OK friends, you can pick yourself up off the floor now. Did you fall over laughing or collapse in shock at the image of little me with my bad knees and aversion to sweat actually running that many miles? When I told Mr. B that I signed up for a marathon, he literally stopped in his tracks. It was too funny!
No, no. What I’ve signed up for is something called the Miracle Marathon. It is a 27-day virtual fundraising campaign to help you get active while helping kids get well. Each day (beginning September 16) for 26 days, you move one mile however you want to (bike, skate, jump, hop, etc). I plan to do it on that large black thing looming in my bedroom my treadmill, but you could always split it up throughout the day. On the final day (October 12 at 1:27 CST), everyone begins the final 1.2 miles together (wherever you are) and we finish the marathon together.
When you sign up, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals will send you daily challenges, inspiring stories or motivational messages to help you meet your goals and connect you to an interactive, online community of supporters. The challenge is to raise $10/day for kids in your community to receive lifesaving medical care. That’s $272. Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals raises funds for 170 children’s hospitals across North America, which, in turn, use the money where it’s needed the most. When a donation is given it stays in the community, helping local kids. I’d jump up and down if you would visit my fundraising page and help me get to that goal.
I’m going to be walking a mile a day to benefit the Texas Children’s Hospital right here in Houston. I joined my friend Karen’s team.
If you’d like to cheer me on, here are some fun ways to do it:
1) Join Karen’s team! Since you probably already walk a mile a day, why not help support the awesome Texas Children’s Hospital while you do? And the best part is that you’ll do this at your leisure, in whatever way makes sense for you. So if you’d like to join us, simply sign up to be on our team (you don’t even have to be located in Houston). If you sign up as a MiracleMaker (as opposed to the free limited registration), you can even use her discount code (enter MiracleKarenW when you register, for 10% off), and you’ll get some cool swag, including a nifty little pedometer to help keep you on task.
JUST CLICK HERE TO JOIN TEAM CHOOKOOLOONKS. You’ll be so happy you did.
OR
2) Don’t join our team, but walk anyway! Maybe you love the idea of the MiracleMarathon, but there’s a hospital closer to home that you’d like to sponsor — that’s TOTALLY awesome as well. You can click here to check and see if there’s a Children’s Miracle Network hospital near you, and register to support that hospital.
OR
3) Support me with a donation. If you’d rather not walk, but still want to help, then I’d love to invite you to donate to the cause. Every little bit helps, truly, and I’d be really grateful. Maybe you’ll be my very first supporter! Because this just isn’t going to cut it…
To read all about our amazing Texas Children’s Hospital, I’ll refer you to Karen’s post all about her tour of it. Prepare to be awed.
I’ll let you know how it goes. 🙂
go, Naomi, go!
🙂
-Jennifer
Jennifer Richardson recently posted…seashell song….
What a brilliant fund-raising idea and for such a worthy cause. How fun you’re part of a team as well. And I’m glad to hear those bad knees of yours won’t be taking a marathon pounding.
Deborah Weber recently posted…Raven Head and Butterfly Toes
I think this is a wonderful idea! You’ll feel more motivated for a good cause and because you are exercising with friends. I like exercise challenges and have been entering them through the exercise tracking app MapMyFitness. The first one was August 2013 for everybody in Colorado – 30 minutes every day for a the whole month earned you a t-shirt. Swag like that is much more meaningful when you worked for it. There isn’t any fee to enter these challenges. Often they have something donated from a sponsor, like a chance to win a $1000 Academy Sports gift certificate. I am in a challenge right now in which that’s one of the prizes. We’re doing 75 miles on our bikes, 25 miles running, and 15 miles walking. That one started August 24 and I already finished riding (that’s normally how I get to work). I still have 9 miles to run in 16 days, and 4 miles to walk. I find that silly prizes are just what I need to get me going in the morning. I am sure you’ll have fun!
Good for you! Impressive. I’ll have to do a post on what the Miracle Marathon sent me… I actually used the muscle rub gel already after a photo shoot last weekend when I could barely move. 🙂