Whew. The summer is flying by! First things first though:

HUGE thanks to my most recent contributors. I'm currently at $1205.80, or 68.9% of my goal to raise $1750 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. That's only $544.20 to go. Good thing, because race day is a mere 66 days away (!!).

I am WAY behind in publicly acknowledging my most recent contributors' generosity. My tremendous apologies for this delay, and heartfelt thanks for your support.

Tremendous thanks to:

Linda and Greg T, Minneapolis

Sheila B., Minneapolis

Ann C., St. Paul

Aunt Julie, Fergus Falls, MN

Anonymous (whoever you are, you are awesome)

Fellow bloggers @brooksylite, @tomkeepstrying, and @fitnessyear

Aunt Bonnie (CO)

Cristy DLC, St. Paul, MN

Kecia P, Grand Forks, ND

Darrell G., Minneapolis

Michelle R., St. Paul

Kate E. and Pat S., Minneapolis

Rebecca A., MT

Phyllis and John N., Sioux Falls, SD

Thank you, thank you, thank you all again. Oh, and I did all of my pushups - and there's video evidence! 200 pushups and 46.2 lunges in all.

As far as a training update... our mileage continues to creep upwards. My schedule called for a 15 mile long run last Saturday. Good thing I got there early and got in a bit over 4 before we started, because about 1.5 miles from our starting point, a storm blew a tree down, which took a powerline with it - directly over our trail. Nobody was hurt, but here's a very blurry photo of those of us stranded at a gas station, waiting for a ride back to our cars. (I know it's not clear, but I'm crouching in front with the blue shirt.)

I'll be cutting back a little this week, but next week am scheduled for my first 18 miler of the season - always a tough training run. Hopefully I emerge without an injury. Whew!! Wish me luck!

I'm upping the ante.

My guilty marathon training confession: I hate strength training. I find it boring and time-consuming. But I'm all about doing things I don't like to do for a great cause. Toward that end...

I’ll do a pushup (no knees) for every dollar contributed toward my Leukemia and Lymphoma Society fundraising goal now through midnight this Wednesday, July 13. [Pushups will be completed on Thursday, July 14.]

So *gulp* $5 = 5 pushups. That means if 20 of my friends and family contribute $5 each, that’s 100 pushups. My current record for no-knees pushups is 20 (!!). YIKES!!

No contribution is too small. Thank you in advance for your consideration - it's greatly appreciated!

First things first - thank yous! I'm now at $513.40, or 29% towards my goal of raising $1750 by July 15 to beat blood cancers. Thank you for your support!

Special thanks go out to:

Margit M., VA

Aunt Betsy and Uncle Paul M., MT

(But, of course, I've got a ways to go, and my deadline is only 13 days away! If you can contribute, I would be grateful. You could give a dollar for every race mile ($26.20); a dollar for every team training run this season ($48) or a dollar for every day I get out and train for the race ($120 for 120 days this season.) It's all helpful and appreciated!

I have to admit it was tough to get going this morning. But, as always, I was glad I did. Much of the route followed the Twin Cities Marathon route, which helped.

The first two miles were rough, as always, but the run was eventful. First, boats on Lake Harriet:

Then I cheered on runners on a 10k race. Go runners!!

A downed tree blocked the Minnehaha Parkway trail path, probably from the thunderstorms that came through last night.

So I had to take an off-road alternate route, below. We'll find out how much poison oak/ivy I found soon, I'm sure!

Then, I found a very friendly cat at a water fountain. After I petted him for a few minutes, he bit me. Nice guy.

(I don't think he really meant it; it was more of a I-love-petting-so-much-I-occasionally-lose-my senses type thing.)

Then I high-tailed it back to the car before my iPhone battery ran out and I lost my Nike+ run mileage. Made it back with about 5% of battery left!

Also win: I froze my water bottles and my post-run powerade zero bottle so that they thawed during the run. Perfect and worked especially well for the powerade zero bottle that stayed in the car. When I returned, it was about half thawed and SO COLD. Tasty!!

Wow. Thank you so much to all of you who have contributed; your response has been phenomenal. I'm now at $467.20, or 26.7% towards my goal of raising $1750 by July 15 to beat blood cancers. Thank you for your support!

(But, of course, I've got a ways to go, and my deadline is only sixteen days away! If you can contribute, I would be grateful. You could give a dollar for every race mile ($26.20); a dollar for every team training run this season ($48) or a dollar for every day I get out and train for the race ($120 for 120 days this season.) It's all helpful, tax-deductible and appreciated!

Big thank yous to my most recent donors:

Bill S., Park Rapids, MN

Kathy L., St. Paul

Emira I., Lincoln, NE

Kari M., St. Paul

You guys are great, and your support is so, so appreciated. I can't believe how lucky I am to have so many great folks encouraging this marathon run adventure to beat blood cancers. Thank you, thank you again!

Our training continues. We have team runs on Wednesdays and Saturdays; today, we were to focus more on pace runs. But owing to the heat, we simplified the run a bit: 5 min marathon pace, 5 min recovery; repeat three more times for 40 min total. Tomorrow, my schedule calls for 6 miles; seeing as the heat index is expected to reach 105*, I'll be doing that six miles in the morning! However, as it's also supposed to be 70%+ humidity (we obviously got the best of the weather condition grab bag tomorrow), I'll probably be dripping sweat by the end. No team run for the 4th of July, but one of our mentors will be hosting an unofficial team run in Minneapolis - the last of the 8am Saturday training runs. From here on out, we'll be getting team runs underway at 7am. Pretty much every Saturday. Good thing I found some double caffeine running gels!

Our LLS staff member, Kim, brought race jerseys for sizing purposes/trying on to today's run. I can't believe we're already this far into the season. Next thing you know it'll be marathon morning...! Egads!! Onwards!

First things first - now 15.8% towards my goal of $1750 by July 15 to beat blood cancers. Hooray!! Big thanks to

Ruth P., Minneapolis (who just finished her first 26.2 in Duluth - congrats again, Ruth!)

Paul B., St. Paul

If you haven't already, please consider donating - I can put in the miles but I can't make this goal without your help. Every little bit is helpful and is greatly appreciated!

Hill run with the TNT team today. We use the lock and dam hill (different than the trail), which is a quarter mile one way. Last time we did 2-4 hills. This time we were scheduled for 4-6. Who did 7? This girl.

The evening started off in the 60s and humid, but then…

[Sorry, the blog software is acting weird - picture is here]

Yeah, it wasn’t even drizzling; just straight up, honest-to-goodness raining. I brought my windproof vest with and when I got warm put it down on a concrete sign thingy; at the end of the hill reps when I went to pick it up, it was just soaked. My shoes were squishing. Water was rolling off my visor. But still, better than summer heat if I had to choose. It was a chilly ride home though!

Our honored teammate, Alie, is celebrating her ninth birthday on Monday. She's been in the hospital since before her bone marrow transplant in February recovering - making lots of progress but can you imagine being in the hospital that long when you're eight years old? Way to go, Alie - happy birthday and feel better very, very soon!!