Runners World Hood to Coast Relay Contest Win - My Thanks



This would be why my Twitter feed was crazy yesterday!

 My Twitter feed yesterday was blowing up, and I wanted to thank everyone who has congratulated me. Here's the details behind the amazing experience of a lifetime that has been the last couple weeks and will again be that August 26-27, 2011!

So when Runners World tweeted June 13 about doing a push for people to fundraise for cancer organizations, I looked into it.

I signed up because
1) I hadn't fundraised for a specific cause since raising about $4000 for Susan G. Komen for the 3-Day Walk in 2005, and
2) I thought that I would do it for 2 weeks to test the waters for possibly a larger fundraising campaign for a specific event in the future. I felt like I had a pretty broad network - but a broad network doesn't mean a close network.

I looked through all the charities and chose the Bear Necessities Pediatric Cancer Foundation. I researched them on Charity Navigator and liked what I saw. It was important to me that it be a significant organization but still a small-funded non-profit and that a high percentage went straight to the cause.

I noticed the Runners World Outrunning Cancer contest connected to this that the top fundraiser by June 30 would win a spot on the Runners World team with Bart Yasso for the Hood to Coast Relay race in August. However, this is Runners World we're talking about. Their reach is far and mighty. I expected hundreds would be fundraising.

During the first week, it was a chance to see the openness of my friends to donate for a cause I cared about. When after a week I was like the 5th highest fundraiser, I actually started to get excited about the Hood to Coast Relay contest because I realized there was actually a chance at being top fundraiser. I was baffled, and saddened, that there weren't the 100s fundraising I had expected.

When June 30, through my personal fundraiser, $1475 had been donated to the Bear Necessities Pediatric Cancer Foundation. Since I did pick a smaller non-profit, I'm so excited for them, hoping this money can go far for helping Bear Necessities mission to eliminate pediatric cancer and provide hope and support for those who are touched by it!

The next day I found out that I was the top fundraiser and was getting the spot on the Hood to Coast team. I was elated.  Then I had to sit on it for 12 days until they announced it yesterday!

THANK YOU to everyone for their cheers and congratulations across Twitter yesterday. I promise to take lots of pictures, tweet and Facebook status the weekend through, and blog it up afterwards. August 26-27: it will be here before I can even blink. BUT... you can still donate to the cause as well. The fundraising page is always up and Bear Necessities would be happy for your 5 minutes it takes to donate and the $20 from your wallet that can change lives. Donate here...

THANK YOU to Runner's World for promoting charity for others through their Outrunning Cancer campaign on Crowdrise! And for the prizes you have put into the campaign, both for donors and for the fundraisers. I am so appreciative of the once-in-a-lifetime experience you have afforded me to get to participate in the Hood to Coast Relay and with what will be memorable teammates!


THANK YOU to all the wonderful friends that donated. And in terms of fundraising for a charity for a specific race in the future, I learned a lot.

• Random people can surprise you. Wonderful folks, like @LifeisaRun and @elletizol, who I have never even met, we're just twitter friends. Yet they took several minutes out of their day to take a little from their wallet to help these kids. Your gesture touched me immensely.
• Runners get hit up for donations a lot, and pay-it-forward doesn't always happen. I'm pretty good about donating when friends personally ask for their fundraising campaign to be able to go do a specific event, but life gets busy or circumstances change, and those aren't always the donors you then get yourself. Good mental note!
• The people you consider your very best friends can surprise you. A couple people who I would consider some of my closest friends surprised me by not donating, even with repeated requests. A note for others: donating $10 to a good friend's chosen cause leaves a much different taste in their mouth than not donating at all. It's not completely about the donation amount, it's about making it a small priority for such a small time commitment to make the donation. To those friends, I still love you, but it definitely threw me for a loop.

So again, this charity Bear Necessities is always accepting donations, and you can donate NOW. Have a different favorite charity? Since they are on your mind now, 5 minutes to make a quick $20 donation on their online donation website would be a great thing to do right now! We can all give $20 - it's a week of Starbucks, or a week of bringing lunch to work instead of going out.

Biggest Week's Mileage to Date

And with my last long run of the training before my first marathon at the San Francisco Marathon, I also hit my new "most miles run in a week" record with 41.3 miles! Saturday was a 20.5 mile run, and then I even went out Sunday to do 6 more on trails. Read about it on the San Francisco Marathon blog.

Time to taper for 3 weeks, and then the dreaded, or highly anticipated, race day!

Halfway Thru the Year - Time to Check-in

2011 is already halfway over. I added up my miles, and I'm at 544.4! To put in perspective, I finished 2010 with 426.4. 2009 was 457.2 miles. So this is a huge increase for me.

Little goals since I've already way surpassed previous years. Let's shoot for passing 1,000 miles, mmkay? Basically, just stay on target for the training for my races through the end of the year and that should be totally doable. That may even be on the low end. A harder-to-reach goal might be 1,300 miles. So I'll keep that number on the horizon as well.

It's 4 weeks to the San Francisco Marathon. My last big 20 mile run is this coming Saturday. Then a nice 3 week taper and race day! I can't wait to complete my first 26.2-mile race, my first marathon, and see what all this fuss is about. ;-) Maybe I'll hate the distance, maybe I'll love it. Maybe I'll want to only ever do half marathons again. Maybe it'll be all about the destination marathon after this. Who knows? It's crazy how much unknown seems to rest at that finish line for me.

No Plans for 2012... Yet

Between lotteries and extremely early sellouts, there is much activity in the running world surrounding 2012 races. We're not even halfway through 2011!

It's easy to feel a little left out and lost as people announced they got into the Houston Marathon today after lottery picks were sent out this morning. But I think I'm being smart to not commit to anything yet for 2012.

I'm running my first marathon in just 5 weeks and have a few more goals through the end of 2011. But I want to see how I feel about my running the next several months before I start putting together a plan for the next year. Because right now, I have no clue what my goals will be for 2012, short distance or long distance, focus on speed or miles on legs, etc.

Until then though, I feel a little left behind as people start making future plans. Gotta stay focused on the now!

Because You Don't Need a Reason to Raise Money for a Good Cause

I'm setting out on a two week mission to change lives and just need 5 minutes of your time plus $20 from your pocket, less than a week's worth of Starbucks coffee for most of us. DONATE NOW


Who?

I'm fundraising donations for a wonderful organization, the Bear Necessities Pediatric Cancer Foundation, whose critical, nationwide mission is to eliminate pediatric cancer and provide hope and support to those who are touched by it. DONATE NOW

Why?

Why not? No, I'm not tying this to any sort of 6-month fundraising project with a goal race at the end of the timeline. Instead, I'm dedicating until the end of June to raising money for this amazing cause - just because! DONATE NOW

One of Bear Necessities' programs is BEAR HUGs.

Ella, age 5, is battling Leukemia but spent time w/ friends

& family at Build-A-Bear and Rainforest Cafe for her Bear Hug!

Before June 30th?

The timeline is purposely short to keep you from procrastinating, and I'm not going to email 40 followup donor request over multiple months - I'm asking you to click the link immediately and just go ahead and please DONATE NOW.

Thank you for your time and for your donation!

If the links above don't work for you, use this link instead:
http://www.crowdrise.com/teambear/fundraiser/libbyjones

Thanks everyone! It's always good to take a moment to think of someone else!

Criticism is an Often Feared Reaction to Action

Today's Quote:

While action exposes you to criticism, inaction exposes you to a life only half-lived.

I had a lightbulb moment yesterday for a new race idea. I was really excited and even put thoughts and research to paper and put together a 3 page outline with all kinds of details. I don't really need to be taking on a new race right now though. I mentioned on Twitter that this had occurred and asked "why can't I just lay low?" It led to a fun little conversation with Twitter friend Leslie where I don't know how to lay low. I'm about following my passion. Yes, I'm not the best at race production, but I enjoy it, feel like it has helped others, and think that I do it well enough to benefit the running community. However, even if you do great things, any action exposes you to criticism. But that's no reason to avoid living and following your passion!