On Saturday the 17th I ran my fifth half marathon. This one was different, though. This half was a fundraiser for Penn State's THON through a program called Cents of Hope. The way the fundraiser worked was that I started the run in the very back of the pack, at the end of a crowd of almost 13,000 runners, and for every runner I passed my sponsors would donate a cent (or more than a cent if they decided to do a higher sponsorship level). This opened up a pretty huge fundraising opportunity for my crew team, and it was definitely motivation throughout the run. The crew team had 2 current members and 6 alumni running. The money raised goes towards our crew club's THON org fundraising totals, which we are trying to beat from last year. THON is a yearlong fundraising effort that culminates in a 46 hour no sitting, no sleeping dance marathon in February. The money raised through this fundraising goes towards the Four Diamonds at Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital, This foundation works to support families fighting pediatric cancer as well as provide funding for research and treatments. THON is super cool to be involved in at school- it's entirely student run, making it the largest student run philanthropy in the world, and last year the fundraising total at the end of the dance marathon was over $10,000,000. Going into the half marathon I was a little bit nervous about my shins. I have suffered pretty severe stress fractures in the past, so staying healthy was a big concern. About 3 weeks out from the half I was on a trail run and after finishing was feeling pretty sore in my shins. I decided to take the rest of the time until the half off from running. I purely cross trained for this half marathon, 70% rowing and erging, 20% lifting, and 10% climbing. This past week I ran 3.5 miles on Monday and felt no shin pain. I knew that my cardio was where it needed to be and that my legs were incredibly strong, so I felt ready for the run. This was definitely a risk, running 13.1 miles without running more than 1 other time in the last 3 weeks could definitely hurt my legs, but this was preferable to me as opposed to training through sore shins and definitely wrecking them on race day. My risk paid off, I ran the half with no shin issues at all. Race day was perfect, weather wise. It was between 34-40 degrees and sunny the whole time, with no wind until after I finished. This was my first time seeing Philly, and I have to be honest it is a really beautiful city. Plus I think that running through a city is the coolest way to see it for the first time. All the roads shut down, fans lining the course... I guess the only bad thing was how many Eagles signs/ shirts/ hats I saw. Go Pats. But I digress. When I run more than 4 miles I typically like to keep an 8:30/ mile pace, and if it's less than 4 miles I like to push it to under 8/ mile pace. So I figured that for this half 8:30-9 minute miles would be a good goal. After all, I could just jog this, pass thousands of people, and bring in lots of money, I didn't need to set any kind of record. My previous personal best was 9:55/ mile pace in 2015, so I knew I would set a PR regardless. But as the race started in perfect 35 degrees & sunny weather, I started off super fast. It is so easy to get caught up in the spirit of the day and go out too hot. I was crushing under 8/ mile for the first 8 miles or so. Once I got to the part of the course that had a little bit of a gradual climb that pace jumped to 8:30s. Miles 10-13 were a super grind, I really had to push and felt my legs getting tired. As expected, my limiting factor was not my cardio or my mind, it was my legs. That was fine, though, as long as I have no shin pain I can do anything! So I pushed and I finished the half with an average of 8:13/ mile pace. I was thrilled with this, it was a massive PR, and more importantly it had me finishing in about 2,000th place out of almost 13,000 runners.
With all of my sponsors in total promising 10 cents per runner passed, I am expecting club crew benefitting THON to get around $1,000 being added to their total just from my run, not even anyone else's. I am still waiting to hear the final numbers, but it is looking promising. That is what I am most proud of, that with pretty minimal fundraising effort and pretty maximum personal physical effort I was able to make a big difference in our fundraising and eventually in the lives of families fighting pediatric cancer. Comments are closed.
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