As some of you know, I was planning to run the NYC marathon on November 4th. I had been training with two friends, Michelle Gordon and Ariel Weksler, since early July. This would have been our first marathon. I had entered the NYC marathon through the lottery but both Michelle and Ariel entered in support of charities that were important to them. Ariel raised almost $7,000 for the National MS Society, in honor of people like her brother battling the disease. Michelle raised over $3,000 for YAI which serves people with disabilities and their families to help support another friend who has worked at YAI for a number of years. Given the absolute devastation that Hurricane Sandy brought to parts of NYC, the marathon was cancelled. While we all supported the decision, we were extremely disappointed to miss out on the marathon. The picture above is of the three of us during a 22 mile training run on the Rockaway boardwalk - just weeks before Sandy destroyed it.
When hearing about the cancellation, I thought of the Philadelphia marathon which is on November 18th. I learned that spots on Team Lemon were available and Michelle, Ariel and I signed up. Team Lemon is the marathon team for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. Alex’s Lemonade Stand is a charity I had already known a bit about but am excited to have learned more about recently. Alex’s supports childhood cancer causes, primarily research (who can’t get behind that?) and frankly the story of the charity’s founding is both inspirational and heartbreaking at the same time. See this link for that story and their mission statement: http://www.alexslemonade.org/about/our-mission-history.
We are truly making lemonade out of lemons! We’re raising money for a good cause and reaching our marathon goals at the same time. We hope to raise at least $1,500 for Alex’s in total (hopefully, much more). Given that Ariel and Michelle have already raised over $10,000, our marathon running will be helping a lot of people. Please support us and Alex’s by sponsoring our runs on November 18th!
