Non-athlete tackles 1st triathlon
Special incentive keeps her going: to fight leukemia.
Meghan Kilgore has never been the sporty type. A 2004 gradate of Ironwood Ridge High School, she played a bit of soccer but was never into high school athletics. She’s always tried to stay fit, though.
During her second semester at Pima Community College, she joined a fitness class and, at age 20, also took up running. By January this year, her thoughts had turned to running a marathon.
She discussed it with her mother, who soon found her an opportunity. A co-worker in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training program invited Meghan to see what it was about.
At the information meeting, Team in Training organizers listed various ways people could get involved in raising money for the fight against leukemia and all blood cancers.
Kilgore signed up for a triathlon on the spot, and his month she was the only Tucson-area resident in the event.
“The closest thing I’d ever done to anything like this was probably the breast cancer walk or the AIDS walk or something like that,” she said.
She completed the triathlon course in three hours and 49 minutes — 11 minutes under her goal of four hours.
Team in Training pays all training and competition costs for its volunteers.
Because 75 percent of all the money raised goes toward research, the program sets the fundraising goal for each member based on which competition they choose. The goal is always four times the competition costs, said Louanne Clark, Tucson campaign coordinator.
“What it means is, if you’re going to Honolulu you have a very high fundraising goal. If you’re a marathoner going to Phoenix it’s much lower,” Clark said.
Kilgore’s triathlon was held near Monterey, Calif., so her goal was set at $4,700, and training began toward the end of May.
“June was a crazy month,” Kilgore said. She took summer courses from 7 to 10 a.m. Monday through Thursday. Then she worked until 4 or 5 p.m. before heading back to her apartment to do homework.
She squeezed in training early in the morning or late in the evening, she said.
Team in Training gave her a calendar of what type of activity to do each day to build endurance and get into condition for her event, which required nearly a mile of swimming plus a 26-mile bike ride and a 6 1/2-mile run.
With the fundraising element added to the mix, Kilgore has found time to hold car washes, garage sales and “percentage nights” at local restaurants — the restaurant donates a percentage of the night’s profits to her cause. She also makes direct appeals to her family and friends.
With her early-October fund-raising deadline looming, she still has more than $2,000 to go.
The fundraising element raises the stakes for Team in Training participants, Clark said. “They have a mission beyond just their own personal fitness goals.”
Clark said she saw Kilgore learning about the cause from the team’s honored participant, leukemia patient Alex Stuetze, a girl who turned 13 at University Medical Center while Kilgore was training. Though Kilgore had to work that day, she sent a gift, a Tinkerbell shirt — Alex is a big Tinkerbell fan.
“Going into this, I knew nothing about (leukemia),” Kilgore said. Now she spouts survival statistics with the best of them.
You can help
To help Meghan reach her fundraising goal, visit www.active.com/donate/tntdms/tntdmsMKilgor
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