions we attended were Cancer and the Environment and Cancer and Fertility.

 

 

Bumping Into Diane in Vegas!

 

While we were in Vegas we also happened to bump into my friend and former coworker Diane who was in town for a dental show. We crashed her reception one night and had a drink with her before heading off to dinner. We had dinner at my favorite restaurant Jaleo the first night and Rx Boiler Room the second night.

 

 

Selfies With the Husband

 

 

After coming back from Vegas I was in San Diego for a couple days before it was time to head back there again. This time for work to exhibit at a medical conference. Two trips to Vegas in one week is one or two trips to many, and by the weekend I was ready to go home. Especially since the day after I got back from Vegas I had my first triathlon of the year!

 

 Running on the Strip - Vegas Trip #2

 

 

I got home from Vegas late Saturday night and was up bright and early on Sunday morning for the Spring Sprint Triathlon. This was my first triathlon in almost three years, and was the first of three that I am doing this year as I progress up to a half Ironman distance race in July.

 

 Tri Gear Ready To Go

 

The hardest part of a triathlon for me is the swim. I'm not a great swimmer and I HATE swimming in the ocean. The water is murky and cold and having plants and who knows what else touch me in the water really freaks me out. I've been taking private swim lessons with a coach for the past few months to work on my technique and speed, and hoped between that and my single brief open water swim a few weeks before the race I'd be fine on race day.

 

 

First Time Back In The Ocean!

#oceanselfies

 

 

Well .... I ended up freaking out in the water. I can usually calm myself down and just get through the swim at a decent pace, but during this race I felt like I was hyperventilating the whole time. I could never catch my breath and ended up breaststroking for about half of the distance. Oh well, it was slow but I finally got through it.

 

 

Happy To Be Out Of The Water

 

 

The bike was a bit better although I've barely been riding my bike. I signed up for the San Diego Century next weekend to help keep me accountable on my bike training. Um, it hasn't. Prior to the Spring Sprint I probably rode my bike four times all year due to travel and various other excuses.

 

 

Having Fun On The Bike





 

 

The bike portion of the race went fairly quickly and as usual I was so happy to finally be running. At least I know how to run! The race overall was short and the swim was 400 meters, the bike was 10 miles, and the run was 3 miles. My goal for the race was to finish between 1:15 and 1:30 and I came in at 1:23:52. I'll take it!

 

 

Best Part Of A Triathlon - The Run!

 

  

After the race David and I went home to relax for a bit but later that night we were back on a plane again to head to DC. What a crazy week! We went to DC for three days to do advocacy work on behalf of the National Brain Tumor Society. More on that in my next blog post!

 

 

My Triathlon Cheerleaders Tara & David

 

 

In the mean time, we are now two months away from my half Ironman distance triathlon Barb's Race. All participants in Barb's Race are required to raise $250 to go towards a cancer charity in honor of Barbara Recchia, a long-time race volunteer and committee member who has unfortunately been faced with cancer twice. If you are interested in helping out with my fundraising you can access my page here.

 

 

 

OMG 2013 - Cancer Summit for Young Adults

The day after I got back from my 10 day trip to Wisconsin I was back on a plane and headed to Vegas. (Yes, this was two months ago, I'm a bit behind.) Vegas seemed to be the location of choice for tradeshows in my old industry, so over the past three years I had probably been to Vegas about a dozen times. Working a tradeshow in Vegas is NOT fun. Long exhibit hours, dwindling booth traffic as the days go on and the attendees look more and more tired from their late nights out, and sooo much walking since everything is so far apart. This trip that I took to Vegas in April was my first trip to Vegas for fun in about seven years. Crazy. 

Packed and Ready To Go!

David and I attended the OMG Cancer Summit for Young Adults put on by Stupid Cancer. This was an annual event where they brought together young survivors for a weekend of learning, networking,  celebrating, and having fun. The motto for this organization is "Get Busy Living" which is something I take to heart. 

OMG 2013 Vegas

We took a quick flight to Vegas on Friday morning and headed right to the opening ceremony at The Palms which started at 9am. There were a few hundred people attending this event along with a handful that I knew from San Diego that I had met at prior Stupid Cancer and mAss Kickers get togethers. The founder of the Stupid Cancer organization Matthew Zachary (who is a 19 year survivor of brain cancer!) welcomed everyone and kicked off the event.

Opening Ceremony

The two sessions that we started off with were an update on genetic breakthroughs and personalized medicine and an update on the progress of the AYA (Adolescent and Young Adult) cancer movement. We then went to a breakout session on "Gaming and the ePatient Revolution" followed by "Complementary Medicine & Healthy Living" which is a hot topic of interest of mine. 

Lunch Seating by Tumor Type

We were then free to roam Vegas on our own and headed off to my favorite restaurant at The Cosmo (discovered on a work trip) called Jaleo. One sad thing about always traveling for work and then suddenly traveling for fun is realizing that you don't get to expense all of your fancy meals. Darn.

Chandelier Bar at the Cosmo

Lounge Lizards

After dinner we hung out at a lounge for a bit before heading back to our room ... in the PMs. A sign that we're old? Whatever, I was between rounds of chemo, I needed my sleep.

The next day we attended the "Navigating Careers And Insurance" morning session, joined the group lunch, and then ditched the afternoon sessions to hit the pool. My pool time plans didn't exactly go as planned though since the pool was packed! We even walked to the other side of the property to a smaller pool and found that even that pool was packed. We managed to snag some of the last few chairs available and read in the shade for a while before heading back to get ready for dinner.

Love This - Single Jingles!

Dinner on the second night wasn't as exciting as Jaleo. The only places I could recommend for dinner  in Vegas were ridiculously expensive (thanks business travel!) so we headed over to Caesars to try a little Italian place by the Canal Shops. The food was okay and afterwards we walked around the casino and then the Strip. I'm pretty sure we covered at least two or three miles that night. Should've warn my Garmin!

Dinner at Caesars

Bacon! Thought of Tara

Walgreens are Fancy in Vegas

On Sunday the morning session we attended was the one I was looking forward to the most - "Cancer as Chronic". When I first read the description of this session I cried. The description of the  course was so true to my life, and so sad. 

Cancer as Chronic

It was really interesting to hear the panel that presented along with several people in the audience who asked questions and shared stories from their own life. I was relieved to hear that many others in the room also didn't like the term "survivor". I've been told that the moment you hear that you have cancer  - you are officially a survivor, but to me I feel like that term is reserved for those people who are past cancer. Usually when someone says that they're a breast cancer survivor it means that they had cancer, its gone from their body, and they're hoping that it doesn't come back, but for right now they are cancer free. Short of a miracle from God or a new medical breakthrough, I'm not expected to ever be cancer free. I feel great at the moment and my cancer treatment is going better than expected so if this is what surviving and living with cancer is like, I can take it. 

Love the First Quote

"For the cancer stricken running is an expression - 

perhaps the ultimate celebration - of life"

After the Cancer as Chronic session we went to our last session which was "Cancer & The Environment". This session was really interesting but left me thinking geez - everything in the world is going to give us cancer! If its not things we eat and breath, its things in the environment, in the products we use, or in the treatments we have performed on our body. At some point I think you have to draw the line and decide what level of risk you're going to take, and for me that has been changing my diet. I've eliminated things believed to foster the growth of cancer but can't quite bring myself to jump completely overboard and do things like remove every piece of plastic in my house.

The Dirty Dozen - Things to Buy Organic

(Free App on iTunes with this info BTW!)

All of the sessions we chose were interesting and informative, and it was really neat to meet so many other young adults with cancer. I get kind of uncomfortable at times when people are asking me about how things are going with my treatment. I don't mind answering questions or talking about my condition, but when people start to look so sad and disturbed it makes ME sad. To be able to talk to so many people so freely about cancer was liberating. Oh, you have cancer? Me too. No biggie!

Hmm ... What Would It Be?

Oh Yes - RUNNING!

I'm really grateful that Stupid Cancer put on a big event like this and I'm so glad that David and I decided to go.  Thank you David for being the greatest "caregiver" and supporter out there. Now let's get busy living!

Love This Guy