I doubt she knew that what she said really triggered something significant in my heart, but I do have to thank her for it.
I do spend an awful lot of time running. I run anywhere between 15 and 25 miles each week, which usually means I spend almost 3 1/2 hours of my free time pounding pavement. When you consider that 40 hours of my week are dedicated to work, and another 56 hours are dedicated to sleeping, I'm left with about 5% of my "free" time that I choose to spend running.
I used to really enjoy running road races, just for the fun of it. I've done my fair share of 5Ks, and now I have two 10Ks under my belt.
I do think, though, that it's time to put this activity to good use. I've done some research on ways to use my running as a way to raise funds for charities, and I have several options in front of me:
1. Run charity races exclusively. These usually cost about the same as any other road race, and the proceeds go to one charity or another. I ran a 5K for Autism Awareness a few years back, and my hard-earned $20 went towards Autism research. This is definitely a viable option, but charity races are not as frequent, nor are they as popular as regular old road and trail races.
2. Pick a charity for each race and ask friends and family to donate. This sounds like an awesome idea on the surface, until you realize that my friends and family would have to trust me a heck of a lot to just hand me some money for my running in a race. It would in no way be official, and may creep some people out. Including myself.
3. Become a St. Jude's Hero. This option sounds like the best to me, so far. St. Jude offers a program for runners, walkers, and bikers to raise money for St. Jude's Children's Hospital. For a relatively small sign-up fee, St. Jude hooks you up with a fundraising site and some training information. I would be able to run any race I'd like, and I would just advertise to friends and family that they can donate on this particular website to sponsor me. It sounds slightly awkward ("please give money to this charity because I'm running this race"), but I feel because it is a known charity and an official program, it is less likely to raise any flags.
I definitely still have some thinking to do on this topic. If there are any other options out there, drop me a line. I'd love to hear how others turn their running into fundraising for charities.
I'll keep you all updated on my training progress and what is going on with everything.
