Holy bat-biscuits, Batman!

Begin the countdown – no, really. One month from today. One month!!! That seems crazy to me. I can’t believe I’ll be in Seattle running a MARATHON in a mere four weeks. Time has flown by. I just hope I’m ready…

More posts to come. I realize I’ve been a major slacker in the blogging department – which is odd, because it seems all I think about when I’m running is how I’m going to describe my thoughts and feelings for that particular outing.

One month. It’s real, people.

Sunburn Update

In sunburn news, I no longer have cankles. The swelling in my feet finally went down yesterday – after three whole days of keeping my feet elevated and applying a fresh cold compress every 15 minutes. My mom and grandmother were so worried they made me go to the doctor on Tuesday to get the swelling examined, even though I knew they would just tell me I’d have to wait it out (which they did). But to be honest, I was starting to get a little worried too. I’ve never experienced swelling as a side effect of a sunburn in all my years as a pasty redhead, but apparently it’s quite common.

Of course my latest run-in with the sun has put me behind on my running schedule by four days, which really sucks. I was doing so well the last two weeks and then I had this very preventable setback. I got back out there this morning for a short three-mile run, and it was slow-going. I plan to run three again tomorrow and then jump to 13 on Saturday – let’s hope I can do it!

The Joys and Stresses of Fundraising

It’s been awhile since I’ve given an update on my fundraising, so I thought I would let everyone know that I’ve reached $1,482 in personal donations! Add my cut of the boot block earnings from last Saturday, and I’m sitting at almost $1,700! I couldn’t be more thankful to everyone who’s donated – I never thought that people would be so giving, so it’s been a wonderful experience to receive so much support.

I haven’t had as much luck with my fundraisers, however. I’m supposed to be hosting an event at Buffalo Wild Wings on Monday, but have hit a few road blocks. The first, and most glaring, is the fact that I’ve yet to receive the fundraiser flyers from BWW’s manager – which is a big problem because no flyer = no fundraiser. Participants must bring in a flyer for BWW to donate 15% of its sales to LLS, so I’m really starting to worry about when I’ll receive them. Especially since I’m not allowed to email the flyers out – Brandon (the manager) stressed that they MUST be originals, so I have no idea how I’m going to distribute these things by Monday.

I called the restaurant yesterday to ask for an update on the flyers, but learned that Brandon wasn’t there and wouldn’t be in till Friday. Friday?!? I immediately sent an email expressing my concerns and am now anxiously awaiting his reply. But at this point, I’m almost considering canceling or moving the event to a different date. I’ve hardly spread the word about it since I couldn’t tell people when or how they could get a flyer, or give them a definite time frame for the event. Brandon was unable to give me a time frame because he said he would have to wait and see what “corporate” says.

And response to the fundraiser has been lukewarm at best. The facebook event I sent out was – and I hate using this phrase – an epic fail. I’ve had 8 people, not including myself and Tom (who won’t be there anyway since he lives in KC), confirm their attendance. Let’s compare that to the 69 people and counting who have declined. Yikes. So who knows what’s going to happen…

I have another fundraiser coming up at Chili’s on the 26th. It’s the same premise as the one at BWW – all people have to do is bring in the fundraiser flyer, enjoy a tasty meal, and Chili’s will donate 10% of their sales to LLS. Chili’s has been much more cooperative with me on putting together the flyers – plus, I’m allowed to email them out, so already I’m feeling much more confident about this event. And I have tons of ideas to get the word out, so hopefully my plans will all fall into place. My only concern is that the Chili’s event is the day after my team fundraiser at Heroes, which may send people into fundraiser overload.

Even so, I’m still looking forward to both. The team fundraiser is already shaping up to be a successful event – my teammates have been working really hard to get posters and flyers made at the best price, so I’m ready to step up big time when they're ready to be distributed. And I’m thinking we’re going to have a pretty positive response –a half-price burger with a $5 donation to LLS is just a darn good deal.

But if I could do any fundraiser, anything at all, I would want to partner with Victoria Secret’s PINK line. I already have the slogan: Wear Pink, Support Purple (since purple is TNT’s main color). I think it would be the perfect partnership since 73% of TNT participants are women with an average age of 32, and PINK clothes are very popular among younger women. Of course I have no idea how the logistics of this partnership would work out, but I can dream, right?

Upcoming fundraising events in a nutshell:

April 12: Buffalo Wild Wings
Just present the flyer to your server, and BWW in New Market Square will donate 15% of their sales to LLS. At least I hope so…

April 25: Half-price Burgers at Heroes
Enjoy a half-price burger at Heroes with a $5 donation to LLS. Special runs from 12:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

April 26: Chili's
Just present the flyer to your server, and Chili's will donate 10% of their sales to LLS. The fundraiser runs from 4:00 to 10:00 p.m. at both the east and west side locations in Wichita.

May 6: Sonic at Maple and Tyler
Don't you bring that weak tot action! Sonic will donate 10% of their sales from 4:30 to 9:00 p.m. - no flyer or coupon required!

And as always, you can donate at my fundraising page at the link to the right :)

Firsts

So I experienced a trio of firsts yesterday: two good, one bad. The first first was participating in Wichita’s annual Easter Sun Run, a 10 K (6.2 miles) race in Sedgwick County Park. The race went pretty well – I finished in an hour and three minutes, meeting my target pace of a 10-minute mile. Though I reached my goal, I realized that I still have a bit (um, a lot) of catching up to do in comparison with my TNT teammates. Those girls are awesome! – they all completed the race in under an hour, but still met me at the finish line to congratulate me on my run. Certainly something Megan ‘The Caboose’ Mills can aspire to.

After the race, we headed over to Central and Hillside for our boot block fundraiser, which was my first official TNT fundraiser of the season. We spread out on each corner of the intersection asking for donations from drivers and made almost $1,000! At best I thought we would collect $800, so I was pleasantly surprised with the final total. It was great to see how willing people were to donate – and of course most of the drivers who gave were those that you’d least expect. Some interesting donations:

The handoff. A young guy making a left turn held out his money for me to catch as I stood on the median. He didn’t slow down, but drove within arms-reach and held his donation out the window for me to snatch. Our successful handoff was legen – wait for it! – dary.

The comeback. A woman, who had a green light, stopped to tell us that she didn’t have any money but would come back with a donation. Thinking ‘yeah right’ I was shocked when she returned less than an hour later with cash to contribute. How awesome!

The grrrr. An older man, who seemed to have locked his door on me earlier, handed me a dollar and said the only reason he was donating was because he and his wife were University of Northern Iowa alums (Tom and I were wearing KU gear). Suppressing the desire to tell him he and his measly buck could hit the road, I thanked him for his donation and told him to have a good day…in hell! Not really, but I thought about it.

Even though the 5-hour fundraiser was tiring, I had a great time. It was a wonderful bonding experience with my teammates and it felt good to raise that much money and encounter so many giving people in such a small amount of time. I kept the good feelings going on the drive home by donating to a man on the side of the road who was trying to collect money to get back to Austin, TX. He was so nice and so grateful for my $5 donation – it made me wish I had given him the rest of my cash as I thought about him the rest of the way home.

The only downside to yesterday’s fundraiser was the severe sunburn I incurred – my first of the year. Sunscreen and I have a very intimate relationship, but I tried to hang with the cool kids yesterday and neglected to put sunscreen on my legs and feet. I am now radiating heat from the knees down and am sporting two VERY swollen feet. Seriously, they look like two honey hams with ten little stubby sausages connected to the ends. I’ve been icing and applying aloe vera throughout the day, but I think it’ll be a few days before I can walk normally and fully extend my legs. Melanoma, here I come!

Catching Up

Two and a half weeks have passed since my last post, so I have a lot of catching up to do.

Briefly, I’ll tell you about my new shoes. At the beginning of the year, I went to Gary Gribble's in Kansas City to purchase my first official pair of running shoes. They seemed great at first, but after three miles gave me a feeling of intense pressure on the toes of my right foot. The pain became so bad during one of my long runs that I had to stop after 8 miles and walk home barefoot.

So I went back to Mr. Gribble's about three weeks ago to figure out what was wrong, and it turns out that the shoes were a half-size too small. And also too narrow. The man helping me said that my foot doesn’t begin to taper where most peoples’ do, so he put me in a 9 ½ wide. Now my feet have tons of room to expand and my runs are pain-free – well, for the most part.

And now, onto new teammates! Two weeks ago, I received a phone call from my mentor, Meg Sytnick, wanting to set up a meeting with my fellow TNT teammates. At that point, I had no idea that Meg was my mentor or that I had specific teammates besides everyone in the Kansas Chapter, so I went to our meeting not sure what to expect. And I met three wonderful women! But I didn’t learn how great they were until our team run the following Saturday.

I showed up to the team run planning to do 12 miles, but bumped it up to 13 after learning that the majority of the people in my running group were shooting for the baker’s dozen. And it was TOUGH. Let me set the stage by admitting that I hadn’t completed a long run in three weeks due to inclement weather, a visit from Tom, and general laziness, so my legs were in for a shock. And also, the furthest I had gone in my training was 8 miles, so adding 5 on to that in one fell swoop was quite a shock to my system.

The first 10 miles went surprisingly well, but then I really started to struggle during the last three. Mutiny was running through my mind once we hit 12, but Hannah, Michele, Yvette and a few other TNT members kept me going by slowing their pace so that I wouldn’t have to finish the mileage alone. I really didn’t think I could do it, but the last half-mile was a breeze with their encouragement. I almost felt like crying – something I hardly do unless I’m watching a Pixar film – after finishing because I had exceeded my own expectations and reached a HUGE milestone in my training.

And I know I couldn’t have done it without my teammates’ support. I’ve now pledged to make it to every team run from here on out so that I don’t miss any more opportunities to get to know these fantastic ladies. Thanks again, girls!

Wowza!

I have raised $1,037 so far, and that's just from personal donations! Thank you so much, everyone, for your support!

Clueless on the Countdown

And does anyone know how to set this silly countdown feature?

I have tried to program it a million times, but it always erases my settings. Grrr…

Motivation: Ugh.

When they say running is 90% mental, they’re not lying. And the hardest part is convincing myself to get out the door.

The weather has finally started to cooperate, so I can no longer rely on “it’s too cold!” for my hermit-like behavior. Last week I ran two days (just two!) and for no reason other than the couch seemed more pleasant than the pavement. I think my past running experience may have also played a part. Somehow, my two years on the cross country team in high school (junior varsity) and the 10-mile race I ran in November (back of the pack) have convinced me to believe I could skip several days of the TNT training schedule.

But no more. Now that we’re approaching the 10-mile mark, I’ve realized that I have got to be more consistent in my training – especially if I want to accomplish my goal of completing the marathon without walking. So I dragged myself outside on Tuesday for an incredibly rough 3-mile run. Seriously, one of the worst 3 miles of my life. I’m sure I looked like an old lady shuffling along rather than a vibrant 24-year-old.

So I REALLY wasn’t looking forward to Wednesday’s 6-mile run. I put it off all day until 4:30 when I decided that it was either now or never.

And it was like night and day.

My legs felt strong and powerful as they carried me throughout my small town. The neighborhoods seemed to fly by as one mile quickly turned into two, and two into three. I was disappointed I had to stop to drop Cooper (our family dog) off after 4 miles, and worried that I wouldn’t be able to maintain that same rhythm. But my legs picked up right where they left off. I felt so good, I even managed to “race” a little kid I came upon while walking with his dad. It was a great feeling, and one I hope to experience more often as I continue to train.

But I’m already dreading today’s 4 miles. You’d think I’d have more confidence after yesterday’s run, but alas… If only I shared Thornton Thompson’s feelings about running. This passage was taken from his inspired and beautifully-written blog at thorntonpondcrossing.blogspot.com:

I love to run, but telling people why is the problem. How do you describe the appeal of such a masochistic activity? It is 5-6 miles of discomfort, in weather that is often barely bearable, and completely without any sort of redeeming teleology. My body aches and my lungs burn. 20 years from now, I probably won't be able to walk because my knees will be completely broken.

It is truly an addiction, with all the accompanying side effects, including withdrawal. Three or four days without a run and I get anxious and irritable, hyperactive but lazy. Is it worth it?

...

Have you ever felt elevated above the mundanity of normal-ness? Where excitement, adventure, happiness, all the possibilities of life seem not just accessible but easily so?

When I run, those feelings swell within me like a song's gradual crescendo. Each step I take is another instrument joining the verse; I can feel chorus lifting me, and I soar, miles above the pavement with Adidas wings.

It's a song without words, rhythm, tempo, or melody, but I can hear it nonetheless. It emanates from everything, as if God himself was urging me onward. The little stresses and anxieties of the day become ethereal; ghosts without any power to worry me. But this isn't anesthesia; while my sorrows fade, the joys become brighter and more coherent. The music reminds me how funny that joke was, and how that girl's smile draws my eyes from across hallways.

Though I run towards nowhere in particular, I approach something. The air shimmers, parts, and through it the music shows me past, present, and future happiness. I see all my triumphs and my delights coalesce and join the music, become the music.

I am laughing aloud with jubilation and exhalation and I see the music spreading to everything my eyes touch. I run faster. I thank the music and it your-welcomes me with slight modulations in its toneless tone.

I lied before. My lungs don't burn, they hum with power, an electric generator in my chest. My knees don't hurt. How could they, when I'm running through air? The smiles I get are from the people who hear, just for a second, their own music through me.

...

The sun goes back behind the clouds (did it ever really emerge?). The air becomes opaque again (?)

I am drenched in sweat, chilled to the bone, with knees that will not survive the next 20 years.

But the music, though slowed and steadied, pulses lightly. In the wind I hear its non-existent melody, and in my friend's laugh I feel it's beat-less rhythm. "Come find me," it says- song without words-. "I'll be waiting."

If only…

Letters!

I have FINALLY sent out my fundraising letters today - about time! I went through so many versions trying to find the right words, but I think I'm happy with my final draft. I hope the recipients are too :) I must give a shout-out to Miss Susan Fleming for her great ideas of printing the letters on neon-colored paper and sending them in cute, polka-dot envelopes - they'll definitely catch some people's attention!

And an update on Sonic: they have offered to give me 10% of their sales on my fundraising days - 10%! That's amazing! I was sure the percentage would be closer to 5, so it was quite a pleasant surprise to learn they'd donate so much. I just have to decide on a day, and we'll be in business!

Fundraising Possibility

I have a meeting on Friday with a manager at a local Sonic Drive-In to discuss fundraising opportunities! Sonic supports several community-giving programs, both locally and nationally. If you'd like to learn about their programs, click here:

http://www.sonicdrivein.com/business/giving/index.jsp

For my event, Sonic will allow me to take home a percentage of a certain day's net sales - we just have to negotiate which day and what percentage. I'm very excited to possibly partner with Sonic for my first fundraising event, I think it could be a hit!

I'll post details about the event Friday afternoon.

My First Donation

I officially received my first donation Saturday night! And from the most unlikely of sources...

After work Saturday evening, I headed over to Carlos O’ Kelly's to meet my family for an early dinner. I got there much earlier than they did, but was immediately seated in a booth way in the back. To my surprise, my waiter, Brandon, sat right down to say hello and we soon struck up a (somewhat) random conversation that eventually turned to what degree Brandon is pursuing. He said that he’s studying biology with the intention of going into genetics to cure cancer – or “create a virus to destroy the human race,” if he’s feeling particularly diabolical.

I saw his career choice as an opportunity to work my fundraising spiel, and told him that if he was into curing cancer, then he should donate to my cause!

His response was less than encouraging: “So you’re one of those people?”

Well after that, I thought my chances were over until the end of the meal when my family and I were getting up to leave. He told me to wait, then handed me $10 from his server book! I was shocked – I couldn’t believe he was willing to sacrifice a portion of his income for the night to help a total stranger.

Was it my charm, my stunningly good looks, my amazing presentation of my cause?

Unlikely.

But no matter the reason, his donation was greatly appreciated and very encouraging. I can only hope that others are as generous as I continue to fundraise.

In training news, it’s freakin’ cold! It’s currently 27 degrees and I’m cowering indoors under two blankets and a heating pad. I haven’t ventured out to run for three days, and without a membership to a gym, this weather is really putting a cramp in my training schedule. I’m determined to run today, but I’m not gonna like it…

Up and Running!

Hello, blogosphere!

After days of putting "create blog" on my to-do list, I'm finally getting around to joining the millions of other bloggers on the web, and I'm excited to tell you why. It is my idea that "Mills Runs Miles" will serve to chronicle an exciting and challenging adventure: running a marathon. That's right, a marathon!

To best complete my goal, I've joined the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training program. TNT is the world's first and largest charity sports training program that exists to find a cure for blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma and to improve the quality of life of patients and their families. The opportunity to contribute to a great cause while accomplishing such a huge life goal was too tempting to resist, and so I've been a member of TNT's Kansas chapter since early February.

Each participant pledges to raise a certain amount of money during the 4 or 5 months they train for their event in exchange for training, travel costs, and hotel stays. The $3,600 I've pledged to raise for Seattle's Rock 'N' Roll Marathon on June 26, 2010 seems more daunting than running 26.2 miles, but I am excited for the challenge!

If you would like to donate to my cause, please visit my fundraising website at:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/ks/rnrseatl10/mmillswy2z

And check back often for updates on my training and fundraising progress - I'll make sure to keep you posted!