My name is Andrew Roosa and I'm a 19 year old rising sophomore at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Currently, I'm pursuing a double degree in Criminal Justice and Spanish, among other extracurricular activities. I'm originally from Lancaster, PA and have only been running long distances since the beginning of the calender year. While I have had hardly any exposure to competitive running, I've always loved the atmosphere of competing against other individuals, being a three sport varsity athlete in high school. Since I haven't been taking part competitively in any team sports for well over a year now, I took an interest in running in January. Likewise, I quickly became excited by the idea of running an entire marathon.

The story behind Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) has fascinated me ever since I became aware of its mission several years ago. In light of this inspirational organization, I'm running the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. on October 30, 2011 in order to raise awareness for ALSF, as well as for the purpose of my own personal goal of finishing a marathon. I trust that running and fundraising for such an important charity will do nothing but add to my inspiration as I go about the training process.

Over the course of the next few months, I look to raise a minimum of $1,000 in an effort to aid the funding of research projects that aim towards finding cures for all childhood cancers. Additionally, I'm hopeful that my aspirations will make a difference in the lives of children and their families as they combat the disease. I ultimately believe that running 26.2 miles will be a piece of cake in constrast to what countless resilient children have to go through daily.