Half-marathon training
Week fourteen, Day three

Two miles on the Katy trail after work today. It was a beautiful evening for running. Cool and crisp with a gorgeous sunset over the MHH bridge. But I wasn’t fully enjoying it at first; I was mulling over a Facebook conversation I had yesterday.

One of Tony’s friends was saying that his signature on an online secession petition was the same effort as my half-marathon, as we were both raising awareness of an issue. He dismissed the money I’ve raised by saying, “$3000 wouldn’t keep a research lab open for 4 minutes.” Kind of took the wind out of my sails, and I started my run wondering if I was wasting my time.

One good thing about running is it gives you time to listen to all the voices in your head, and about half a mile in one popped up and said, “Did you think you would raise enough money to cure cancer all by yourself?” ” Well, no. That would be silly.” “Right. It’s called ‘Team in Training,’ not ‘Liz in Training.'” Okay, so let’s see what my team has done.

The North Texas team going to the Disney marathon weekend has raised $97,217.29. That’s just ONE event, and just ONE team. That doesn’t count my teammates running the Dallas marathon or the San Antonio Herothon, or other teams (like the Houston team where my friend Jan is running the Houston half) or biking, hiking and triathlon participants, or everyone else coming to Disney with TNT from all over the country. You can’t tell me that’s not enough to make a difference!

The top fundraiser in our group for Disney received a $5000 check from a local nonprofit. And I think that is awesome! But I think what we (yes, all of you and me) have done is just as awesome. There are 42 different donors on my fundraising page. There were an additional 25 people who joined in the football squares. I sold over 100 candy bars at work – most people bought more than one, but let’s say that was at least 20 more people. That means that 87 of us have contributed to this cause in Angi’s name.

So now I have a new goal – at least 13 brand new donors. I want 100 different contributors. 13.1 miles, $4000, and 100 donors for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in memory of Angela “Bubbles” Ring. And I think that’s worth a heck of a lot more than a signature on a website.