Quotable

I am going to let some of my favorite quote do the the talking for me in this post.  Thank you to my dad for the suggestion!

Thank you for your generous support as I fund raise for Riley Hospital for Children and as I train for the 500 Festival Mini Marathon!  I have revised my goal and am hoping to raise $750 for Riley before May 2!  If you have not yet donated, please consider donating so that the kids at Riley can continue running (because it is fun)!
http://donate.rileykids.org/goto/staceydraper

Training and Fundraising Update

WE DID IT!!!

Thanks to your generosity, I have reached my goal of raising $500 for Riley Hospital for Children!  There are still 2.5 more months until the Mini Marathon (May 2) though, so that means that we have plenty of time to crush that goal and donate lots and lots of money to help the amazing kiddos at Riley!

Training for the Mini Marathon is going according to plan.  Over the past two weekends, I have participated in my first two races of the year.  On February 7, I ran a 3-mile race in downtown Indy as part of the Mini Marathon "Miler" series.  During this series, I will run races of increasing mileage each month leading up to the Mini Marathon.  It was 3 miles in February and I will run 6 miles in March and 10 miles in April!  The race went great.  The weather was chilly, but it was sunny and beautiful.  There were over 1000 runners who participated, and I was very proud of my time.  My average time was 10:30 per mile!

Yesterday (Valentine's Day), I ran the Run4Love 5k in Fishers.  It was especially fun because I ran it with my friend Kristine.  The race was very challenging.  It was about 25 degrees outside and there were wind gusts up to 40 mph!  There were also flurries coming down on us the whole time!  Afterwards, we were treated with hot chocolate, sparking grape juice, roses, and M&M candies!  I was pleased with our time for this race as well, especially given the tough conditions.

My longest run so far in preparation for the Mini has been 5 miles, and this week I have a 6-mile long run scheduled.  I have also discovered "hill training," where I use different inclines on the treadmill to prepare myself for any hills I might encounter while running in training runs or in races.  Living in central Indiana makes it hard to prep for hills (since we don't have many!), but since I am training for them now, I will be ready for any that get in my way!

Thank you again for all your support as I train for the Mini Marathon and raise money for Riley Hospital for Children.  If you have not yet donated and would like to give money to help these awesome kiddos, please visit my fundraising page at http://donate.rileykids.org/goto/staceydraper .