On the eve of Christmas Eve, it is with much happiness that I report to you all and let you know that I have reached my fundraising goal! So thank you!!

This could only have been possible with the help of all of you. It is over 25 people/families that have donated to us. Some of you guys even twice. Really, it's very moving to see how much you guys are willing to do to fight cancer.

You can/should still donate to Becky's fundraising. She's been very altruistic in letting me reach my minimum first by directing all initial funds towards my goal. So please please please go to her page and donate there. She's still about $2,100 away from being able to run the marathon. And more importantly, she's $2,100 short of changing more lives. (Not to mention that we wouldn't all her training to be for naught, right?)

Lastly, Becky and I are going for our second--that's right, our second--8 mile run today! It's a great feeling to be training for something so special. At times, when we get sore and tired, it always makes it easier to remember our friend Amy and think of the other lives we have a chance to change.

Many thanks and Merry Christmas to you all!

Oscar (& Becky)

Over the weekend we crossed two major milestones:

• Becky and I have raised over $1,000
• We've done our longest run yet--6 miles!

These may not seem like a major thing to most people (or others who are way ahead of us on our team at TNT), but these are two things we never imagined we could do.

The first one, related to fundraising, well that was more my hurdle. Becky is great at gathering her friends and she's just a much more well-liked person, so it comes easier to her than me. However, fundraising has been my most dreaded thing about all this.

The second one, running that long, was a major milestone for Becky. I had done 6 miles before in the past, but that was about 4 years ago now. So it was certainly a good and tiring feeling. But for Becky it was a bigger step since she's never ran that long consecuitvely before. (You can read more about her impression here.)

In any case, we couldn't be doing any of this without all your guys' help. So please keep donating. We've still got about $3,400 more to go so we can both run the marathon. This cause is slowly becoming more and more important to us as we hear the heart-breaking stories from our teammates. But rest assured, that all this does indeed make a big difference.

Thanks again to all of you!

What the heck did I sign up for? Did I really just do that?

Well, the answer is "Yes." I've registered for the LA Marathon this upcoming March. I don't know what got into me, but I finally decided to actually do something about this goal I've always had--to finish a marathon.

I signed up thinking that it'd be great to have a team to train with. There have been way too many times where I set out to train on my own and I just end up falling off the wagon. At least if I feel the obligation to not disappoint others I'll keep it up.

The only catch (yes, there's always a "catch") is that now I get to raise $2,200. Don't worry it goes to a good cause--fighting cancer. This training program is organized by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. To be honest, I've never had a direct experience with Leukemia or Lymphoma. But I have known enough people that have been affected by other types of cancers (including my lady's best friend, my first boss, and my maternal grandmother).

The LLS is a pretty amazing organization, from what I've been learning in the past few weeks. The LLS has been responsible for finding 19 ouf of the 39 cancer drugs that have been discovered in the last decade. Those were approved by the FDA as blood cancer treatments. And more amazingly, 14 of those 19 drugs actually have been extended to attack other cancers. So although, I signed up for this on a whim and although I've not been directly affected by blood cancer diseases, it turns out this fundraising obligation will be put towards a great cause that extends its reach farther than I knew.

As such, it's now my job to guilt you into donating to this cause. Seems like a fair trade: I promise to finish the marathon if you help a brother out. Cool? Cool.

Please make a donation in support of my efforts with Team In Training and help advance the research for cures. If you find you cannot donate, please forward this page along to your friends. Thank you so much!