Let's get this party started.

Don't try this at home. Or in the Blue Ride Mountains.

So I have a very common running injury right now called a "sprained motivation". See pic to right. As of today, that all changes. You see, I started this running journey in 2008 after watching a beautiful, funny, intelligent, loving and THE most the charismatic woman lose her battle to Ovarian Cancer. Before Emily's death, I hated running. Is there a stronger word than hate? Does loathe sound better? Okay, so I LOATHED running. After her death, I wasn't running with the thought of my pain in mind, rather I was running with the thought of hers. Within one year and 3 months, I had completed both a half and a full marathon. This really is 0-26.2 in no time and it was all through the inspiration that her memory provided me.

Over the last 6 years, my need to displace my emotional pain has lessened and my drive to get up every morning at 4:45am to knock out 10 miles is pretty much non-existent. I had to re-boot. Part of the reason I don't get up in the morning to run at the ass-crack of dawn is because I am up late at night with worry and stress from my job. My job THAT I LOVE! I don't have a typical job. I can't leave my work at a desk at 5pm. I can't not answer my phone at 1am with an emergency or not reply to an email on a Sunday about an animal in need. I work all the time. Anyone that works at the Humane Society of Eastern Carolina (or any animal shelter for that matter) works 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The shelter never shuts down. We are never "closed". The animals need us each and every day and some days, it seems as though the needs are never ending. Someone is sick, someone is scared, someone needs bottle feeding, someone is breaking down emotionally from living in a confined space, someone doesn't like their neighbor and we ALWAYS need money.... All of these need our immediate attention. So needless to say, my brain just never stops.

So about that money thing... Vet bills, medications, food (which by the way, we only have to pay shipping since Hill's Science Diet donates our food! Shipping is pricey, but not as pricey as shipping plus the cost of food!!), spays and neuter (no animal leaves our facility without the SNIP), utilities, cleaning supplies, facility maintenance, flea and Heartworm Prevention, payroll and on and on and on and on. Guess who's job it is to generate those funds? This lady's right here!

Reason 1 out of 387. Azalea was adopted in October of 2013.
She was a fabulous running partner!

So today I am leading by example. I will be running the NYC Marathon for the Humane Society of Eastern Carolina. I start my training today with NO more excuses and a goal to raise $2,620 for the HSEC. That's $100 a mile. My husband will tell you, I'm pretty fancy like that. I have 387 reasons to get my lazy butt up and run every day. That is the number of animals we adopted out last year. This year we are ahead of our 2013 adoptions by over 100 animals. I think keeping a shelter open for all of the animals we will continue to save should be enough motivation for me to get my butt out the door and beg all of my friends and family for mula. By supporting me and my training through your donations, we can both do our part to keep our doors open and you can make me feel guilty enough to actually go run.

My workouts won't be glorious. I can assure you, I will question my thinking many times on this 18 week journey. Check back often to laugh hysterically at my efforts, but I promise, I won't fail.