The Jaunt to Jacksonville

My friend Julia Stroud is battling lung cancer. Like me Julia organized a Free to Breathe 5K Run/Walk in Jacksonville on November 7th. Yoko and I decided to go up there to support Julia and to see how a larger event is run. (Julia's event had 860 participants who together raised nearly $85,000 for lung cancer research.)



Yoko and I were really impressed by the level of dedication and passion Julia and her volunteers have for the lung cancer movement. Maybe we are beginning to make an impact and be heard? One of her event participants, who has been battling Stage IV lung cancer for 4 years, raised over $24,000 from family and friends. If I could get equally dedicated people next year maybe we could raise $60,000 in our Punta Gorda event. Let me know if you would like to form a team to help raise lung cancer awareness. We're starting to plan next year's event right now.


We made it up to Jacksonville Friday night November 6th, in time for a pasta dinner at Our Lady of the Seas in Ponte Verde. Some of the members of the church had volunteered to put on the dinner for all the runners and walkers. At least 120 people, maybe more, were there. As we entered the church hall there was a group singing gospel music and entertaining the crowd and decorations making the place look like a Fourth of July celebration. At the entrance were hand painted signs congratulating the 12 survivors who had signed up to participate. My name was among the honored few. It felt like a party for those of us who live with this deadly disease.

After the 5K walk Saturday morning Yoko and I drove down to St Augustine had lunch and then tooled around the historic downtown till late afternoon. At sunset we walked St Augustine beach, which was deserted. It was cool and the sky was clear. As the sun went down the sky had that distinctive Florida pink and blue hue. The sun was reflecting off the heavy surf as it rolled in. It was really quite beautiful and one of those moments when you think to yourself what a gift it is to be alive and live in such an idyllic setting.

On Sunday morning we drove to the famous World Golf Village to see if I could get a tee time to play the Slammer & Squire (designed by Sam (The Slammer) Snead and Gene (The Squire) Sarasen and The King and The Bear (the handiwork of Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus). As it turned out, getting a tee time was easy. Playing the course was an entirely different matter. We had beautiful weather both on Sunday and Monday. Yoko rode with me on Sunday (she didn't want to play). On Monday, she went shopping while I hooked up with a threesome visiting from New York.

Today I got my latest scans back. Everything is good -- like I never had lung cancer. I am starting to wonder if I can really be this lucky -- a healthy and happy family, the finest friends, a good job, and year-long golf in glorious weather. If I died and went to heaven life couldn't be better.