There simply are no words.

THANK YOU to everyone who has helped me to SURPASS my fundraising goal of $3,000.00 - unbelievable.

And we sealed the deal with a month to go.

Now I can't WAIT to cross that finish line. San Diego, here I come!

Joiner that I am, I've signed up for another season of raising funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society TO FIND A CURE.

It's not fully functional yet, but check out my page for The Nation's Triathlon!

http://pages.teamintraining.org/txg/nattri11/cginsbuddl

I could not have done this without yall. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

C

97% ...I can't believe it. Thanks to my friend Marquis, I've officially hit my fundraising minimum (ok, I'm missing $0.20 but I got the congratulations email from TNT)! I'm very confident I'll hit my goal in the next couple of days.

$3,000, guys. All for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society - I'm so pumped!

Here's a snippet of the email newsletter I sent out earlier today:

Ok, so running. Last weekend and this weekend coming up I'm having to miss out on the Group Training Sessions (GTS). I went home for the long weekend over Easter and did the run on my own. About 14 miles! I ran across the Lake Ray Hubbard Hwy 66 bridge 4 times, yall!! That thing is long. I start out pretty strong at a 9min mile (strong for me, at least) but then as I get tired it slowly dwindles to 10 and 11. Must remedy that!

Also, if you're interested in finding a TNT chapter near you so you can kick butt for LLS, all you have to do is go to www.teamintraining.org and type in your zip code. I've recruited two runners for sure and have THREE MORE on the fence. Hooray! Make sure to let me officially *refer* you, as I get a $100 credit, and it's going to be a lot tougher to raise money the next time around, I'm sure.

Thanks for reading guys - and of course, thanks for all the support! :o)

Thanks to my friends Laci and Ki for getting me out of the 75% slump!

YOU GUYS - look how much money we've raised for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society! How awesome?!?!

Running is going ok - my ankle was bothering me last week a LOT - I even had to miss the Saturday group training session (boohoo, Christa, you got to sleep in!)

But this week it is much better and I'm looking forward to practice tomorrow.

And I found out that I can room with my friend Amy even though she is in the NC Chapter! Party up in San Diego!....and by "party," I mean "hydration and icy-hot." Ohhhh yeahhhh.

My parents are coming, did you know that? They have attended many a dance competiton and recital but this will be the first race they see me run - I didn't drag them out for 5 or 10Ks but they can come see me do the 26.2!

Yall, just between you and me (and whoever finds this page), I am REALLY looking forward to getting that awesome 26.2 sticker to put on my car like the cool people.

But the most exciting part about all this is the money we've raised. I know I've said it before, but THANK YOU!

I can't believe it, guys. I’ll start with the most important sentence: The Purple Shirt Pub Crawl, after donations to join and donations made from strangers, raised just shy of $1,000.00. That’s 1/3 of my fundraising goal. I’m flabbergasted.

I'm now over halfway to my goal/fundraising minimum - and I still need to organize the cash donated along the way and send it in - I counted about $267!!

I’m ecstatic to announce that the crawl this past Saturday was a complete success! I knew we’d have even a bigger turnout that I’d imagined, which was why I ordered extra shirts – but we even ran out of those. Seriously yall. Incredible.

Another big shoutout to Houston Screen Print for the discounted shirts – I appreciate the support, truly.

I spent a couple of hours that morning putting together the gift bags – putting the right T-shirts in everyone’s bag, with lists of bar specials, the scavenger hunt, awards I’d be giving out, and upcoming events (other ways to support TNT – that blog post is forthcoming). Those lucky dogs even got a NutriGrain bar and a bottle of water for hydration – it’s for a marathon, after all.

It was a lot easier to organize than I thought, considering how many pub crawls occur on Washington Ave every year – I can only imagine. The bar owners and managers were so nice and accommodating!

My friend Lori single-handedly raised over $200 in donations FROM COMPLETE STRANGERS. She is pretty much a rockstar like that.

Enough of the team pics. We had a GREAT night of $2 “Texas Wine” (aka Lone Star), beer pong at the Pearl Bar patio, Lot shots and Sheen Dream shots, marriage proposals at The Dubliner, martinis at Wash Ave Drinkery, and the hottest hottest hottest hot wings I’ve ever eaten at BWW, sneakily pawned off on us from a table of 15-year-olds. Nice one, guys.

I am extraordinarily lucky to have these awesome people in my life who are so supportive of such an amazing cause. YALL ARE THE BEST.

Go Team!

Yall seriously ROCK. I'm truly lucky to have so many people supporting me in something so important.

And now I'm only $108.00 away from the first $1k!!!

Which is perfect! You might have noticed some of us donating this number...why $108.00? Why not just 100?

It's customary for us to give in multiples of 18, the number symbolizing life (chai, in Hebrew - it sounds like "hi," not like the tea). Hence the $108.00.

I am so pumped! I've been keeping up with my workouts. Though this past Saturday the drizzle/rain was a little unnecessary, Houston.

PUB CRAWL IS THIS WEEKEND. 20 of us will be taking Wash Ave by storm!