20 Years of Team In Training in North Texas: 2013

2014 is a special year for the North Texas Team In Training (TNT) campaign.  It is celebrating 20 years of running, biking, and hiking to raise money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and it's mission to find a cure for blood cancers.  Saturday, Feburary 8th TNT will kick off a year of celebrating.  To honor the thousands of North Texas TNT alumni and the millions of dollars they raised in that time, we are going to count down each year of the program leading up to the TNT Alumni "Celebrate You" event on Feburary 8th. 

2013

2013 was an important year for Team In Training alumni and dedicated supporters Doug and Stacey Campbell.  It was the first time they were able to train for and complete a TNT event together after Doug's 2000 diagnosis of stage 4, small B-cell follicular NHL, a form of lymphoma considered incurable.  Doug is now in remission and he and his wife celebrated by crossing off an item on their bucket list.

What is your favorite memory of TNT?

Doug: Crossing the finish line with two of my three daughters at the Lonestar Triathlon and hiking with my wife in Yosemite.  (Hard to pick just one.)

Stacey: Completing my first event running event, the Rock N Roll Half Marathon in San Antonio in 2008, at age 40 and reaching 7,000 feet at Yosemite with my husband, who just a couple years ago we were unsure he would survive his marrow transplant!

What brought you to TNT originally?

Doug: We actually started with the Light The Night Walk and then got a TNT brochure which highlighted the Ironman race in Coeur'D'Arlene, Idaho.  I was hooked.

Stacey:  We began with LLS in 2001 by forming a Light The Night team so our young girls could "help" daddy too.  My husband is a runner so he began dreaming of completing an Ironman race and that is how I got involved.

What about TNT makes you keep coming back?

Doug: It is really about the people!  They are so fabulous.  All working together and yet individuals.

Stacey: TNT feels like a second family.  You become really close to your team, your coach and your mentor.  You share your stories, trials and triumphs, and know you are not alone in your battle with cancer.

What do you want to see in the next 20 years for TNT in North Texas?

Doug:  I want to see it disappear because blood cancers no longer exist.

Stacey: Cures!  That is why we run, walk, bike, swim and hike with TNT - to find cures.

What was the best part of the 2013 Yosemite Hike?

Doug:  Being able to train with my love and wife, Stacey.  The fact that I could even walk after my post BMT issues made it special.  Each step hurt but through the efforts of my coaches, mentors, teammates and supporting wife I was able to overcome the pain from my neuropathy and complete our event.  The team had lunch looking over the canyon with half-dome to our right and El Capitan in front of us.  What a magnificent sight!

Stacey:  Yes, I could not have said it better.  Every week, we got to hang out with some beautiful people, hiking in some wonderful parks, culminating in one of our bucket list sites in Yosemite.  It was a perfect start to our new beginning - life without cancer! 

How many events have you done with TNT?

Doug: 2007 Galveston half ironman, 2009 Ouachita Mountain Bike Challenge, 2009 White Rock Team Marathon, 2013 Yosemite Hike

Stacey:  2008 Rock N Roll Half Marathon in San Antonio, 2013 Yosemite Hike