The General Point.

TNT

Those of you who have been reading my blog know that this whole half-marathon thing is really a bee in my bonnet. I think I first started talking about doing this about two years ago, or maybe a bit earlier — I think the first half-marathon I seriously considered was in November 2008. And no one can forget the saga that was pseudo-training for the SF half this year. I bored you to death about it, I think. Well, here we go again. 

A month or so ago, I bit the bullet and signed up for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training. I thought everyone knew what TNT was but turns out they don’t, especially if they don’t work at Google or live in SF, and sometimes even then. So for those of you who don’t already know, it’s a non-profit group that trains people for endurance events (marathons, century rides, triathlons, etc.) while raising money to fight against blood cancers like leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. 

I’ve known tons of friends who have done events with TNT, and they all tell me that it’s an awesome way to get started with your first endurance event. So despite a few reservations, I signed up. Next February 6, Super Bowl Sunday 2011, I’ll run the Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Half Marathon. At least, in theory — but we must be upbeat, right?

Now comes the fundraising part. My personal fundraising commitment, which I need to raise by Jan 20, is $1,800. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society has invested more than $600 million in blood cancer research since 1949. Every four minutes someone is diagnosed with a blood cancer, and every 10 minutes someone dies of one. Every donation made to Team in Training helps accelerate finding a cure for these cancers. Plus, advances in treatment of blood cancer can help in other cancer research as well.

So… I hope you will consider helping me reach my fundraising goal and my goal of running this damn race. It’s hard for me to ask for this type of thing, but I’ll really appreciate anything you can do. You can do it in a couple of ways:

• If you want to double your donation, you can donate directly to me (everyone reading this has my email, anyway — you can paypal me, or give me a check or cash next time you see me, or if you don’t have my email somehow you can post a comment and we’ll get in touch) and I can donate in my name, and then I get matching gift from the Googs. This is totally kosher, turns out. 
• Or you can donate at my personal fundraising page: http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/sfhalf11/ewoodz