My legs throb, and my pace has slowed down considerably since I began seven miles ago. Sweat trickles into my eyes, stinging before I get a chance to wipe it away. For a second, my mind almost convinces my body to stop and walk. Just for a bit. It’s times like this, when I’m about to let self-sabotage win, I think of Trudi.

Trudi Raye Ferguson Lamond

I first met Trudi at the Steele Creek YMCA. She was one of us crazies who showed up for relentless torture at 5:40 for an abs class we loved to hate. She had this infectious optimism about her, and a smile that made you smile back – no matter what.

When her sweet daughters, Lilli and Ella, joined the children’s worship team I led at church, I was blessed to get to know her better. What a beauty – inside and out.

There are a lot of great things to remember about Trudi  Lamond – her sweet spirit, her willingness to help others, her fierce dedication to her family, and her unwavering faith in God. No matter how sick she was from the chemo treatments or how tired she was from the draining nature of stage 4 breast cancer – Trudi never failed to praise God for every. Single. Victory.

For almost five years she fought. Her optimism and love for life was an inspiration to anyone who came in contact with her.

To honor our friend, my friends Janna, Sarah and I are running the LoCoMotion next week. It’s a three-day, 30-mile run for which proceeds benefit breast cancer research and program development. We have established a donor page here for more information.

Trudi, we miss you so much. Each mile we run, we will be praising God for your life and thanking Him that we were blessed to know you on this side of Heaven.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12: 1 & 2