How the 100 Day Heart Challenge made me the person I am today.

I just realized the other day that it had been two years since I was diagnosed with cancer. I was a contestant in the challenge during that time. I remember going to the gym at 4:30 in the morning and seeing Traci working out. I remember her asking me why I was there so early. I told her I was having some testing done later that morning and just couldn't sleep. I worked out that morning, pushing myself farther than ever before. Received the results from my test the next day. I thought it was a joke. My Dr. said it was stage 4 and the cancer was very aggressive. I decided right then I was going to apply all the skills that I had learned from the challenge at that point. I worked out hard, I think I shocked most everyone. I had two rounds of chemo and ran the 5k and came in second for my group. I wanted first, but I just couldn't do it. I fought to run that race and even though I had cancer I knew I was a survivor and was going to be very positive and fight, fight and fight to maintain my life. I decided from that point on that I was going to run a 5k for every chemo I had while I was having chemo. The last race I ran was in American Fork-kick cancer in the butt. It was the hardest I had just finished chemo and had had my mastectomy three weeks before the race. My husband told me it was okay not to run, he even told me that he would run it for me, but I was determined to do it myself. I ran the race and I did rather well. I am very proud of myself and my battle with cancer. I am so grateful I was part of the challenge and had learned how to take care of my body. Exercising while in treatment really helped me maintain my health and let me vent and let me maintain some sort of normalcy. Nutrition also played a big part in my recovery. I knew I need to eat healthy and right to rid my body of toxins and build up my strength. I am thankful for this program and excited for all of my team mates, especially my husband. I can honestly say that having cancer wasn't so bad, because I had the tools and attitude that allowed me to give cancer the boot!