It’s here. NWM Oct 16, 2011

So here it is.  The day we have been training for, for over 4 months has arrived.  After a lot of hard work, pain, miles and fundraising we are at home on a Saturday night getting our running gear all laid out in preparation of becoming marathoners.

It hasn’t been easy, we have both had to hop though a lot of obstacles to get to this point.  But I can say that four months ago I wasn’t capable of running more than 5 miles, much less 26.2. Two weeks ago I completed 20 miles, 6.2 shy of the real deal.  Tomorrow I prove to myself that I can do this.  Over the past four months a ton has changed.  I have learned how to make things happen that I didn’t think could .  I think I can achieve things easier now, knowing that I can.   Thanks to everyone who helped make this possible and supported us along the way.

Loren here. The process of getting here has been harder than I had imagined to be honest. There have been times when I questioned if this was possible, and if I could physically do this. While I will have to wait until tomorrow to see how this turns out, I do know that this has been one hell of an experience. According to my Nike+ training app, I’ve logged close to 200 miles in training in preperation for tomorrow morning. Thanks to everyone who helped us get through the many challenges along the way.

Thanks and I can’t wait to go to bed tomorrow having completed what we set out to do.

Be sure to follow up as we make it along the course tomorrow.  You can follow our progress via facebook updates or by going to http://www.nwm.sportstats.ca

My bib number is 27381 (don’t be fooled, it may say I’m running a half but I WILL be doing the full)

and Loren’s is 27951

3600 Dollars Later

We did it.  With thanks to all of our family and friends, we reached our Team in Training goal of raising $3,600 today towards blood cancer research.  It has been such an amazing and unique experience raising this money.  Seeing the people who donated was pretty touching, to see that they care what we are doing but also knowing that they took the time and effort to support the cause.

Just to recap: 68 individual people donated.  We auctioned off a penthouse suite in a North Beach hotel, a massage certificate and wine tasting for two.  We had a fundraiser at Lombardi Sports.  Greg “the Gay Sportscaster” (and our new friend) donated $600 that he made from his event, kindly “gaying it forward”.  We sold a voucher good for a main cabin select flight on main cabin select.  We were able to have a kick ass, way fancier than we are, wine party thanks to Cord.

It has been a pretty cool summer, training to be able to run a marathon (currently I can officially run 18 miles) and raising this money.  It hasn’t been easy and I’m pretty sure that raising the money is harder than running the distance.  It makes sense now that they have people who are training for a marathon raise the money.  They go hand in hand.  Both are hard things to do.  But, both make you feel great.   I feel lucky to have been doing what a lot can’t.  I thank everyone who has given up some of their money, when I know what its like to not have a lot.  Everyone who has had a hand in this process has given what they were able and I am more than grateful for everything.

Here is something I found that describes what a donation to Team in Training can do.  It’s a cool glimpse at what our $3600 go towards.

• $5 will pay for sending a newly-diagnosed patient information about support and their disease.
• $25 covers a single prescription co-payment.
• $35 pays for transportation for rural patients to receive treatment at a comprehensive cancer center.
• $40 pays for sending a comprehensive information packet to children with cancer.
• $50 covers the cost of a CT scan.
• $75 pays for tissue typing to become a bone marrow donor.
• $100 provides three patients access to an information teleconference.
• $150 allows five patients to make a First Connection with a trained peer volunteer.
• $200 funds one Family Support Group meeting of 9-15 participants.
• $500 gives a patient one year of financial assistance for transportation and co-pays.
• $1000 supports one week of salary for a blood cancer researcher at UCSF, Stanford, or UC Berkeley.

A extra special thanks to those who donated twice! Damian, Becky and Melissa, you all have been so generous and supportive.

That being said, all we have to do is run the 26.2 miles! We wont be blasting facebook with auctions or messages asking for donations but our page is still up if you would like to donate to this really amazing cause. Or you can just go to check out the impressive list of people who made all this possible.

Check it out: HERE

Good bye for now!

Andrew

Happy Hour at Bar on Fulton!

Hello everyone!

So we are closer and closer to our race day! The donations have been coming in and this weekend we are having one last push with a wine tasting party! Thanks to our friend Cord at Wine & Spirits Magazine, we have 10 bottles of very nice wine. We did some research and were pretty impressed with the average price tag, this will not be a “Two-Buck-Chuck” kind of night. Here is the facebook invite if you would like to come: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=204931966237892&view=wall&notif_t=event_wall

We currently stand at 87%, and we are just $451 shy of our goal! It’s so close I can taste it! We’re hoping our last wine part goes well seeing as we only have the rest of the month to get this wrapped up!

As far as training goes, we are stepping into high gear this weekend for our longest run yet: 16-18 miles. Just for some perspective, San Francisco International Airport is only 14 miles away from downtown SF. So while I am terrified and I worry for the health of my knees, it is very exciting to see how far we have come and what TNT has made possible.

As always you can look at our team page HERE, and donate if you can’t make it to our party this Saturday.

Hope you are all doing well!

Loren / Andrew

Charity within a Charity (Cameo by Loren)

Hello all!

So the big day is coming, and coming fast. As of today we are all little under 2 months away from race day. I’d like to just update you guys on how we are doing both physically and financially.

So at the beginging of the month we were a bit nervous about our fundraising. Very nervous actually. We’ve bombarded our friends with emails and updates on twitter and flooded their newsfeeds on facebook, but we had hit a wall.

Luckily, there is charity within charity at Team in Training. Our new friends Derek and Greg (the Gay Sportscaster from 99.7 no less) from TNT had an extremely successful fundraiser at Swirl on Castro, so successful that they went over their goal. Being the generous team members they are they contacted the owner of Swirl, asked him to donate the extra funds to OUR efforts. So, thanks to Greg, Derek and Jerry Cooper of Swirl, we got an amazing donation of $575! We can’t tell you how appreciative we are, and it goes to show you that Team in Training is just that, a team.

Other than money, running is going well. Long runs are the norm and we have been trying to not freak out about the big day. Life has been pretty busy too. I got a new job and left Yelp after a year. We just got back from Phoenix after chasing some much needed sun, visiting old friends and scoping out the Scottsdale Yelp office.

So the fundraising continues, and so does the fundraising until we’ve met our goal of 3,600 dollars. As of today we are at $2,607! We are also still giving a bottle of fine wine, donated by Wine & Spirit Magazine, to anyone who donates $25 or more.  And looking for someone to buy out Virgin Main Cabin Select roundtrip flight for $400-500.

So help us cross the finish line (both of them!) and help in anyway you can here.

Cheers!

 

Red and Flight

Just got back from a very foggy and hilly 9.5 mile run through the Presidio and Golden Gate Park.  Things are getting a bit intense around here.  With a little more than a month left until our fundraising deadline, we must come to a pause and reevaluate our donation efforts.

While we would like to think that our friends are a bunch of jet setters, our silent auction hasn’t made the splash we were hoping for.  We have decided to stop the silent auction and instead ask for $500 for the voucher.  Again, the voucher pays for a Main Cabin Select seat on any round trip flight on Virgin America (there are a few black out date exclusions).  The voucher must be used by June 2012, so if you anticipate going anywhere, have some money, and want to save a bunch (pretty sure that a flight to NYC on Virgin runs more than $400 in economy) this is your chance.

We thank everyone who has donated and who has put up with us blowing up their Facebook feeds, email, ect.  Your support means a lot to us, we are excited to be helping the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and are happy to support such a great cause.  It has been an amazing summer training and we both have been getting in great shape.  We are able to run farther than we ever have in our lives and we both have lost a significant amount of weight.  We have met some amazing people on Team in Training and have had the chance to run along side some amazing people who are battling blood cancer.

Our friend Cord who works for Wine and Spirits Magazine has donated a case of wine to our cause.  We would like to thank those who donate $25 or more from now until they are gone by giving/sending you a bottle of wine Cord has given us.  According to this fine connoisseur of all things red and white, some of these varietals are quite fancy and sell for well over $25.

Make your donated on our fundraising page  and we will get in contact with you as to how you would like your bottle.

If you are interested in the Virgin America flight, go ahead and email me at andrew.cesarz@gmail.com

 

Thank you all,

 

 

$2k and a Getaway!!

Hello hello!

As of this morning we surpassed TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS in fundraising ($2007.97 to be exact), thanks to all of you! But with a little more than 2 months until the big day, we have a long way to go to get to our goal of $3600. So on the heels of our very successful fundraiser at Lombardi Sports, we have another very exciting and special fundraiser…

Do you need a vacation? A summer getaway or maybe a fall R&R? Well, today is the begining of our silent auction for a roundtrip flight anywhere Virgin America flies, Main Cabin Select no less!!

Here are the details: We have secured a Virgin America flight in Main Cabin Select where the free booze and snacks and celebrity treatment are a step above the steerage most of us are used to. The winner we be able to pick their destination and recline with a mimosa, enjoy that extra leg room and be waited upon.

We recently looked at a flight in Main Cabin Select for New York, and the total was a whopping 1900 dollars!!! So you if feel like splurging, or if you are in dire need of some sun (Virgin America flies to Mexico. Just sayin’…) get in on this deal and support Leukemia & Lymphoma Society while you kick back in style.

The winner will be called directly and we can coordinate your vacay!

Email us with your bid and phone number and where you are thinking of going, mostly so we can live vicariously through you

email: andrew.cesarz@gmail.com or lfoseid@gmail.com

Happy bidding!

Payments will be made directly on our donations page. As always, even if you don’t want to join the jet setters, donate anything you can to help.  Donate Here

Oh, and we ran 11 miles in the fog up the hills of the Presidio this morning at 7am. No big deal…

Loren / Andrew

Half Way

With a little more than two months left before the Nike Women’s Marathon, I am now at the half way point in both my training and fundraising.

Over the weekend I ran 14 miles in the SF Marathon with the Yelp Relay Team.  It was my first expeierence running in an actual marathon and it was awesome.  I have never seen so many people running.  I started at mile 5, from here it was up the hill to Golden Gate bridge.  The bridge was literally full with runners toe-to-heel.  I saw several people trip and fall on the pavement.  It was so exciting and different from the normal training vibe.

From the bridge, the course headed to Golden Gate Park where the course was lined with people cheering and DJ’s playing music.  Overall I felt pretty good and wasn’t too exhausted once I reached the half marathon point.  Training wise, I will be running a half marathon or more every weekend until race day.

Fundraising wise we are also half way done.  Our event at Lombardi Sports brought in $467 which pushed us just shy of 50%

We are both pretty nervous that we have at least $1600 more to raise.  We sign our recommitment forms this week and vow to either raise the money by September 22nd or pay the remainder.  While we both are excited to help and donate as much as we can, we hope that we find more support from friends, family and our local community.

If anyone has any great ideas for some fundraising events or opportunities now that we have reached our half way point, please leave a comment and let us know.

As always, here is a link to our funraising site.  Please donate and share the link on your Facebook wall, twitter feed and perhaps even with your Google + circles.

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