Track Me (and Donate!)

Another great day to donate! Two marathons and two charities! Let's raise a combined $6,500 for cancer research through Fred's Team and low-income seniors with Housing Opportunities and Maintenance for the Elderly (H.O.M.E.)!

Donate to H.O.M.E. here (write in "marathon" in note section). Donate to Fred's Team here. 

It's back! This week, donation matching up to $250. Make your donation go twice as far. Donate today!

Don't forget to track my marathon progress on your phone! Especially if you are coming to see me run. This way you'll know roughly when I will arrive at your location. You won't need to stand outside for hours on end. In fact, if you plan it right it will just be a few minutes. That said, watching a marathon is pretty fun.  So get out there early and cheer for a bunch of random strangers.

How to find the tracking app.

At the moment I'm debating how much of this marathon I will run and how much I will jog/walk/slog. I'm still not completely over my cold from last week. My nose is a bit stuffed. I have a cough and I feel generally not great.

I will be very disappointed if I have to take it easy this time. Or rather, there is no taking it easy in a marathon. I'll be disappointed if I have to exhaust myself for a really slow time. I've wanted to improve my time so badly. I put in the miles the stretching, the resting, and the eating, all to reach my goal. And then in Portland the heavy rain and the extra long course through me. And now a few ill-timed colds may do the same in New York. 

I suppose there is always next year. But I'd rather be able to give the race everything - and fail - than to not be able to try. Fortunately there are still a few more days to go.

Needing extra encouragement I like looking back to happy times and things. The above photo is my first trip to Mt Hood. We camped overnight in this meadow on about 6-7 feet of snowpack. We played in the surrounding woods and as far up as we could get safely get on the mountain. I say "played" instead of hike because trail markers must have been too expensive. If we were ever on any trail it was by accident. Fortunately, the mountain provided a pretty good frame of reference.

And this of course was the 2014 NYC marathon. I wasn't sick, but I was freezing! This is from pretty early in the race. You can tell because I'm smiling.