We Reached the Goal!! But Can We Do More???

I need to send out another big thank you to everyone who has donated so far!

I haven't been raising money for even a month yet and with all of the support from family and friends we've already exceeded my original goal for the Atlanta Marathon! With the donation of my friend Jason Crosby last night (who like our other top donator, Brandon Bowman, is serving our country in the armed forces. Is there an oo-rah in the Air Force, Jason?) my grant total shot up to $1,681! $181 over the original goal!

However, this is not the end. I still have close to 3 months until the marathon actually starts. I COULD sit back at this point and just wait it out, content with doing JUST enough to get by. Or, I could jack up the goal again, and see how high we can get! I still haven't even gotten to send out personalized letters yet! Spencer still hasn't sent out an email to his massive contact list! We could raise even more money to fight this disease!

Almost immediately after exceeding our goal last night I got an email from someone with MMRF (could have been one of those automatically generated emails, I honestly don't know) hinting that I should raise my goal to $2,500. That would be an amazing amount of money to raise for my first real fundraising experience for my first marathon. But, I was thinking on my way to work this morning...Could we do more? The MANSION hasn't even gotten together for a donation yet...Can we do more than $2,500? We raised $1,500 in under a month. Could we match that feat over the next 3?

I think we can. I KNOW we can. So, while I again appreciate the suggestion from MMRF as to what our fundraising goal should be, I think I'm going to tell them, "Thanks, but no thanks" to their suggestion.

Our NEW GOAL: $3,000!!!

Wow!

WOW! That's all I can say. One week after I created this blog and my donation page I'm already up to $1,355, just only $145 away from my goal amount of $1500! This is just evidence of something I've known all along: I have an amazing set of family and friends! Thank you all so much! I wouldn't trade any of you for anything!

BUT...we're not there yet. And, while hitting my goal so quickly is amazing, I think what it really says is my goal was a little too low! So I'm going to keep focused on raising money for this cause well after we've exceeded the original goal!

My training has been progressing pretty well over the past 2 weeks. I apologize for not posting sooner, but I was out of town last week and never really got a chance to come on and give an update. I'm slowly, but surely starting to push up my mileage and incorporating some speedwork into my training. I've been feeling pretty good. If I've had any aches or pains I've made sure to take care of them on recovery days, but nothing recurring thus far.

Thank you to everyone so far that has donated. Please continue to spread the word and I will continue to keep you updated every step of the way!

The Year of the Injury and Marine Love

I blame Trey Bailey.

Trey and I ran cross country together in high school at Collins Hill and attended Georgia College at the same time for a year or 2, but we really started hanging out and becoming close friends just after New Years 2009. Trey had just torn a ligament in his ankle and as we were discussing my nagging foot issues (plantar fascitis) he boldly declared 2009 the year "The Year of the Injury". Since that time I have continued to deal with foot issues, ankle problems, an achilles strain, hamstring pulls, and, now, a hip issue.

Throughout this time, except for taking a few weeks off here and there, I have been trying to continue training (hey, I am still a Buckley). I was able to get through most of the summer dealing with these nagging injuries, but about the time the Peachtree Road Race rolled around, my hip (which was probably caused by the hamstring) flared up and necessitated me taking a month off (and when I say "take off" i really mean stop running, but continue to bike and lift, because I would probably go crazy otherwise). Last week, I finally busted out the new running shoes and hit the road again, as I knew I had to start putting in the mileage for the Atlanta Marathon which is quickly heading this way. Luckily, my hip has been relatively cooperative and I have been icing, stretching, heating, icy-hotting, and popping aleve as much as possible to prevent it from regressing.

So training has begun! Last week was my test run on the hip and this week I will be getting out there in full force! I will spend the first couple weeks building mileage and treating my hip. At this point I am putting up numerous days of 5 mile runs, which I plan to extend a little next week. I am traveling to Lexington, KY this week for work, but I will still focus on getting in mileage and trying to stay injury-free.

I will provide another update next week and will hopefully be able to report an improving hip and increasing mileage. However, as mentioned above if I suffer any further setbacks it will be the fault of Mr. Trey Bailey (and not my continued stubbornness)!

P.S. I need to give a Big OO-RAH to my buddy Brandon Bowman for his donation over the weekend. While he is away serving our country in Afghanistan on what I believe is his 3rd or 4th tour he went onto my donation page and donated $500 to MMRF for my marathon. This man is my hero. So from all my readers out there (assuming I have any) can I get a big

OO-RAH!!!

The time has come.....background info

As anyone who knows me well can tell you, running has been an important part of my life.It began in high school with cross country practices (otherwise known some days as "coach evasion"). I continued to run as much as I could through college, but once I graduated and move back to Atlanta I have truly learned to love running and it has morphed into a passion. The high school cross country slacker who vowed never to race in anything longer than a 10K completed his first half marathon last Thanksgiving Day and another in March 2009. Having completed the marathon distance over 2 races I decided this summer it was time for the real thing!

This Thanksgiving Day, I will be running my very first full marathon, the Atlanta Marathon. Since this is going to be my first marathon, I thought it would be great to make this experience about more than just me. I decided to run raise money for my first marathon for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF), through their Marathon Program. This program typically involves training in teams for a given marathon, however, the Atlanta Marathon does not have such a team. At first I thought about trying to participate in the marathon program in a city that did have a team, but I knew I could not run my first marathon for this cause away from those closest to me. So, Atlanta Marathon 2009 here I come!

But why run to raise money for Multiple Myeloma? Multiple Myeloma is basically cancer of the plasma cell. According to the MMRF, this incurable but treatable disease had approximately 20,000 new cases of Multiple Myeloma diagnosed in 2008 alone. Two of the new cases of Multiple Myeloma over the past years have hit particularly close to home for me. My Uncle Jay was diagnosed with the disease, but luckily has been in remission for a few years. Then a woman that is basically my second mother was diagnosed with the disease a few years ago, and has been battling ever since. I am running this marathon for them. I am hoping their strength will push me through the pain of 26.2 miles.

So that's the background info. I will post updates from my training at least once a week to let everyone know how I am doing. Please visit my donation page (http://www.active.com/donate/2009UmbrellaMarathon/mansionmarathon) and give whatever you can. There will be multiple donation options, so go wild and remember its for a great cause!