"The Web" by Cathy LaMarre

You know, in this technology age, we rely so much on the internet. As the designer of this marathon website about 4 years ago, I have dedicated a lot of time to maintain the site and even pay a web host out of my own pocket. This past year, my internet provider was bought out by Volaris. They really got my personal webspace all messed up. I must admit however that I had about a 4 month window where I could have moved all the code over to my new user account. I missed the boat, dropped the ball or whatever you call it. So, I manually rebuilt a whole new website and created the new www.grandfatherbear.com. I spent countless - thankless hours on this project.

I have taken so much grief from people who have blamed me for them not getting registered in time to make the 2002 deadline. I really felt bad about it and even stressed out over it. But then I came to grips with reality. The reality is that when my 4 year old niece was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia last year, my life was forever changed. She was given a 20% chance of survival. Her only hope was a bone marrow transplant and she did not get a match. She however did receive a cord blood stem cell transplant Nov 14, 2001. She is miraculously still alive today. She still has a slim chance of survival though. I dropped the ball on the marathon website to start up my niece's site Hope For Marrow - go ahead and check it out. Have you ever watched a 4 year old have her 5 year old birthday party and not eat cake or even care to open presents ? Have you ever seen a 5 year old burned from the inside out from chemo and radiation ? Have you ever seen a father pick up his daughter's 1st lost lock from chemo and stuff it in his wallet ? Have you ever seen a seen a child vomit for hours on end from chemo ? Have you ever spent your Thanksgiving and Christmas in the hospital bone marrow unit with kids on the brink of death ? Well I have and this has been my past year !! I have learned that life is too short to be stressed out over things like a race. I do the best job I can and if people don't like it, oh well.

I will continue to do the best job I can to maintain this website, register runners and do the results of our races.