It’s a Long Slow Road from Scorched Earth and TEAM PAWS

As anybody who reads this blog is aware, this will not be the marathon year for me. With the downtime from the Easter stress fracture, I’m coming back from ground zero or as we economists like to say, from scorched earth. I’m just starting the third week of a training program under the guidance of a running coach and I have to say, although none of this is something I couldn’t have figured out on my own, having a coach has been good for me. When I start to do more than Caroline has prescribed, I say “no, there’s a reason she only wants you to do…. Fill in the blank” and I behave. I guess this says something about my personality. I always did my homework in school and still like following rules. With the start of the third week, my aspirations are starting to be bigger than my current capability – I want to run that marathon, dash that half marathon, etc. These things may come but not now.

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. So, I can’t run the Chicago marathon but I paid for the bib. Even though I cannot run, I planned to attend the health and fitness expo on Friday, October 5th. Why not check out all the vendors, charities, etc.? Then it occurred to me, maybe they need volunteers and maybe TEAM PAWS my charity group needs help? Sure enough, I am now working the health and fitness expo on Friday morning and will be able to look around in the afternoon. Then on marathon day, I will help them dismantle the TEAM PAWS charity block party and be there to cheer runners at mile 14. I hope to be there early enough to help them set up too but 6:30 am from the western suburbs might be a push. I’m almost as excited to be volunteering as to be running. OK, well maybe not that much but it is exciting.

My TEAM PAWS donation page is still active at http://pawschicago.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1006413&supId=352351163 I would be very grateful for your donations. I’m a suburbanite and have adopted all my best friends from ADOPT or the Naperville Humane Society but Chicago is full of unwanted animals and PAWS does a great job. If you got your best friend from an adoption agency, won’t you please consider donating.

More about PAWS Chicago below:

“In 2007, PAWS Chicago opened the Midwest's only cageless, state-of-the-art, No Kill shelter. With proactive adoption and spay/neuter programs, more than 5,000 dedicated volunteers, and a nationally renowned shelter medicine program, PAWS Chicago is transforming animal welfare and saving lives.

In 2011, PAWS Chicago found homes for more than 4,300 homeless pets and performed more than 18,000 free and low-cost spay/neuter surgeries, the majority for families who could not otherwise afford the procedure. These two efforts are reducing the number of unwanted pets entering shelters and increases the number of lives saved.”

Thank you all!!!