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Leigh is among our growing rank of triathletes. We asked her 10 questions about herself and her experience with the team.
10. When you were 5, what did you want to be when you grew up?
At five, I was very interested in the animal world. I liked butterflies and frogs and rolly pollies. Horses were my passion, but I never owned one. I was not aware of careers at 5 years old, but over the next few years, I learned about ‘animal doctors’ and for many years I thought about going to vet school. Although I did not be come a vet, I still love animals and am curious about how biological systems work.
9. What is your favorite quote?
This is a tough question! Most of the quotes I know and think about are from the Bible, but I also love English poetry from about 1600 to 1800. Something I say to encourage myself is “Trust in the Lord and do good.” This helps me gain perspective by focusing on the present and not to focus on worries or things out of my control.
8. What was your most embarrassing moment? (Or the most embarrassing moment you are willing to share.)
I don’t really have an answer about a “most” embarrassing moment. However, I am pretty clumsy, so I have lots of little embarrassing moments. Sometimes I run into things, fall up the stairs, or spill my coffee on something important.
7. How did you hear about NF Endurance?
I learned about NF Endurance through my sister Tracy Draper who joined the team in Florida for the Disney marathon events. She was a team member, then became a captain and now is an employee and participant in many events nationwide. Her enthusiasm for the work, the teams, the organization is just fantastic.
6. Could you tell us a little bit about your hero?
Joshua Velasquez is my hero. Joshua loves video games, soccer and the Man Versus Food TV show. He was diagnosed with NF at 10 months when café-au-lait spots appeared. He began some therapies right away and has been monitored frequently every since. Currently, there is evidence of UBO’s (“unidentified bright objects”) on his brain and many café-au-lait spots on his body. Also, he has a plexiform neurofibroma on his chest. Joshua has annual exams to monitor his condition, but thankfully, his health is good and he is leading a typical teenager’s life!
5. Why did you choose the Iron Girl Triathlon in New York??
I decided to do this race because I had hurt my back muscles on a few occasions last winter. I decided, “Enough! I must get in shape again!” I had been a cross country runner in high school and enjoyed many different kinds of sports. My dental hygienist mentioned that she was entering the race. I checked it out and decided it was just the fitness goal that I needed. I started training in May with the race in early August.
Leigh posing with her medal.
4. How did the race go?
The race was tough! I did well for a short training season though. I finished 147 out of about 730 women. The swim was chaos, the bike was great, and the run was misery… I had a great time. It had been 28 years since I did a triathlon so I was happy with the result.
3. Any plans for your next race?
I might try the Iron Girl again or another local triathlon in summer 2011. The Iron Girl event was very well organized, and it was fantastic racing with all those women. The encouragement and team spirt was great — and still the competition was very strong. I hope that the next triathlon I try has no lake weeds to swim through!
2. What is your favorite brand of running shoe? Why?
I honestly do not have one. Twenty years ago I would have said Saucony because they had the coolest tread. Now, I am not familiar with the different brands or their relative strengths. What do you prefer? Any advice is welcome! (Share your favorite brand in the comments, and we’ll get your suggestions back to Leigh.)
1. What does being a part of this team mean to you?
For me, it means racing for a purpose larger than just self-improvement. I wanted my efforts to have larger benefits beyond my own physical fitness. As soon as I registered for the event, I contacted my sister who works for NF Endurance and asked how I could run to raise funds to fight NF. It was truly my pleasure to help by raising awareness among my colleagues about this cause and wearing the NF Endurance tri-top to spread the word among the other athletes.
Keep an eye on the NF Endurance events page for our growing list of official triathlon events.http://nfendurance.org/events
Krissy Diaz "pies" Anne Shigley at the Long Island Marathon in May.
From March 15, 2010 – April 15, 2010, there was a friendly competition between the NF Endurance team captains. The team who raised the most money to find a cure for NF would win. The losers? Well, they would be hit with a cream pie.
The NFE Flying Pig team managed to save Chaun Steiner from a pie fight. Check out the above video of one of the losing captains, Joe Gunn, who is “pied-in-the-face” by NF Hero Anneliese. Joe actually came up with the idea for the pie fundraising contest. It looks like Joe’s great idea came back to hit him in the face!
Below is video of Elaine Keating, captain of the NFE Cleveland Team, who got creamed this weekend at the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon by her son, Jacob Keating. “I was so nervous about it but I convinced Chaun to do it AFTER the race so I didn’t taste lemon for 26.2 miles,” said Elaine.
I didn’t imagine when I ran my first half marathon with NF Endurance in October 2008 that I’d be running my third on the other side of the country in 2010, or that I’d register for my fourth while my calves were still tight. Yet, here I am whittling down my times and racking up donations for a great cause!
I’m a Jersey Shore native, but my family and I had been living in Southern California when my son Michael, a friend and I signed up for Long Beach in 2008. Four days after we registered, my other son and NF hero, Gabriel, died tragically and unexpectedly. Despite the rawness of our grief, we decided to honor his memory by keeping our commitment to the team. There was little thought to race times, but we did raise more than $2,600 and had a wonderful, poignant day.
My family and I then moved home to central New Jersey and I ran the New York City Half Marathon with a tiny NF Endurance team in the blistering August heat of 2009. That too was an emotional, glorious race that finished yards from the World Trade Center site, and I raised another $1,220.
I knew my next event would have to be on my sandy home turf at the Jersey Shore. I was nervous about the April 17, 2010 date though, because the April weather here is generally miserable and I’ve never been a bad weather runner. My nightmare scenario was running on the boardwalk for 13.1 miles with icy, rainy wind blowing off the Atlantic and into my face. Long before April rolled around, I was contending with blizzards and torrential downpours.
I’m tri-vocational, don’t own a treadmill and didn’t belong to a gym. I got outside whenever I could, which was no more than once a week, beginning some time in February. By early March, I was able to get out more and gradually increase my distance. Still, I never ran more than twice a week and my longest run was 9.5 miles. I was sure this event would be my worst to date.
The weather report for race day was ominous. A looming storm that boasted rain, cool temperatures and 15-25 mph winds was the talk of the pre-race pasta dinner. Steve Kendra optimistically assured us it would blow over, but offered black trash bags for protection nonetheless. I looked out the window at the rain and groaned. Then I remembered he had just run the Antarctica Marathon, and I felt pretty silly for complaining about an ordinary Nor’easter’!
What a relief it was to wake up on race day to sun peaking through the clouds and wonderfully crisp temperatures. Unlike the lonely New York City race, I ran into team members throughout this run and gave CTF bracelets to a couple inquirers along the way. I even surprised myself by cutting another five minutes off my time! Now, if I can only get myself to stop taking pictures along the way, I might get it down below 2.5 hours!
As always, my husband Jeff was there to cheer on me and the team. Afterwards we had a great time reveling with them in our collective accomplishment. It was then that Jeff decided to take charge of my fundraising efforts. He’s retired with a physical disability, but spent many years as a highly successful salesman of quality products. I need his help because I haven’t yet met my fundraising goal for this event and I won’t close out the account until I do.
Picking up on an idea proposed by NF Endurance member Joe Gunn, we’re thinking about hosting a fundraising party for which I’ll cook and we’ll ask Jeff’s musical siblings to provide entertainment. A local radio host who follows me on Twitter is considering doing a radio spot with me as well. By the time we get to the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in Philadelphia on September 19th, we’ll have surpassed our Jersey Shore goal and will have our sights set on a new one: raising $10,000 for CTF and earning me one of those uber-cool NF Endurance windbreakers! See ya’ in Philly!
