Donation update

Just did the math and Make a Wish will receive a sum total of $608 for my "sweat" equity. That works out to about $75 for each week of training. Not too shabby.

Official Official results

So apparently some adjustments were made overnight because my time (which was listed on an "offical"-looking document posted at the event yesterday) suddenly increased when results were made available on the race website today.

My new final time of 1:28:31 beat two other competitors in my age group. Thanks to VJ Anma who finished at 1:46:56, I was “not last” by 18:25.

We’ll round that down to 18 minutes which means all you fine donors need to get out your checkbooks and start sending me money. If you’ve forgotten your commitment, let me know and I’ll look it up.

I’ll also be making the rounds with a Make-a-Wish t-shirt for folks to sign to commemorate this historic achievement.

The blue band is magical

Got my package from Make a Wish today. Two t-shirts (XL) and 7 blue wristbands a la the popular yellow Livestrong bands (one of my all-time favorite marketing programs).

I wore a wristband on my run today and it must be magic because I went 6 miles at a pretty decent pace and felt like I could go another 2 or 3. It's either that or my "eat anything you want, workout occassionally" training program is going to make me millions.

Make a Wish responds!

I got a call from Dayna Russell, development coordinator at Northwest Make a Wish Foundation in response to my earlier post.

They are sending me a t-shirt to wear in the race and "a couple extras" (can't wait to see what those are!). Dayna was also nice enough to provide me with all the details I needed to ensure my donors can deduct their donations from their taxes.

I'm very impressed that Make a Wish responded. I'm thinking of having all my donors sign the shirt as a memento (since I'm never going to do this again).

I swam and biked today. A little concerned with my bike times. I'm revising my finish time up to 1:30.

Contacting Make a Wish

I contacted the Northwest chapter of Make a Wish today to see if they had a t-shirt with their logo to wear during training and the event to show my commitment. We'll see how they respond.

Cut 54 seconds off my 2.8 mile run time today to finish at 22:43 with all the gain coming in the first two-thirds of the run. Could have pushed it in the last third but I was saving some for the rest of the training run.

"Don't Be Last" Fundraiser for Kids

I was recently "volunteered" (more on that in a future post) to run the 2007 Black Diamond Triathlon on September 23rd. Since I hate running, swimming and biking, I needed to come up with some motivation to actually follow through on this "commitment." Realizing how out of shape I am and that I won't win anything (which is pretty much my sole motivation in life), I needed to find some rationale for doing this.

Well, what better motivation than "the kids." We've all heard it before from our favorite athletes, celebrities, politicians, etc. who need some image enhancement because they beat their wife, got drunk and ran their $100,000 automobile into a lamp post, or took money they shouldn't have. They find the nearest charity, commit to a 15-minute photo op at the next fundraiser and profess how committed they are "to the kids." This is sort of the same thing.

I don't really care about triathlons, fitness, working out or getting in shape and would rather be playing video games, sitting on my butt or doing anything else but running, swimming or biking (let alone all three). But, like an athlete who supports a charity just for the image makeover, I'm going to participate in this triathlon for the kids.

My chosen charity is the Make a Wish Foundation (as in, "I make a wish that kids never have to run triathlons").

BUT I NEED YOUR SUPPORT!

So, here's the deal. The last place finisher in my age group over the past few years has averaged 1 hour 40 minutes. I WILL NOT BE LAST! My ego will not allow it. I'm asking friends and family to pledge a specific dollar amount for every minute better I am than the last place finisher. If you pledge $1 and last place is 1:45 minutes and my time is 1:35, you owe $10.

To protect all of you against a last place finisher who is completely inept, we'll set a ceiling for the last place finisher of 1:50. If last place is 2:10 minutes, we'll adjust that person's time to 1:50.

IF I am the last place finisher OR I finish in more than 1:50, you are all off the hook and I will contribute $10 for everyone who makes a pledge (up to $300 - after all, I've got kids of my own to feed).

I'll be providing regular updates on my training progress and more about how I got involved on this blog.

So, if you want to participate, contact me at notlast(at)comcast.net