Marathon Training War College Wife Runs Leukemia Fundraiser

For Audrey Wilkins, the wife of a student, running is in her blood. Wilkins, from Middletown, is training to run on the west coast in the San Diego Rock 'n Roll Marathon in June to raise money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society with the Rhode Island Chapter's Team in Training (TNT).

Wilkins will run the 26.2 mile race with her team to help patients with blood cancer across the country. TNT provides coaching to help prepare for long endurance races such as marathons, half-marathons, triathlons and century bicycle races. TNT also helps with fundraising.

Why all the way out in San Diego? “It was the only full marathon to choose from in the list of Team in Training events this summer.  I could have chosen to do the Cox Half Marathon, but if I was going to do TNT, I was going to go big!” Wilkins said.

She also said said chose the Rock 'n Roll Marathon because of its high fundraising goals. She wanted to tackle not only a tough physical challenge, but an ambitious fundraising one as well.

“I was a team captain for a Relay for Life Team in North Carolina, where we were stationed before here, for five of the six years we lived there.  We never raised more than a thousand dollars as a team.  The fundraising part of Team in Training was going to be just as much a challenge as running the miles,” she said.

As for training in the soggy weather, Wilkins said she has been restricted to mostly running three times a week in the naval base gym on the treadmill. When the sun is out, she said she likes to run along , the and Bellevue Avenue. “The scenery is a distraction from the miles,” she said.

“I have completed three marathons before, mostly to see if I could do it and to lose weight. But this time is different because I’m running for a very important cause and for a very special person,“ Wilkins said while preparing for a  six-mile training run with TNT through the Roger Williams Park in Providence.

Wilkins said she is running in honor of Arieana Carciera, a 2010 graduate of the University of Rhode Island. Carciera studied Nutrition and Dietetic and planned to begin a two-year internship and Master's program, until Stage 2 Hodgkin's Lymphona stopped her in her tracks. After six months of chemotherapy, Carcieri is cancer free. Throughout her treatment, Carcieri has been training for a cycling event through TNT.

As of last Friday, Wilkins said she was happy to announce that Carciera has completed her last round of chemotherapy treatments, to the excitement of her and her team.

“Whenever I look outside and see how cold it is or complain about how tired I am before a run, all I have to do is remember how strong Arieana has been through her ordeal with chemotherapy.  If she can get through that and still make it through a cycling training, then the least I can do is get up and run,” Wilkins said. “I want to make sure organizations like LLS are able to continue their mission to find a cure for cancer, so that my daughter may never have to face that kind of endurance race in her lifetime,” Wilkins said.

Wilkins' said she has already raised more than $1,000 of her $3,000 goal for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. More than 75 percent of all donations will go directly to the LLS to fund treatment, research and physician training.

As a part of her fundraising efforts, Wilkins will hold a “Shop for a Cause” fundraiser event on March 18 at the Upper Green Lane Community Center in Middletown. Vendors will sell handbags, accessories and other assorted items to benefit the LLS.