twice the bang for your buck...

You have an opportunity to make your gift go twice as far in the effort to help patients live better, longer lives.

An anonymous friend of LLS will match your gift, dollar for dollar, up to $100,000 if made by December 31st. Act now and your donation of $25 will become $50, your gift of $50 will become $100.

Time is almost up! Don't miss this chance to make a gift that will have twice the impact. If we meet this matching challenge, today's patients will benefit sooner from treatments that let them live better, longer lives.

Please make your gift go twice as far by responding today.

2010 Leukemia Ball Raffle Sponsor
Washington Area Mercedes-Benz Dealers

The National Capital Area Chapter of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is thrilled to partner with Mercedes-Benz for the 23rd Annual Leukemia Ball. For more than 13 years, Mercedes-Benz has been the Raffle Presenting Sponsor for the Ball. The 2010 raffle prize cars are below. Tickets on sale now! If you'd like to purchase a ticket, let me know and I will e-mail you the form.

Tickets are $100.... all of the money will go to support the work of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society... and will help me to reach my fundraising goals.

GRAND PRIZE
Winner's Choice
2010 E350 Sedan or E350 Coupe
MSRP: $48,600

FIRST PRIZE
2010 G350 4Matic
MSRP: $36,600

Dreams of a Mercedes-Benz really do come true!

Kick-Off was AWESOME!!!

what a great morning we had yesterday :)

we had hundreds of enthusiastic new (and veteran) participants turn out for our Kick-Off breakfast, in spite of bad weather. energy was high, laughs were loud and sincere (not nervous), everyone seems really excited to start this new adventure.

me too... i'm getting excited.

the roads are still a bit slippery after yesterday's snow, even though most of it is gone now... so once the ice has melted a little more i'm headed out for a run.

oh, and i am selling raffle tickets for a new mercedes again... $100 to a great cause (Leukemia & Lymphoma Society), which will also be $100 toward reaching my fundraising goals... and you'll have a 1:3,000 chance of winning a brand new car.

let me know if you're interested and i'll send you the forms.

starting the season off right...

it's raining.

i'm packing to move.

i have the pre-Christmas (far away from family and friends) blues.

finding it hard to get out running.

but Kick-off is just around the corner! time to give myself a kick in the butt so that when we have our first group training run in 9 days, i won't be huffing and puffing my way through a three mile run.

but first, i'm going to try to pack a few more boxes, just in case the rain lets up a little later on....

(master procrastinator that i am!)

first run of the new season...

it's hard to believe that this time last year i was humming and hawing over whether or not to join Team In Training... it has been come such an integral part of my social life that i can't imagine being here and not being involved!

even though Spring 2010 Season has not yet officially kicked off.... a bunch of us got up early this morning and headed out to Reston for a pre-season run together. and it was so great!!

we had a great turn out, people were excited, i got to meet a couple of my mentees, got to see some friends from last Spring Season.... and the weather was nice and cool. (so glad not to be training in the heat anymore!!)

am now looking forward to kick-off in a couple week.... even though it also just happens to be the same weekend we'll be moving into our new home! BIG WEEKEND!!!

so today, i'm plotting my next fundraising initiative... and packing. whee!!

recruiting is big on my agenda these days...

so, now that i'm all set up as a mentor for spring season, i'm trying to get some of the easiest mentor obligations out of the way so that i'm not trying to cram them in when we're in the thick of the really long runs and madly trying to reach fundraising deadlines.

last night i was at a TNT info meeting... it was pouring rain, there were oodles of accidents and sirens and flashing lights... and the bus was late. but i made it in the end... me and more staff and volunteers than potential participants... but of the 8 that showed up, 5 signed up right away... and the others went away saying things like "i just need to check with my husband.." so we could still get one or two of them on board.

the night before last i spent a few hours in the TNT office making calls to people who had expressed even the remotest bit of interest in joining over years past... had a few people ask me to take them off the list... got a lot of answering machines... but a couple people said that yes they were interested and to please send them details on upcoming info nights. wooppeee!

feeling so productive!

and in other recruiting news...

i've started fundraising, and i started my efforts by recruiting my friends to ask their friends to sponsor me... you know, since i've already asked them all for the last two seasons.... time to move on to the friends of friends.

i just sent that e-mail out yesterday, and already i've received two donations!

(Thank you, Cecile... you too, Dave!!)

feel free to spread the word on my behalf.

it's official

i got the green light from my physiotherapist to start running this week.... no more than a couple miles, he said. and if that goes well, we'll work our way up week by week. so i'm headed out for a run with my old teammate Ronda tomorrow morning early (just to keep myself mentally ready for the fact that the alarm will ring early every Saturday morning from the beginning of December until the end of April.... that's a long time to go without a sleep in!!)

last night was the first meeting for the Spring Season mentors and coaches. i won't be the mission mentor this time around, as my friend Sara scooped me on that one! but i will be a regular mentor, and that will be just fine too :o)

so here's the plan...

as you know, i had to defer my race plans for Marine Corps Marathon due to injury. so all the fundraising that i did for that event will go to meet my fundraising goals to run the National Marathon here in DC in March... although i will likely just do the half marathon, as i've also signed on to fundraise for and run the Nashville Country Music Marathon in April!!!

very excited.

wondering if i'll be able to run it in my finest cowgirl finery and some fancy boots?? or if i should just stick to the TNT purple singlet and my favourite running shoes... will give that some thought over the next five months.