The race is tomorrow morning. I repeat, I am going to run a half-marathon in about 8 hours.

And of course I can't sleep.

I've been fighting a cold/flu/tuberculosis for the last week, and my only two runs were terrible. So I dug up some leftover antibiotics, am likely coming perilously close to overdosing on multivitamins, but I'm determined to make the damn thing happen.

I am also eating miniature candy bars in bed. Carb loading?

Anyway, I spent the evening with my mom, first at Team in Training's Inspiration Dinner, then decorating our race shirts for tomorrow. Somehow I ended up with a sleeveless shirt. Tomorrow's supposed to be 46 and rainy, so that should be fun. At least I'll be shamrock blinged out.

My eyes are finally starting to get heavy, so wish me luck, and if you have a moment, or a buck or two to spare, donate to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. There's a link over there to the right. They do amazing work that helps save lives.

Um, guys?

WE JUST RAISED $1500 TO KICK THE LIVING CRAP OUT OF CANCER!

Do you realize how amazing you are? Not for supporting me, but for giving your hard-earned money to help people you might never meet face the biggest hurdle of their lives. You rock my purple plaid ankle socks right off my big boat feet.

Thank you for believing in this. And expect personal, handwritten thanks very soon.

Tomorrow is my fundraising deadline. I've tried really hard not to timeline pressure people into donating, but tonight, the final push is on.

I've been posting, asking people for donations all night, and I'm so humbled by the response. Not just the money, which is going to a cause that unfortunately, will eventually affect us all. But the kind words. The feelings of support from places I never really expected it.

Like... People I went to middle school with, who I haven't had meaningful contact with in over a decade, donated today, and re-posted my link for me. Sorority sisters dug down and gave what they could. My sister-in-law made me promise to buy ugly wrapping paper when my nephew's school shills it down the road. And two people just donated completely anonymously. I'll literally never be able to thank those folks. But if you come back to this page, thank you.

So with thanks in my heart - we are helping to find a cure for cancer, people! - let's do this!

$270 to go!

Yesterday, I donated bone marrow to a newborn with a rare blood immunodeficiency. I'm still pretty overwhelmed by the whole experience. I'm in awe that somewhere in the world is a tiny little boy who is fighting to live - and he has my DNA inside his body to help him now. There's a tough little mini-me out there, and all I want him to do is live.

The procedure wasn't painful - minus the sore throat left over from the anesthesiologist's breathing tube, and the pretty intense constipation - I was asleep for the whole thing, which took less than an hour. I am drowsy from the painkillers, and sore. I feel like I fell down a flight of icy stairs and bruised my butt and lower back.

And I would absolutely do it again.

I can't run for two weeks while I recover. The doctor says that any kind of over-exertion too soon will cause the puncture holes in my pelvic bone to "connect the dots" and cause a fracture. So I'm counting down the days until I can put my Asics back on, and focusing my energy on fundraising while I wait.

I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about this whole process, but I'd like to keep this page dedicated to my fundraising efforts. If you're interested in all that other junk in my head, you can check out my personal blog over here.

Today, Mom and I decided that waking up for the group run wasn't going to happen, especially after they pushed the time up to 7:00am and moved the run out to Reston. I mean, I hate leukemia and lymphoma with the best of them, but I'm not driving to Reston at 5:00am to run thirteen miles, and then drive back afterwards. No. Sir.

So Mom came to pick me up around 3:00, and after dragging my feet as long as possible to pack up all my gear ("who needs gear to run?" my husband always asks), we started our run at 4:00pm.

Just one bathroom break later, we finished our very first thirteen mile run ever, at 6:36pm. In other words, we ran our very first marathon in 2 hours and 36 minutes. In other other words...

20 days to race time, suckers!