Week 1 of TNT

We had our first training run yesterday. It was only a little over 2 miles but since I basically haven't run at all in the last 2 months I started out easy. I ran with a group that was doing 5 min of running and 2 min of walking. We got done in about 27 or 28 minutes, which was just fine. Also the weather was PERFECT for a run as far as I'm concerned, it was overcast and about 70 degrees, which I'm sure helped.

My husband really wanted to come along just to do the run but he ended up getting a little too excited and signed up for the fundraising again. I hope he'll actually follow through this time, we shall see. Recommittment is in October so he said if he's at $900 raised by then he'll recommit. For the running aspect, he hasn't run at all in over 2 months, he smoked 3 cigarettes on the way to the run, and he did 4 miles in under 40 minutes. Totally not fair! It would be so awesome if I could somehow magically beat him in the marathon, but I don't see that happening.

If my husband and I both do the fundraising we will be raising $2800 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. This will be awesome! And if possible, I want to raise $1000 over my fundraising minimum.

Team in Training Again!

So I signed up for my next marathon with Team in Training. I am training for the Carlsbad marathon in January. My fundraising goal for this event is $1400, but I would like to raise at least $2400, and I think I can do it. If you can, please make a donation via the widget below. Help me find a cure for cancer!

Update on Baby A

She is home from the hospital and doing much better! They found out that she had managed to get ahold of some medicine belonging to her aunt. The aunt was promptly kicked out of the house and returned back home to Florida, for the baby's safety.

They are still stuck with a bit of a hospital bill, though luckily not a big one, but I would still like to help them out with it if possible. So the request for any financial assistance is still open. Thanks!

PS: I'm planning to start my next Team in Training activity very soon, I'm so excited!

New cause

I haven't written on here in a bit. I've been taking a break after the marathon and thinking about what I want to work towards next. While I haven't decided what my next cause will be, something did come up which I want to flow as much help towards as possible.

One of my very good friends, F, had a baby almost 3 months pre-maturely. This was almost a year ago now. The baby, A, has been doing great. She's grown beautifully (she's as big as my 15 month old) and has been a very happy baby.

Yesterday, A wouldn't wake up from her nap. She stopped breathing for a brief period of time. F did CPR on her and they went to the ER. The doctor's couldn't figure out what happened after all sorts of tests and wanted to keep her overnight.

This morning A had the same problems and they had a very hard time waking her up. Her breathing was very difficult. The doctor's are now thinking she may be having seizures.

If she is having seizures, F and her husband C will have a VERY long and hard road ahead of them. They are already not doing the greatest financially and this will take a large toll. They have two other children and F just lost her job. Even if she doesn't have seizures, the baby being in the hospital for a few days with all the testing that's been done is going to cost them a lot of money.

So my new cause is to raise some money to help them out. I'm going to start doing this now and I'm also going to put together a care package for them which I'll take to the hospital tomorrow. If anyone can help me out with this in any way, shape or form, please do so. This baby is so special.

26.2

I did it. I have officially completed a marathon, 26.2 miles. Of course I didn't do nearly as well on it as I wanted to, but my goal was to get through it in under 7 hours, and that's what I did. It does make me want to do another one just so I can get my desired completion time, so I may do that in January.

I'm planning on doing a half marathon in August and then I'm not sure after that. I definitely want to keep going and I will be participating with Team in Training again, hopefully over and over until we find a cure :)

Thanks to everyone for all your support!

I made it!!!

Two days ago I was $250 away. I decided to try a new tactic. I posted on facebook that I only needed 25 people to donate $10. Right away someone donated $20. So I then posted that I only needed 23 people to donate $10. Shortly after that someone donated $25. So I again posted that I only needed 20 people to donate $10. And so on and so forth. I just kept re-posting it until that last dollar came in.

The awesome part was that no one actually did $10. They all did $20, $25, $30 and 1 person did $100! I cannot believe I finished! What a relief and an accomplishment!

Now to work on my husband's fundraising....

Less than $250 away!

This is crazy! I'm so close! If about 23 people donated $10 I'd be done. If 5 people donated $50 I'd be done. If 50 people donated $5 I'd be done! And so on...I'm so close I'm going crazy!

I just sent out a facebook message to a bunch of people and I have some friends that are helping me re-post on facebook. I also am twittering like crazy. The fundraising deadline was supposed to be yesterday but I guess they extended it to today, which is awesome.

I feel like I can totally make it. Any help would be awesome! I will blog again once I've made it!!! Here's the link if anyone reading this wants to donate: http://pages.teamintraining.org/sd/rnr10/meiben6mr5

Pizza Day

Just had a crazy pizza day at work as a fundraiser. It was an amazing amount of work for only about a $10 profit when all was said and done, but it was still a lot of fun. Almost everyone participated, which was great. It also got a lot of people to donate 50 cents or a couple bucks more than they would have, so the actual profit was about $25.

My husband finally got off his butt and is selling raffle tickets at work (yay!). He just texted me and said he has sold $120 in tickets so far, which is awesome! I'm still selling them at work and I have extended the time that people can but them through the weekend, since I just found out our fundraising deadline was extended to this Tuesday. I will still be doing this drawing on Monday, since that was the original date for it.

I still have to add everything up, but overall our final 5 days or so of fundraising we will have raised probably about an additional $400 or so, which is a lot better than where we were at! It's actually seeming possible now that we will get pretty close to our goal, maybe we can even make it :) I'll keep everyone updated.

Doing every fundraiser possible

I am running with every fundraiser I can think of. Last night I went out with my husband and some friends to the streets and did some just straight up fundraising. We passed out beads and asked for money for our cause. We raised about $35. Not much, but better than nothing. It was hard finding a good location so we went with what we had.

Today is $2 Thursday. Anyone who donates $2 gets to pick a secret envelope. So far all I have in the envelopes is gift certs for a free hamburger from Carls Jr and a few Starbucks gift cards. I'm hoping to get some more things today before I go to work but I don't know. I was going to go around yesterday and collect up things for the envelopes but I had to watch my friends baby and I totally owe her.

Tomorrow is pizza Friday. I'm selling pizza at work for a small profit (it really won't be much but it's better than nothing). I also have my raffle ending tomorrow with some great prizes and my marathon finish time pool is supposed to end tomorrow, but I may just extend it until the marathon.

I will be sending out one more email to friends/family today asking for donations, and if I get really crazy I may go to Walmart during my lunch time and fundraise outside. :)

Survived the 20 mile run

We did the 20 mile run this morning. I did surprisingly well, much better than I expected. It was still very hard but I beat my 18 mile time by over 30 seconds per mile, so I was quite proud of myself. My legs absolutely HATE me right now :)

We had the silent auction tonight, which went ok....I'm pretty disappointed. We did make about $500 from it, which is better than nothing but we're still $1500 short :( I have no idea how we're going to make that money in the next week :( Does anyone have any ideas?

I will be doing one more raffle and I still have my marathon finish time pool, which I already know I'll get a little more money from. We can't afford to front $1500. I don't want to say this was a bad idea, because even if we've only raised $2000 for our cause, I know that money will help a lot, but really, we can't afford $1500. Please help with any ideas!

20 mile run tomorrow!

I'm scared out of my mind. I have a really bad chest cold this whole week so I haven't been able to do much running and now I have a 20 mile run tomorrow (I STILL have the chest cold!). I have to be there at 6:15 am and spend about5 4 1/2-5 hours running, doesn't that sound like fun? :)

I'm always so scared and then it goes totally fine, so I know there's nothing to worry about (I hope!). Either way, I will do my best, I will feel great afterwards, and I will feel proud of myself for my accomplishment. Plus, we're having pizza afterwards!

Then, tomorrow night when I can barely walk, am exhausted and probably sunburnt, I get to have my biggest fundraising event - the silent auction. That oughta be interesting (I'm sure it will be a blast).

I got some assorted wrist bands from Oriental Trading Co. and I've been "selling" them at work today. Basically anyone who makes a donation of any size gets to pick one. You would think people would just be cheesy and donate 10 cents or something but I think no minimum was a great idea. I've gotten a $10 donation, a couple $5 donations, a few $2 dollar donations, etc. Yes, I've gotten a couple for less than a dollar but overall it's been quite successful so far. I paid about $14 for 50 of these things and I've sold about 10 of them for about $25 or $30. Not bad... :)

Pray, postulate, hope, etc. etc. that I live tomorrow! :)

Silent Auction is coming up!!!

Less than a week away! I'm getting excited. I don't have as many RSVPs yet as I'd like, but we're getting quite a few and I know people are going to show up that don't RSVP. I have lots of cool items to auction off, and I know it's going to be a LOT of fun. I REALLY hope we reach our fundraising goal from it.

We did a 9 mile run yesterday. I've been a bit sick so it was unfortunately very hard. We have our 20 MILER coming up next Saturday, I'm a bit worried about it...I don't know why, the 18 miler went fine. I know it will go fine, I just always worry beforehand. I'm going to get out there and just DO IT! Then, shortly after that, I will be running the marathon and kicking butt!!!

Did the famous "train run"

Wow! Today was crazy. We got up at 4:45 am, threw on our running gear, at a quick breakfast and headed out the door. We had to drop our daughter off at the baby sitter, then drive about 30-40 minutes to the train station in Solana Beach. We took the train to Carlsbad.

At that point, our crazy selves ran 18 MILES back to Solana Beach. 18 MILES!!! As usual, it was difficult, but I didn't die. I got a nice sun burn (note to self: sun block was invented for a reason), a blister on my foot (note to self: stick with the socks you always wear, don't try any more new socks), and of course my legs feel like I just ran 18 miles.

All in all, it was pretty fun! I know it's crazy but I'm out there DOING SOMETHING. I'm running to save lives, to help find a cure for cancer. I'm running for those who can't.

Now, fundraising...that's a different story. I'm getting frustrated about it again. I KNOW anyone could donate a couple bucks, but they DON'T! And I don't understand why! Especially my two oldest sisters, who I love dearly, but who have shown NO INTEREST in helping me whatsoever. They act like they don't even know what I'm doing. It was their mom who died, too. Not just my mom. I would think they would be a little more interested in helping out, especially since they are fully able to.

Once I start talking about money it seems like quite a few people act like they don't even know me. I don't understand this, but I probably never will. I just hope it somehow magically starts to go better. I wanted to totally surpass our fundraising goal but at the moment it looks like we won't even achieve our minimum...

I hope it starts to go better.

Welcome to our Team's Homepage

Welcome to our Team's Homepage

Fundraising is getting there....Mileage is getting up there...

So my paintings for the silent auction are coming along beautifully! The money donations for the food are getting there. I still need to call a few places and check back with them on donations and I need to call a couple places about potentially coming to do wine tasting during the silent auction.

At work I have a "guess how many candies are in the jar" game going on, which people are having quite a bit of fun guessing at. The pool for my marathon time is still going on and I still am collecting change in a large jar, which is filling up nicely.

The running is still going well. Our 9.2 mile run last Saturday was a breeze. This Saturday we have an 18 MILE RUN! I'm kinda scared, though the 16 miler wasn't that hard so I don't know why this one would be either. I can't imagine myself running 18 miles. I'm hoping and assuming that when I get out there it will just be easy. I have discovered that running in the morning first thing is MUCH easier than running at lunch. It's also easier running with friends, than running by yourself.

I will let you guys know how the 18 miler goes!

Silent auction updates

I'm beginning to get really excited about the silent auction. I still don't know if it will raise us enough money but we're off to a great start.

I secured the location completely, and the date I really wanted. It will be a Saturday night, which is great since I don't work on Saturdays. The location is fairly central and has a large space with nice hardwood floors.

I went to Vons today and they donated Vons gift cards which I can use for the food for the event, so that's covered. We don't have to pay anything for the location. I sent out my invite via facebook and started posting it on twitter. I will be getting some big flyers printed out to post in store windows, on bulletin boards, etc. I will also be printing out some 8 1/2 by 11 flyers to pass out at work, at my husbands work, and wherever else.

So it's coming along quite well. I want to have at least 100 people there and raise at least $1000 (MINIMUM). I'm actually going for over $1500 though, which I think is pretty doable if we promote correctly.

As a side note, I'm also really excited about it because it's essentially another art show for me. I haven't had an art show in about 1 1/2 years, and this will be my first "art show" in San Diego. So that, to me, is very exciting.

Our first restaurant fundraiser is tomorrow at Souplantation, so we'll see how that goes. I'm expecting the least turnout for that one, while expecting a large turnout for Rubios next Monday and for the other Souplantation in a week. I will keep everyone updated!

Started some new "fun-raisers"

Today at work I started a pool for people to guess what my marathon finish time will be. It's $10 to guess and I already got $30 from it towards my fundraising today! How fun!

I also got the location for my silent auction finalized (donated by a local coffee shop with a nice, big back room). The space is being donated so I won't have to pay for it, which is awesome. Now I just have to work out the food, which hopefully will be done by Wednesday. I made up an awesome flyer for it today and starting Wednesday will be passing it out, emailing it, posting it where ever I can, etc. I am anticipating most of the remainder of my fundraising coming from this event, if it's promoted correctly. I'm VERY excited about it. It's almost like having another art show! I will be featuring a lot of my art (mostly originals) and other items.

I also have the Rubios fundraiser coming up and two Souplantation fundraisers. I also have another prize drawing going on (the last one for this fundraising). With all of these we should be able to reach our goal, but I am still open for any suggestions so we either have a back up plan or so we beat our goal, which would be AWESOME!

We just ran over 16 miles!

WOW, I can't believe we did that.

I've been sick for three days now with the flu, just barely beginning to feel better yesterday. Last night my husband and I both slept horribly! The baby was up a good portion of the night. Yet we still got up at 6 this morning, dropped her off at the baby sitter, and went out running along the harbor.

It was a beautiful run. My husband took off ahead of me, as usual. I paced myself well and didn't start to really feel the run until about mile 10. By mile 14 I wasn't sure if I could run anymore, but I did it. I kept going, running all the way through the end. I am so amazed at both my husband and I.

Of course my legs are EXTREMELY sore now and I can hardly walk, but I'm so proud of myself. I just have to realize every time I go run that there are people who CAN'T run. I am so lucky that I can run. I am proud at what I am doing, though I still think it's crazy. I am running and raising money to save lives. How many people can say that?

How many lives are my actions saving exactly? I have no idea. But I plan on doing this year after year, for as long as I can, to contribute as much as I can and save as many lives as possible.

Second prize drawing is complete

Did the second prize drawing today. I raised $65 from it total, which is no where near what I wanted to raise, but definitely better than nothing. I think it's really funny how much I enjoy giving out all the prizes. Almost everyone who bought an entry won something, how awesome is that?

I will be doing probably one more prize drawing, which I already have a few prizes for. I will do that one near the end of May, before our deadline obviously, to give myself more time to collect more prizes and entries. I also have some different prizes in the works, so it will be more unique. I'm putting together a spa package, trying to get some tanning packages, of course more Starbucks and more art. I want to also try to get some movie tickets and more restaurant donations, like Souplantation gift certs, pizza gift certs, etc. I want there to be LOTS of prizes.

I am also now collecting for a silent auction, which will be more expensive prizes in general, like a large Starbucks gift basket, original art work, maybe a wine basket? We shall see. Any suggestions are welcome.

Have hit a bit of a wall

The fund raising seems to have majorly slowed down and I'm not sure how to get it back up and running again. I am starting to worry, we only have 1 1/2 months left to raise about $2500. That's a LOT. I would love to surpass our goal but right now I'm so worried about making it.

This prize drawing has only raised about $60 or so. Not nearly what I wanted to raise. I don't know why it's raised so little, I have so many awesome prizes!

I did arrange three fund raisers at restaurants, one at Rubios and two at two different Souplantations. I am getting a lot of help from friends on promoting these, which I'm very greatful for. I hope to be able to raise at least $150 from these, cumulatively.

I need to move forward with the poker night we want to plan. I need to finalize the details within the next week and start promoting it like crazy, I think I can raise about $200-$300 from that.

I am also planning a silent auction, but have no idea about a location yet. Clara Berta, an AMAZING artist and person, already donated a beautiful painting for this, without me even asking. I need to start getting some donations for this (I am hoping for higher end items for this).

So if anyone has any advice, suggestions, feedback, etc. please let me know. Thanks!