FUNDRAISING:
I’ll start with the fundraising for this week’s update. I’m ecstatic to say thanks to all of the
generous donations I’ve gotten I have made it to the halfway point minimum
requirement almost a month ahead of schedule!
Together we have raised just over $1,700 and as you can see from the graph, I've been making steady progess towards my goal of $6,000. With your continued help, I think we can get there by November if not sooner!
BTW the entire DetermiNation team has raised over $200,000 so far for the NYC marathon. WOW!
THANK YOU ALL!
I’ve gotten my invitation to officially sign up for the New
York City Marathon and I’ll be registering shortly. I can’t thank you all enough.
I’m still hoping to raise well over the minimum, because I
really want to make as big a difference in the lives of those affected by
cancer as possible. With your help,
together, perhaps we can put an end to cancer.
You know, earlier today, a friend of mine was talking to me
about how his wife is just about to start chemo for uterine cancer. We ended the talk about how important
research is, and that one day, people will think about chemotherapy the way we
think about how at one point leeches were considered to be a medical
treatment. Wouldn’t that be something? I have to believe in that future, because
people given enough time and resources are able to create and discover amazing
things!
That’s one of the reasons I support the American Cancer
Society, because in addition to supporting those currently affected by cancer,
they support critical research to find better ways to cure or even prevent this
disease.
So please, if you haven’t yet and are able to, consider
donating to my campaign and join team DetermiNation! Let’s put an end to cancer!
TRAINING:
I wish I could say this has been going as well.
You know what the hardest part of marathon training is. It’s not the running, thou that can be tough
for sure. It’s staying injury free while
to train.
In 2006 when I ran Chicago, I had no real injuries during
the training. After the marathon I had
some IT band irritation, but nothing really stopped me from running.
In 2012 I decided to try and run the Chicago marathon again,
and about half way into training I fractured a bone in my foot. That ended that.
In 2013 after Brenda finished chemo and was feeling better I
was able to successfully train for the Disney Marathon with almost no injuries,
and in January of this year I ran the Disney Marathon. I was feeling great!
But since then, I feel like it’s been one injury after
another. After Disney in January I set
my sights on another marathon in April, the Illinois Marathon in
Champaing. I wanted to see if I could go
faster.
I got some tendonitis in my left pinky toe – annoying but I
could still run. A little anti-inflammatory
medicine and I was fine. A couple weeks
later, about 2 weeks before the marathon, after running through the POLAR
VORTEX I got runners knee. Again, not
terrible, but enough that it slowed me down and I had my worst marathon time
yet. But at least I did it.
I took some time off, a couple months, and re-habbed my
knee. I managed to run 2 half marathons
at a slower pace since then, and now my knee if feeling great so I started to
push a little harder in my training. I
want to see if I can get a little speed back.
Well this past week my right foot started hurting, a lot
like when my left foot had the fracture 2 years ago.
Uggg…
I went to my podiatrist immediately, and thankfully she
thinks it is again just a bit of tendonitis.
She wants me to rest for a couple weeks, and come back for a check. So I’ll take a 2 week break from running, and
that’s okay.
I had kinda hoped that MAYBE I could have a personal best
time at NYC and run a marathon faster than I have yet. That would be great. But really, I want to finish the run. So maybe it’s not my fastest, maybe it’s even
my slowest. That would be okay. After
all I am doing this for the experience and to raise money for the ACS.
In case you are wondering, because I know I was, what happens
if I can’t run this year?
Well good question.
The answer is that as long as I raise the minimum amount this year I can
defer my entry to the marathon and run next year instead. I don’t want to do that, I really want to run
this year, so I am going to do EVERYTHING I can to stay healthy and train smart
and run the race THIS year.
But it’s good to know, just in case, that I have a bit of a
safety net.
I know you all are donating money to support those dealing
with cancer, but you are also supporting me too and my quest to run the biggest
marathon in the world. I am taking this
very seriously; you are putting your money where my mouth is. And I don’t want to let anyone down.
So what is my plan for the next two weeks? I’m gonna do my yoga for runners DVD, and I’m
going to get on my bike trainer to cycle, AND for the first time in like 20 years since high school I
swam laps at a pool! It’s supposed to be
great cross training exercise, and after just 25 minutes this morning I was
tired. Plus this is a 50 yard long pool. Those lengths were MUCH longer than I'm used to. I don't think I've ever swam a lap on a pool that big before. See the photo below.
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I also just ordered on Amazon an "aqua jogger" belt. It's a floation device that you were on your waist to keep you floating in the water while you try to "run." I’m excited to try the aqua
jogger out, some people have reported
having great results from using one. Plus I won't look any sillier than I already do trying to swim. I'm not that good at it.
So stay tuned. I may
not be running much but I won’t be standing still by any means.
Just 109 days until the NYC marathon! Let’s do this!!
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