Fundraising goal MET!!

We've done it! Together, we have raised $4000 for cancer research!! What a truly amazing accomplishment. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I have one last way for everyone to get involved on race day. (And this won't involve any donations!) Stay tuned. More to come a little later today ...

Wooo hoooo!

Wow! That was an awesome burst of energy at the end there. With more than $3800 raised, we're now at 95% of the goal which is beyond awesome.

We had a Team in Training meeting tonight and one of our fellow teammates shared his reason for joining Team in Training. He shared that his daughter, McKenna, died from Lymphoma a few years ago. He's also lost his father and his brother to Lymphoma as well. This is why I am part of this organization. For we are all touched by these diseases and we can all do something to help.

Our team - the group of about 50 of us in Minneapolis with Team in Training running or walking in Seattle's Rock n Roll Marathon - together have raised more than $155,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society!! What an amazing accomplishment. I'm so proud of this team! And I'm getting so excited for race day!

GO TEAM!

Team Seattle Rock N Roll for Gracie

Our honored teammate, Gracie, absolutely loves pink so we've had a couple of team runs where the whole Team in Training crew wears pink. Gracie made it to the last one. Here she is - the princess in pink!

Exciting news - I have just $499 to go! That means I'm over 88% of the way to the goal!! There are only a couple of days left until the fundraising deadline. It's coming up this Tuesday, June 16th.

GO TEAM!!

I'm counting down the days!

The finish line is near. As you can see, race day is less than a month away. What an amazing experience this has been!

So far, you've all helped me raise more than $3000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to help combat blood cancers. I'm so proud to be a part of the Team in Training organization!

But it's not time to rest just yet. The fundraising deadline comes even sooner.

There are just two weeks left for me to raise $998!

Any assistance you can provide in helping me to reach my final goal is greatly appreciated! As always, thank you so much for your support.

GO TEAM!

My Portland

I'm home again visiting family and I am once again in love with my home state. Not that I ever fell out of love, but I'm back in infatuation stage. For those of you not from here, the picture above looks out from OHSU hospital on the top of the hill. The wires you see here belong to the tram that you can ride from the bottom of the hill up to the top. Here's a closer look at the tram:


As you can see, it's an amazing view. Sean and I decided to go for a run yesterday. We ran down the hill from OHSU and then back up again. It was about 5.5 miles all told and my pace was actually really good! Here's an above view of the road:


Though the hills truly kicked my butt, I hardly noticed because the view and the weather were so spectacular. Growing up in Oregon (and now living in Minneapolis) I've learned to truly appreciate the weather when it is good. And right now, it is SO good.

ONE MORE UPDATE!

I'm less than $100 away from my goal for today! I set a goal to raise $3000 by today and I'm getting so very close. The finish line is only a few weeks away now. Again, thank you so much to all of you who have donated! I'm so very grateful for your support.

70% down!

The final few weeks are upon us! I'm so excited to report that I've passed the 70% mark for fundraising! And though it's really exciting to be this close, I'm not at the finish line yet.

Just as with my training routine (which has taken me to a couple of 10-mile-runs) I've come so much farther than I ever thought possible! From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU!!

More to come a little later on my beautiful runs in Portland as I'm here visiting family. . .

Two big milestones in one day!

Yesterday was a big day, my friends. For so many reasons!

First:

This is the face of a girl who just ran 10 miles. Yes, 10. And it actually wasn't too bad. I finally made it to a team run with Team in Training down by the river again. It was another beautiful morning - about 40 degrees and sunny.

The group met up. We discussed the route - "turn at the Ford bridge - turn at the Franklin bridge - keep the river to your right." Seemed easy enough but for some reason I had to ask which bridges we were turning at about 10 times. I think it was the combination of the early morning fuzzy brain and the nerves over running 10 miles. I noticed a few other people did the exact same thing. Then someone shared a "mission moment", which is our reminder why we're raising money for cancer research. One person shared that she's a teacher and she's running in honor of one of her students.

Then it was time for the cheer. Oh yes, the cheer. It's a lot to ask at that hour on a Saturday morning, but I did my best to get in to it - "I say purple, you say green - purple! green! purple! green!" You get the idea. It did occur to me that there would probably be some form of the cheer on race day too. Since I'll be wearing a bright purple jersey along with the rest of my teammates, I decided that I'll just go with it and love the cheers. There's no acting too cool for school here.

And off we went! I kept up with the group out front for about two miles. I felt pretty good about keeping up with the "fast kids" as I called them in my head, but decided that I wouldn't be able to finish if I kept up that pace. So, I dropped back a ways and rocked out to my iPod. I think I'm better at running solo anyway. I like to jam out to the music and I'm not much for talking when I'm working that hard at keeping my legs going. I kept a pretty good pace for most of the 10 miles as you can see here:






Second:

I reached the halfway point for fundraising! And a few days ahead of my goal, too. I have been so humbled by the generosity of each one of you. Thank you so much to all of you who have helped me get this far!! And thanks in advance to those of you who will help me get the rest of the way there!

I added a thermometer to the side of the page here and I'll keep it updated as we get closer to the final goal.

Third:

I'm sending in the recommitment paperwork today, which means I can't back out now! I'm really going to do this!

Happy Easter, everyone!

Woo hoo! First major fundraising goal MET!!

I set a goal to raise $1000 by the end of March and it has been crushed! As of today, we've raised $1281! Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed. I am so humbled by your generosity.

Every dollar counts and gets us all one step closer to the ultimate goal - making a real impact in the fight against cancer.

I'm finding that there is at least a couple of weeks of lag time in getting the checks updated to the "official" fundraising site, so I'm adding my own wall of fame/gratitude here on my site. So, one goal down - just a couple more to go. Next up - the halfway point ($2000) by the recommitment date, which is April 17th.

As for the training plan, it's ramping up! I got sassy this weekend while I was home visiting family and decided to go run the Dundee Hills. Stupid idea. I was completely gassed after 1.25 miles but somehow managed to keep going until 4 miles (on level ground, of course).

Big team run this weekend - 8 miles! It will be the longest I've run yet ...

10% down!

Today I reached 10% of my fundraising goal! Thanks so much to those of you who have sent checks - those will be reflected on the official fundraising site soon.

Every 10% counts!


Here are the other milestones I'm working toward:

$1000 raised by the end of March (3/31)
$2000 raised by the Recommitment date - more about this in a minute (4/17)
$3000 raised by the middle of May (5/15)
$4000 raised by the fundraising deadline (6/16)

The Recommitment date is set by Team in Training as a halfway point. Half of the money is due by this date and I also "recommit" to the race and to raising the remainder of the money. It still feels a little daunting but maybe a bit more doable when I break it down into goals like this.

After a week of being under the weather with the winter crud, I was back in the gym tonight. It's always a little tough getting back in the saddle again, but I managed to make it about 4 miles tonight. Gotta work my way back up to the longer runs!