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…