In 2001 I ran my first 26.2 -- the Philadelphia Marathon. I lived a few miles from the start, my cute new boyfriend said he'd pace me for part of the way so I was sold.
Since then I've done four more marathons. For me, road marathons are the hardest thing to train for and are the hardest to finish. Give me a 24-hour adventure race any day -- a marathon is what nearly kills me.
I didn't run Boston this year mostly because I didn't feel like training. Instead I did the Rev3 that day, proving to myself that sometimes it is easier to go long and slow than hard and fast (that's what she said). I also passed up the New York City Marathon after a lot of thought -- I didn't feel like training for a late fall marathon or dealing with the hassle of getting to the start line. Fun to do once, but after thinking it through I am not sure I need to do it again any time soon.
For the past few years I've spectated at Philly like a true champion, getting up before the sun and biking around the course to cheer like a mofo and be silly (one of my favorite things to do). I've had a standing date with my friend April who meets me at the 4-mile mark for a bit before heading over to the dreaded 20-mile mark.
Today I sent her this e-mail:
"I can't spectate at the marathon this year because I just signed up to do it -- something I swore I'd never do. I signed up to do it as part of the Ronald McDonald House team so I have to fundraise -- something else I swore I'd never do."
So, yeah. I've committed to running the Philadelphia Marathon and raising $900 for the North Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House. I will go into why the North Philly Ronald McDonald House in a bit but for now I am sitting here thinking about how terrible I am at fundraising. I quit Girl Scouts because I hated selling the cookies. I alwasy sold, like, two candy bars when mandated to for my middle school.
And I raised all of $4 in a swim-a-thon for CF when I was in elementary school. Thus, $900 should be interesting (it's actually $1,000 but you had to pay the marathon registration fee in order to be part of the team and the marathon then donates that money back to the Ronald McDonald House).
Anyone want to send me $900? I will take it in quarters. Pennies, even. Non-expired cupons? Chuck-e-Cheese tokens? Q-tips? $900 in postage stamps?
4 comments:
I have complete faith that you can do it, I bet you raise more than the required $900, have fun, approach it just like you do everything else.
Tell us more about this "cute boyfriend."
So, how do we go about donating?
Sorry, I don't have more fundraising tips. I usually just schmooze my co-workers....
As for comments, if you don't have "embedded comments" selected in the Comments Settings, you should be fine!
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