I know, I know......

I am really slacking in the update department.... I do have one excuse though. When I returned from N.Y. at the beginning of the month I came home to a dead PC. Well I just received my new Dell a couple of days ago and I love it. It is so quiet that you can't even tell that is running. My old PC sounded like a jet taking off...

So what has been going on you ask. Well I did finish the New York Marathon on Nov. 1st. It was not the experience that I had hoped for. It turns out that I was just coming down with the flu and my performance suffered for it. I did finish though and I'm glad I did. The trip and race were pretty expensive so I felt that I had to run it. Running through all the boroughs of New York was quite an experience. There people cheering you on all 26.2 miles.. Seeing the ethnic and cultural differences of the neighborhoods as you run through the city was very special. On the down side there were so many runners that I don't remember a time that I was not running beside someone. My final time was 4:39:05. It was the first full marathon that I ran with the Cody's Crew flag and I did it with the flu. Another con of this race was that there were so many people running for causes that I felt as though nobody noticed the Cody's Crew flag.

Fast forward to yesterday the 28th of November. I ran my second marathon in less than a month. I have a theory that it's just easier to stay at this fitness level a run marathons more frequently than doing them twice a year and having to work back up to this level. Yesterday I ran the NCR marathon in Sparks MD. This race is on the other end of the marathon spectrum when it comes to the number of runners which was in the low hundreds. The race takes place on a Rails to Trails path that is flat as it gets. 13.1 miles out and back. The path is a packed gravel path that was very nice to run on. It was a very scenic race that took you through old farms, government woods and fields and over brooks and steams. Every couple miles we crossed roads in near homes and small towns. It was only at these points that we would see spectators. At every one people would cheer for "the flag guy" and Cody's Crew... This is why I carry the flag. As I passed each group of onlookers I would hold the flag a little higher and shout out "Go to Cody's Crew .org". A few times during the race runners asked me about the flag and gave me kudos for carrying the flag the whole race. When running a marathon even carrying a bottle of water is uncomfortable. It is taking time for me to get use to running with the flag but I sure I'll get there. So this race was a little different than New York. I was able to sleep in my own bed the night before and I had no flu symptoms. My fitness level was probably not ideal but I felt pretty good going into the race. I finished this race at 4:14:33 which was about 20 minutes faster than 4 weeks earlier. I think as I get more use to running with the flag my times will drop.

The Johnson's are getting ready for another first. We had our first Thanksgiving without Cody. It was not easy. We had spent the past 4 years at this time of year in the hospital with fevers, getting chemo or traveling to New York for those terrible treatments with our angel. Although not ideal we would gladly take it for the rest of our lives to have our Cody back. In less than a month we'll have another first. Christmas was a special time of year for us. The past few years we really knew how precious those memories would be. Cody like most kids loved Christmas. We miss our little pirate so much...

Cody's Crew Cancun Vacation Contest

Cody's Crew Foundation is lucky enough to be the recipient of Cancun Vacation Donation. This is for the room but not for airfare. You will be responsible for your own airline tickets.
Here are the details.
Bids start immediately and must be received by midnight Thursday 12th of November. I will announce the winner on Friday the 13th.
Reservations are for:
Mayan Palace Riveria Maya (#6483 rci resort number) Kilometro 48 Carretera Federal Cancun-Playa del Carmen Dates: November 21-28, 2009 The unit is a two bedroom, two bath, partial kitchen, maximum occupancy is 8 people. Here is the website for the unit. Website: http://mayanresorts.com/mayan-palace/riviera-maya/

All bids can be sent to mjohnson@codys-crew.org
Good Luck….

Sorry....

for the lack of posts. I know that you all continue to care and pray for us. The past few weeks have been a blur. We are planning many things for the future of Cody's Crew. We definitely want to continue the 5K and Tot trot. What a huge success it was and we raised over $12,000.00. The yard sale was another great success. We are blessed with great people who work very hard for this cause. One of the ideas we are kicking around is having a 5 mile or 10K in the spring. This will be more runner oriented. We are talking about having it at one of the local parks so we will not have to run on the road. Another very big idea that is in the very early stages is a Relay Across America. This will be a massive undertaking and we will need some very good sponsorship. It will all hinge on sponsorship and if we can get a major network or the media to take notice. We are all about the attention. We must get the word about neuroblastoma out there.

On a family note. This past weekend was very exciting to say the least. We kept Justin home from school on Friday because he was showing signs of the flu. So, Diane's mother watched Justin at home. I received a call from Diane about 3p.m. and she told me that I need to get home ASAP. Apparently Justin had just finished taking a bath and when he was getting out of the tub he collapsed on the floor. When he fell he hit his head on the tile floor and cracked the back of his head open. We had to rush him to the ER where he had a CT scan and ended up with 6 staples in the back of his head. We were at the ER until 7:30. It reminded me just how much I hate hospitals. Diane said she wished she was still running to Georgetown everyday. For that matter so do I... We miss Cody..

My marathon training has been going pretty well. We are less than two weeks away from the New York Marathon. I will be taking the train up on Halloween and running the next day. Then I will be staying the night after before coming home on the 2nd of November. I'm also pretty sure that I am going to run a marathon in early December. I figure since I'm already trained up I might as well stay at that level of fitness and keep running marathons as long as the opportunities present themselves.

That's about it for now. We are very grateful that you all continue to check in on us. We continue to take life one day at a time. Some days are harder than others. Nobody said it would be easy. God bless you all.

Another Angel...

It is with a heavy heart that I post today. Pierce Phillips has earned his wings today. Please drop by and pay your respects to his family..

September (Childhood Cancer Awareness Month) has come and gone with little notice. One week later the NFL players are wearing pink in honor of Breast Cancer. What is wrong with this picture? Somebody has got to take notice that our children are dying. Future presidents, lawyers, doctors, mommies and daddies... All gone before their time... Why? Doesn't anyone care?