You donate. I run. People get help.

At the end of next week, I plan to run through two straight days. No, really. I plan to start running before midnight Friday evening and run past midnight on Saturday morning. All for the American Cancer Society.

For the past two years I have raised money to help out the VCU Massey Cancer Center as part of the Monument Avenue 10k — in 2008 my friends, family and many people I didn’t know donated $1,000 for the cause. Last year my fundraising efforts weren’t as impressive, but I honestly didn’t make as big of a push as I should have. This year, since I opted not to do that race, I have felt like something was missing. But this week I got an email from my alma mater — Lynchburg College — that changed it all.

The LC Central Virginia Alumni Club has a team for next week’s Relay for Life, which will be held on the Dell at the college. My initial reaction was that I wanted to help in some way. After 10 minutes of thinking, I knew what I had to do — take my personal goal of running every day in the month of April to another level. Start running on April 9 and finish on April 10. Then I took it to another level — for every set amount of money donated, I will run a mile.

So, here is what I am doing. For every $50 I receive I will run 1 mile between April 9-10, up to 10 miles or $500; for every $100 after that I will run another mile, up to 5 additional miles or $500. That’s 15 miles that I will run to fight cancer if I receive $1,000 in donations by April 9. Please don’t think the $1,000 is a cap though — if the donations go beyond that, just keep giving.

To donate, visit my page here. If you’re in the Lynchburg area and would like to join the team, or just join me for a run that night, please leave a comment below with your email address (which is not displayed when put in the proper box) and I’ll be in touch.

A good start to ’09

Today I got in a good 6.4-mile run, with much of it coming in a group of Lynchburg College alumni who are getting ready for the Monument Avenue 10k. It was a fitting close to a month that for the most part has been very good to me. As I continue to adjust to life with a baby, there were certainly times in which I wish I could have made it to the gym, even for just a quick workout, but I’m not really complaining. A four-day trip to Ohio in the coldest part of the month also put a small dent into things.

For the month I ran 59 miles. With last year still on my mind a bit, this is great. I’m kicking myself just a bit for not hitting 60. This is better than all but four months from last year, including the just over 40-mile start in January ’08. But this month is so much different than a year ago in the fact that I also logged 15.6 biking miles and 17.3 miles on various elliptical machines. Add in 14.5 walking miles and I have 106.4 total miles for this month.

I’m a bit disappointed that I haven’t been able to shed much weight, but I can only blame myself for what goes in my mouth. Overall I haven’t been eating that bad, but this small snacking at work when people bring in food has got to stop.

As I look ahead to February, my goals are simple – do more and do it with more intensity. With running, I want my long run at the end of the month to be 10 miles. After what I did today, I’m pretty confident that a 10 miler on Feb. 28 won’t be a problem (weather permitting). On Feb. 14 I’ll be running in the Sweetheart 8k. My goal for that is to beat last year’s time of 38:26. That race will be a good test to see where I’m at with being in racing shape. I’m just not looking forward to that damn hill at the beginning.

Lastly, I just want to say: Go Cards! I’ll be an Arizona fan tomorrow, if only for a day.

Another 5 miler

Now that we’re a few weeks into the new year, I’d really like to get a regular schedule going. But a weekend trip last week to Ohio kind of threw me off, mainly due to weather too cold to run. So this week sort of feels like I’ve been catching up, but my personal schedule led to not being able to do much on Thursday or Friday.

So today I set out to meet a group of Lynchburg College alumni for a group run – they’re getting ready for the Monument Avenue 10k at the end of March. I ran to the park near my house where the group was supposed to meet, but once I got there and there were only a couple of cars, I realized that I read my e-mail wrong – the group run is NEXT week. While I was mad at myself, I went ahead and got in my planned 5-mile run with the last 1.25 of it with my dog.

That makes two 5-mile runs this week, with another 3-plus miler mixed in. I’ll get in some kind of workout tomorrow. What exactly I’ll do is something I’m not decided on. Getting two 5-mile runs in a week’s span makes me feel good with my training. As of tomorrow there are 8 weeks to the (sold out) Shamrock Half Marathon. I feel a bit behind, but physically I feel like I’m in a good spot. I just have to get up tomorrow and do something, and then go 110 percent next week for 8 straight weeks. I’m in a better place than I was last year, that’s for sure.

Endless possibilities at Lynchburg College

One of my favorite places to run is at my alma mater – Lynchburg College. It’s easily to log several miles on the campus by running on the roads within the school, running along College Drive behind the school and running on the many sidewalks within the Dell. And there’s also the renovated track at Shellenberger Field where you can throw a few laps down. In the early morning before the students rise, or during the summer months when many students are away, it’s a very peaceful place to run. Even when the students are there it’s a great place to go, but you just have to be more aware of the traffic.

It’s also a very challenging place to run. There’s really nowhere flat, so be prepared to do battle with the hills. (I guess this is true of just about everywhere in Lynchburg!) Another nice thing about running there is the endless routes. I’ve rarely done the same route twice.