Spring Break
English professor to run triathalon
Katherine Smith
Issue date: 4/30/09 Section: News
On July 29, Assistant Professor-in-Residence Lisa Blansett will be swapping her grade book and red pens for a bathing suit and bike while she competes in the Nautica New York City Triathlon. Blansett will be swimming 1500 meters, riding 40 kilometers and running 10 kilometers alongside some of the country's finest athletes.
This will be Blansett's second triathalon but her first working with Team in Training, a leukemia and lymphoma fundraising machine that trains athletes to compete in grueling events such as triathlons and marathons in exchange for raising money for research, education and community service.
Team in Training was organized in 1988 when Bruce Cleland of Rye, N.Y., trained to run the New York City Marathon and fundraised for it in honor of his daughter, Georgia, who had survived leukemia. Since its humble beginnings, Team in Training has trained 380,000 athletes according to its official Web site and raised millions of dollars for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Blansett hopes to raise $3,300, and as of April 29, she was up to $540. She has raised money in various ways, from contacting family and friends to planning fundraising events. So far, Blansett has scheduled pancake breakfasts at local restaurants. Her plans for future fundraising include selling tomato plant seedings at the Coventry and Ellington farmer's markets this spring and hosting a "Berry-Picking Day" at Jaswell's Farm in Smithfield, R.I., according to a recent press release.
On top of being a rewarding athletic endeavor, Blansett has benefited from running with a purpose larger than herself.
"I've seen incredible benefits from working with Team in Training," Blansett said in the same press release. "We have a common goal of helping those with blood cancers and that brings us closer together."
The friendships Blansett has made while working with Team in Training have illuminated the importance of raising funds and awareness for those less fortunate.
Though training for such an arduous athletic competition in itself is demanding, having a higher purpose than just competition itself makes it easier for athletes such as Blansett and her other teammates.
"One of my teammates' father has lymphoma, and she wearied of feeling helpless and hopeless," Blansett wrote on her blog. "She says that every time she feels as though she cannot run another step, she imagines what her father must feel like every single morning."
Those interested in making a donation stay updated can do so by going to her Team in Training page at http://pages.teamintraining.org/ri/nyctri09/lblansett.
This will be Blansett's second triathalon but her first working with Team in Training, a leukemia and lymphoma fundraising machine that trains athletes to compete in grueling events such as triathlons and marathons in exchange for raising money for research, education and community service.
Team in Training was organized in 1988 when Bruce Cleland of Rye, N.Y., trained to run the New York City Marathon and fundraised for it in honor of his daughter, Georgia, who had survived leukemia. Since its humble beginnings, Team in Training has trained 380,000 athletes according to its official Web site and raised millions of dollars for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Blansett hopes to raise $3,300, and as of April 29, she was up to $540. She has raised money in various ways, from contacting family and friends to planning fundraising events. So far, Blansett has scheduled pancake breakfasts at local restaurants. Her plans for future fundraising include selling tomato plant seedings at the Coventry and Ellington farmer's markets this spring and hosting a "Berry-Picking Day" at Jaswell's Farm in Smithfield, R.I., according to a recent press release.
On top of being a rewarding athletic endeavor, Blansett has benefited from running with a purpose larger than herself.
"I've seen incredible benefits from working with Team in Training," Blansett said in the same press release. "We have a common goal of helping those with blood cancers and that brings us closer together."
The friendships Blansett has made while working with Team in Training have illuminated the importance of raising funds and awareness for those less fortunate.
Though training for such an arduous athletic competition in itself is demanding, having a higher purpose than just competition itself makes it easier for athletes such as Blansett and her other teammates.
"One of my teammates' father has lymphoma, and she wearied of feeling helpless and hopeless," Blansett wrote on her blog. "She says that every time she feels as though she cannot run another step, she imagines what her father must feel like every single morning."
Those interested in making a donation stay updated can do so by going to her Team in Training page at http://pages.teamintraining.org/ri/nyctri09/lblansett.
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