Charities we love ~ The Danskin SheROX Triathlon

This week I met with a gal I connected with through twitter (yay for bringing the community together!!) – Kat Speyer, I was immediately impressed (she is a wedding bee blogger!) and then I went to her photography website and was WOWED!  She is a talented girl!!   We met and chatted over cupcakes (yumm… thank you Trophy!) she is so incredibly generous and is willing to donate her time to help make Get Hitched Give Hope a success (THANK YOU!!) so for this year she is going to help us with marketing & PR (her background).   We are SO thankful to have her with us and REALLY appreciate her support.

She is very generous in all areas of her life – she recently participated in the Danskin Triathlon which she is going to share with us below, adding to the list of Charities We Love!

Thank you Kat!

Hi there, I’m Kat! (Yet another friendly Seattle wedding and portrait photog.) The GHGH crew is graciously letting me guest post to share some thoughts on the fight against breast cancer. (Thanks, guys!)

I was first introduced to Brides Against Breast Cancer when I was planning my wedding and blogging for Wedding Bee in 2008. So many brides in the Bee community talked about donating their dresses or purchasing them at one of the foundation’s gown sales. I’ve always been impressed with their organization, so I was delighted to discover Get Hitched, Give Hope in Seattle working with Brides Against Breast Cancer to put together a fabulous benefit event and fundraiser.

Let’s be honest… Cancer is scary. At some level, we’re ALL at risk. So it behooves us to take care of our bodies, support research, and assist those in treatment. As an athlete, I’ve had the pleasure to be involved in numerous events to support a variety of causes. Many of the most poignant are those to further cancer research, particularly when survivor teams and their families are involved. There are a lot of organized races, both competitive and non-competitive, entry level and advanced, to benefit the cause.

For example, though she doesn’t consider herself an athlete, my mother is one of the most ambitious cyclists I know. (She can outpace me on a bike— we’re talkin’ 20mph here– and she just started riding two years ago.)  Last year, she fundraised for  the Team in Training Chuckanut Century in memory of a family member who succumbed to leukemia. This summer, she rode the Seattle Livestrong Challenge to benefit cancer research. That’s a killer ride, so I give her many kudos!

But I have to say that I’m most proud of her for her latest accomplishment. Just last weekend, she completed the Danskin SheROX triathlon. We trained together and it was our FIRST multi-sport event. We’d never done anything like it before—neither of us are swimmers and my mom had never ran before our training!

Here’s my mom and I after a “mini” triathlon training. As you can see, I felt like poop.

For those of you unfamiliar with the event, the Danskin tri is a women-only “sprint” distance triathlon immensely popular for its accessibility to women of all fitness levels and known for its strong fundraising for cancer research. Since 2004, Danskin has worked exclusively with The Breast Cancer Research Society as their Official Charity, raising over $850,000 to help BCRS end breast cancer. The race also gives special recognition to athletes who are breast cancer survivors and encourages all participants to donate individually.

I would encourage all of you wonderful people determined to further support the fight against breast cancer through events like GHGH, to look into the Danskin. You might be saying, “Who? Me? I could never do that!” But really, you’d be surprised. Anyone can. And not only is it satisfying as a fitness challenge, it also is immensely meaningful to be involved in an event that contributes so greatly to the cause.

There’s also great group support. This is my mom’s mentor group, who let me tag along on some training events:

You also have the option to wear a smokin’ unitard. (Really, I love it… but LOOK at the thing.)

In case you’re wondering, my mom and I both finished strong!  While I was expecting to have a bad time, I experienced quite the opposite… it was FUN and I met some really cool people along the way. It was also unbelievable how fast the race passed: My mom finished in under 2 hours (after losing her timing chip) and I finished in about an hour and a half.  You’ll be surprised at what you can do! So, please, give it a shot. It’s amazing what you can accomplish and what a difference it can make for others.

{post written by kat posted by barbie}