Sunday Funday

Which, for me, entails sitting in front of a fire with coffee and chocolate (and Emergen-C).  Even better, today's SundayFunday is taking place in the middle of a snowstorm in the mountains.  I am toasty and so happy with life.  A friend and I drove to the mountains last night - he is skiing today, and I am relaxing.  But really, there is no better way or place to chill out and try and keep pushing this sickness as far away from me as possible.

I have not run in one week, and apparently (according to Dr. Mom), colds last 7-10 days.  Hopefully this is only a small setback and I'll start feeling normal soon.  I need to start training hardcorz!  Because......  On April 16, I will be running in the 116th Boston Marathon!

It's official: First Descents received a handful of charity spots for the marathon, and I was lucky enough to be given one of the spots.  In April of 2006, I was a freshman at Boston University and a sometime runner, though never running much longer than 30 minutes or so.  I did not understand what "Marathon Monday" meant to the people of Boston and Massachusetts in general.  Yet on that Patriot's Day, when I was walking down Comm Ave and Boylston Street on my way to work, I was swept up in the energy of the crowd, the mass of runners making their way down the avenues I walked every day.  My friends and most of the college students in the city were all drinking and cheering on the streets; people had beer pong tables set up in front of their brownstones.  Children held out orange slices and were overjoyed when a runner took one.  It was a huge party for 26.2 miles through Massachusetts, with everyone turning out to support a bunch of crazy runners.  When I ran Chicago, I got some of that energy from the city, but I don't know if anything can come close to Boston.

I certainly wanted to, but I never believed I would ever actually get the chance to run the Boston Marathon.  I run, but not quickly - the chances of my qualifying get smaller every year as the times keep getting more difficult.  But this!  This is an opportunity to take part in one of the most famous marathons in the world and to do it with an organization that has facilitated so much of my acceptance of survivorship.

I am attempting to raise $7000 for First Descents.  I have a new Fundraising Page! that, if you feel kind enough to donate, you should use instead of my former FD one.  Share the page, share the good news.  This is going to be so difficult.  Honestly, I am freaking out already even just thinking about the months ahead.  7K is a Lot of money, and 26.2 are a LOT of miles to not only run all at once but to also train for.  Yet, something in me is telling me that I can do this.  We shall see...  I hope you'll follow along with my progress and updates on here and on the Twitters (@cc_bridges).  So much excitement ahead.

Thank you so much for your support, and here we go!

Fundraising link:
http://www.crowdrise.com/TeamFDBoston2012/fundraiser/CarolineBridges