Sunday Shout Out: Week Thirteen

The weeks are still flying by, in case you wondered...

In all honestly, I truly cannot believe that at the begining of this training cycle, I hadn't ever run more than 7 miles in my life. And now, 8 miles is the distance of my midweek run. Crazy!

Donations this week:

Jen is my blogging buddy from Utah. Her blog is called: Why I Run. She posts the most amazing pictures from her runs. I think Kansas is beautiful. I get through my runs here and enjoy them. That said, I think you couldn't run in Utah and not believe in a higher power. I mean, wow. It is gorgeous there. Jen is a Mom and a runner and has the most gorgeous eyes ever. She's truly a beautiful woman!  Jen, your donation was so unexpected - and also so appreciated. You rock. Thank you so much!

Also, this week was the garage sale that my friend and team mate, Stephanie, and I had together. We have so many people to thank (Samantha, Yvette, Erica, Meg, Faith, Sarah - among others!), as we truly wouldn't have had such a successful fundraiser without so many kind and generous people donating items for the sale, donating food for the bake sale, and our friends who just came and made very generous donations and who definitely weren't paying garage sale prices.

The long and short of the sale was this. We had hoped that, after three days total, we would raise $600 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. That was the amount we felt would make all of our hard work (mostly Steph's hard work!) ahead of time worth it. $300 for each of us in our fundraising efforts. Let's just say, we sure underestimated...

We made $2,000 total!

Wow. I have no other words.

We saved ourselves hours of work by not pricing anything. We did have suggested donation amounts in our heads for the big items, but beyond that we let people name their prices. Some people took beyond their fair advantage of that. But, as the numbers showed, we also had many fair and generous donors, too.

A really awesome thing was when a woman showed up on Thursday. I felt like I knew her. I kept staring at her, trying to figure it out. While she was talking to us, I turned my head away for a few seconds while she was talking, and it hit me. It was Kathy Deane - the producer of my favorite local morning radio show! The lightbulb went off in my head and I was like, "Hey! I know you!" Hilarious I couldn't figure out how I knew her by looking at her, but that her voice gave it away once I stopped looking at her. Kathy was kind enough to read a facebook message on air the next day advertising our garage sale. Thank you, Kathy!

Another neat experience was when a girl (maybe 19 or 20 years old) came, looked around, bought some cookies, and then made a donation without buying anything. I thanked her for being so generous, and she shared with me that she had Leukemia when she was 5-years-old...she's a survivor! She then thanked us for what we're doing, which was just...inspiring. It just was.

The person I have to thank the most is Stephanie. Her world was turned upside down having this sale at her house. The extra work she put in was insane. Stephanie rocks. She says it isn't a big deal, but it is. Stephanie, you rock.

In Other News:

Slow is Sexy Saturday was a smashing success this week! At 4am, five women met together to embark on the journey. Michele, Madison, Yvette, Sonya and I. At 5am, we added two more women (Jennifer and Krystle) and a dog (Pavlov, the marathoning dog). At 7am, we met the Team for our last few miles. Let's just say, doing 14 miles and stopping for 10 minutes before running again was painful. The four of us continuing on with the Team (Michele, Madison, Yvette and I) all groaned and moaned for a little bit. Then something funny happened, and we had a good laugh with our Team, and that laughter just took away all of that pain. Ok, it didn't take away all of the pain, but it sure helped.

Michele and Madison headed back at the mile mark (for 16 total, those little rockstars!!!) and Yvette and I turned around at the two mile mark for 18 total miles.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt this way...but the run was totally perfect. We talked and laughed and bonded and I can honestly say I enjoyed the entire run. What a fabulous feeling to go out at 4am, do high mileage, and afterward feel like I just had a girls night out with great friends. Yesterday I felt confident. I mean, if I can do 18, surely I can do another 8. Right? Right. Just say yes...

I'm just so thrilled at the entire weekend. Successful fundraiser, successful 18 miler, mileage PR, and fabulous company through it all. Lovin' every minute of it.

Have a great week!