but susan doesn't! she just generously donated to my fund to kick cancer's ass while also kicking my own ass running the marine corps marathon this fall. in total, blog readers (and a couple semi-readers) have given $125 towards my goal of $2000! if you haven't had a chance to donate yet, please send $10 my way (or, you know, $1,875) if you can spare it. here is an online donation link, or you can use paypal, which is located in the sidebar. if you don't feel comfortable donating online, just give me your mailing info and i'll send you the donation form plus a sase to mail it in (you just need to make the check out to team lombardi).

if anyone is interested in how marathon stuff in general is going: pretty well, so far. knock on wood. i ran eight miles last weekend at a 9:30 minute pace, and i'm running 10 this weekend with the team lombardi training group. during the week i generally run two or three times for 30-40 minutes, and i should start throwing in some weight-training/cross-training stuff as well. my schedule has me increasing my weekend long-distance runs a couple of miles every weekend, with some shorter runs along the way, up until 22 miles a few weeks before the race (which, not happily, falls on both halloween and my four-year anniversary with tommy [yes, our anniversary is on halloween]). that'll be a fun weekend. i'm also running the rock n roll half marathon in va beach over labor day - if you want to watch me and a couple of friends sweat it out while you hit the beach, come along!

my grandparents came in to visit this weekend, and my brother returned from his navy rotc subcruise, and basically, everyone's reaction to the marathon was not, "oh my god, you're running 26.2 miles, how amazing!" it was basically, "catherine, dear, how in the HELL are you going to raise $2,000?" (that'd be my grandmother) followed a few minutes later by "what happens if you don't raise $2,000?" followed by "can you actually RUN that far?" which in general was followed by more positive support. of course, my grandmother won some community service award in laramie, wy and also raised like a billion dollars for some hospital recently, so i'll have to get some fundraising tips from her.

anyway: i do want to let you know that even $10 makes a difference. which sounds like the most retarded cliche ever, but it is true. there are about 40 people on team lombardi, and if we all meet our goals, we will have raised $80,000 for cancer research. this is exactly the sort of money that enables lombardi to perform clinical and experimental trials, like the one that saved my mom's life. no, i'm not afraid to pull out the "lombardi saved my dear mom's life, now GIVE MONEY, ASSHOLE" guilt trip/trick. she gave me permission. so, come on - show a little love.