Today

I'm not blogging about baby carrying today.  Sorry to those of you who look forward to that (all two of you, hehe), but I have something a bit more important to talk about.  As many of you know, I am a member of Team Endure to Cure.  I regularly fundraise and dedicate my races towards the team, and they put all donations towards giving a "Small Wish" to a pediatric cancer patient.  It is a beautiful way for me to mesh together my passion with helping a sweet child in need.  Last Spring, I ran my New River Marathon for E2C, and I raised over $500!

Modeling my E2C gear

 Fast forward to today--I woke up to something that made my heart both ache and swell with pride.  I received an email from the E2C founder stating that they had found a child to receive my Small Wish donations.  The little girl is being treated for brain cancer, her second recurrence.  She was diagnosed in 2011.  Her fifth birthday is this month.  Not only would she probably be friends with my daughter, she very well could BE my daughter if life worked out a little differently.  I have gone through a huge range of emotions today, from incredible sadness for her and her family, to gratefulness for my amazingly healthy children, to absolute anger at all of the people out there who would prefer to complain about mundane crap like politics and having too high credit card debt.  I'm trying to settle on the positive emotions, but it is tough.

I am happy to know that my fundraising efforts are going towards making her birthday incredibly special for her.  It will be nice to know that I helped to put a smile on a little face that probably hasn't smiled very much lately.  I will also write her a letter, and my daughter is excited to make her a "princess" birthday card.  Hopefully the letter won't be too tear-soaked, because this mama is an emotional mess!

So now I begin my efforts again, to help yet another child suffering from pediatric cancer.  I will not only fundraise like last time, but I will be adding in a special incentive for those who donate when I announce my virtual 5k.  I will also be donating $1 from every sale on my future Etsy store to the foundation.

The race that I'm focusing on the most at present and that I plan to represent Team E2C at is my Spartan Beast on October 13th!  A Spartan Beast is one of the toughest of the Spartan Race Series--a 10-13mile grueling trail and obstacle course.  I will be climbing walls, crawling under barbed wire, carrying ridiculously heavy random crap, running through the woods, getting horribly dirty, and doing burpees for everything that I mess up.  It will be gloriously painful!  I consider it to be by far tougher than running a regular half marathon, and my strength training is really stepping up a notch (or five) for this.  I have my Super Spartan in over a week now, and hopefully it will give me a good taste for what is to come with the Beast.



Please consider joining me in helping to make a child with cancer smile.  If you'd like to donate, no amount is too small!  I always have my donations page below the site header, so it's ready and waiting!  And like I said, when I have my virtual 5k I'll be offering extra incentives for those of you who donate.  So if you'd like to save your donation until then, it's no problem.  Until my race I'll be focusing mentally, emotionally, and physically on the task at hand.  I look forward to what is to come!!