Travel day is here. Normally I would not find a nine hour car ride a lot of fun, but today is going to be even more challenging. The weather! Tons of wind and rain to travel through today, but my 80 year old Father will be waiting my arrival once I cross the state line into NY. That will get me through it!
I worked extremely early in the morning the last few days, so I didn’t get a lot of sleep. Last night I went to bed fairly early, to try to catch up before my journey begins in a few hours. What’s left? All of my packing. Not just race packing, but vacation packing. Packing for being gone nearly a week. My plan is to be out the door in about two hours. Yep, waiting for rush hour to be over before heading out on my way north.
Regardless of my long drive today, I am very excited. This trip, this race, has been a long time in the making. I still can’t believe that I am actually running the New York City Marathon this Sunday. An epic race, represented by runners from 139 countries around the world. Should a 45 year old man be this giddy about running a race? Eh, I don’t care if it seems odd, but I am truly excited abut it.
I really owe a lot of thanks to my charity partner, the James Blake Foundation, as they are the real reason I am running this race. They accepted me onto their charity team back in February, and I have been fundraising for them ever since. Quite a long journey, and an unfamiliar one at that. I have never been on a charity team before, or even raised money for anything other than selling cookies or booster stickers for little league when I was 8 or 9 years old. This has truly been a unique experience. Challenging, and unique. I’ve have learned that it’s not easy convincing people to part with their hard earned money. I guess it’s about being relentless in driving a cause that you feel passionate about. But, I am passionate about this charity, and running.
Setting a goal of $3,000 to fundraise over the course of several months was my top priority. As of the moment of this post, I have raised $2,311. Yes, I am just $689 away from my goal, with the help of these amazing folks!
That’s the back of my charity team race shirt that I will be wearing this Sunday during the race. *hint, hint, there’s still tons of room for more names. I haven’t even started putting names on my sleeves yet!
So, now that I have exactly two hours before leaving home, one more shout out and push for donations. Don’t worry, just because I am leaving home, you still have time to donate. Plus, I am taking my markers with me, so that I can put your name on my shirt even at the last minute before heading to the start line on Sunday. Here is the link to donate. 100% of donations go directly to the James Blake Foundation supporting cancer research.
Thanks everybody, and see y in New York!
Running Wild 