Running for Charity?
As I’m sure you know (or could at least assume), I am ridiculously excited to have registered for the Boston Marathon in April 2010. While browsing the Boston Marathon website, I stumbled upon the charity page, which is mainly targeted at people who have not qualified for the marathon but still want to run it. You can apply for a spot on a charity team, raise some money, and run Boston anyway. While I’m a little torn on whether you should run Boston without qualifying (On one hand, it is for qualified runners, but on the other hand…that’s a lot of money for charity! I’m not going to lose sleep over it), I think it’s great that people run and raise money for charity. I actually thought about running Chicago in 2008 for charity (and negating any attempts at a PR), but then nursing school got the best of me and I decided that a super accelerated nursing program + working on the weekends + commuting + obscene amounts of studying probably didn’t add up to a “fun” marathon. Looking at the Philadelphia Marathon website, I couldn’t really find any charity that I was excited about. If I’m going to attempt to fundraise, I might as well be passionate about what I’m trying to get people to donate to!
So anyway, back to Boston. On the charity program website, a couple charities strike me as exciting. These mainly include anything involved with health and wellness, those that promote healthy living. (No surprise there!) My favorite is GoKids Boston, which is described as:
GoKids Boston is a state-of-the art youth fitness research and training center located at UMASS Boston. Established in 2007 in collaboration with the Children’s Hospital Boston, GoKids serves to advance the science and clinical practice of improving physical activity and well-being in kids and families. Through research and community outreach programs, they provide participants with personalized instruction and support to become physically active, improve fitness, eat nutritiously, and gain self-confidence. Their particular emphasis is on reducing health-disparities in underserved school-aged children and teens.
Since I’m all about preventative health so I don’t have to see you in the hospital for chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, COPD, etc, this seems like an awesome program to promote healthy living in the children of Boston who need it most.
However, I’m a little nervous about jumping into this. I’m absolutely terrible at asking people for money. As a girl scout, I felt terrible selling cookies (and everyone loves Girl Scout Cookies!). When we would fundraise for student groups in high school, I never wanted to carry around boxes of candy to sell. This is probably why I will never get a job in sales…when you say no once, I’m won’t try to convince you anymore. Mainly because that’s how I would want to be treated. While I’m sure I have generous friends and family, I think I’d still feel bad asking for money. I could come up with creative ways to collect money, such as a bake sale (OF COURSE) or go to a restaurant or something and have some of the proceeds donated, but I don’t know that many people around here to invite to things such as that! I’m probably just making excuses, but I don’t want to commit to something I can’t follow through on.
So, basically, for those of you who have run for charity (you know who you are!), any tips or suggestions? It’s something I would love to do, but it makes me nervous! I’m sure I’m just overthinking it and it would be fine in the end…and totally worthwhile, of course. Let me know your thoughts…I’d love to hear them!
****************************************************************************************
Taper week continued with a cold, rainy four mile run yesterday. It actually wasn’t as bad as I thought as I ran along in my long sleeve shirt and running skirt (which I haven’t worn in FOREVER…still undecided on my feelings about the running skirt). My legs warmed up and were good to go, just in time for me to arrive home. This gives me hope for an early start (seven in the morning!) for the marathon, when I’m sure it will be a bit chilly no matter what the high for the day is expected to be. I just hope it doesn’t suddenly become 20 degrees! No tights for me, please.
Thursday, November 12
4.07 miles in 31:06, avg pace of 7:39
Feeling good for marathon day! A little bit nervous, but it’s going to be fun no matter what. Right? Yes.
***************************************************************************************
GIVEAWAY!
One of my faaaaavorite bloggers, Erika from DrTriRunner, is hosting a Popchips giveaway! While I’ve only had the Salt and Pepper flavor (not a huge fan…it was a sample from the Healthy Living Summit!), I do have some cheddar flavored popchips that I can’t wait to dig into. I love the texture. 
I would be thrilled to try some more flavors…yum!
i ran my first marathon for charity. i loved it because i was completely new to running so i learned SO much! i also met two of the girls i still run with all the time (tara and kristin) so that was the best! it can be a little stressful raising money, but it wasnt that hard for me.
That is the same reason I am hesitant on running for charity – I HATE trying to persuade people. I hate asking for money.
I feel the SAME way as you. I hate asking people for money, especially in the economy now. The MS ride I did in October was a fundraising event and I needed at least $300 to be eligible to ride. I started out e-mailing my family and close friends then finally said “To hell with it” and sent out something via FB. I was surprised/astonished/blown away with the donations I received and the people I received them from! It was so easy to do it by FB and also kept it a little impersonal, but then I followed up with a personal e-mail to everyone I got donations from. I think you should definitely think about the charity! Do it for the kids!
I’ve never entered a race as a charity runner.. but I’ve definitely run charity RACES. I’m all about supporting a good cause, but like you, I would be nervous I wouldn’t raise the money in time or something.
Don’t jump at it just yet – you could very easily be qualifying yourself pretty shortly here!!! Not that it wouldn’t be great to run for a charity, but that might be a little extra pressure that I’m sure you don’t need just now.
p.s. THANKKK YOU for the link love!! Every little bit helps a lot!
OH my god I just threw up in my mouth a little. Have you seen Dodgeball? That closing scene after the credits.. Milkshake..? First time I saw this movie.. didn’t know it was coming! Definitely not sleeping tonight.