TNT Kick-OFF

Last Thursday myself and several of my co-workers from REMAX gathered for the Team In Training's kickoff event. We met great people that are also participating in marathons, 1/2 marathons, triathlons and walking events. Everyone with their unique reason for participating. Some of the running participants shared their personal stories and battles with cancer. It certainly strengthened my commitment to fundraise and to finish this event. It is hard to express how very right it feels to be joining in this cause. Like, I've always been meant to do this, I just didn't know it until now.

1st Donation!

Thanks Jen K. You're number 1! You're number 1!

I mentioned that I received my first donation at a meeting today towards my $3700 goal. The response was "Only $3699 left to go huh?"

Funny... NOT ... well, sort of :-)

My sincerest thanks Jen for getting the ball rolling! You Rock.

Blog and Webpage

Well, it seemed like running 26 miles would be the hard part. But perhaps that will be easy. Maybe it's raising my $3700 fundraising goal that is going to be the real challenge.

I have my webpage set up with team in training that allows for easy online donations. I just sent out a massive email request. Perhaps, that is why you found this? I still have a donation letter to put together and send through snail mail. I can already envision myself doing bake sales, can drives and pub crawls (Think I'll concentrate on pub crawls :-) ...)

I did the math. 100 people/organizations times a $37 dollar donation = $3700. Coincidence that my 37th birthday is this October? I'm setting the goal .... 100 $37 dollar donations by my 37th b-day. Will you be contributor # 1?

$5 ... $1000, any amount is welcomed and appreciated. Also, if you have a business that would consider being a corporate sponser let me know. I can obtain the needed information and would be happy to fill out a donation request.

Jen

How It All Started

I ran my first 5k in May of 2009. It was the Annual Dam to Dam event here in Des Moines. I had been running 3 to 5 miles faithfully on the treadmill at my gym, Aspen 3 to 5 days a week since November of 2008. However, real pavement running was daunting.

Between operating my childcare from 7AM to 5:30PM and working real estate evenings and weekends as well, being able to jog consistently without the assistance of Kids Klub at the gym was almost impossible. But I managed to get a few outside runs in before the event.

I completed Dam to Dam event with a time of 28 minutes and 30 seconds. Not bad for my first event. I was HOOKED on running. On July 2, 2009 I gave up my childcare business and went back to full time real estate with RE/MAX real estate concepts. (www.jengruberhomes.com) The new schedule allowed for outdoor running, hooray! With the encouragement of a friend (thanks Brian!) I decided to sign up for the Des Moines 1/2 Marathon coming up this October. It seemed huge, but what the heck. No time like the present. I utilized Gray's Lake and MapMyRun.com and have started running 4 to 10 miles on a regular basis.

Soon after my mental commitment to the DSM 1/2 Marathon, my broker Robb Spearmann introduced me to several other agents looking at The Team-In-Training participation at the Phoenix Rock-N-Roll Marathon. Hmmm...run a marathon, meet new friends, have great training support, learn about and donate to an important cause? There just doesn't seem to be any down side to this adventure.

Thanks for joining me and supporting me on this personal journey!

Jen