Welcome - What can I do to earn your money?

Thanks for dropping in on my "beating-oprah" blog. First off, before I get sued, I don't hate Oprah nor do I mean "beating" in the most popular dictionary.com definition of the word:

1. to strike violently or forcefully and repeatedly.

I mean beating Oprah in the sense of beating her time in the marathon. You see, I'm a marathoner. Now that I've completed three marathons, I'm proud to wear that badge of stupidity that says "I run 26.2 miles for fun!". Unfortunately, I'm not a particularly fast marathoner; I'm slow for a guy marathoners and would only be an average girl marathoner. My goal is break 4 hours and 30 minutes; the best I've done is 4:39.

Miss Oprah Winfrey, however, has done a bit better. In 2003, Oprah ran her first (and I believe only) marathon, and eclipsed my life long goal of 4.5 hours by pumping those famous legs for an official finish of 4 hours, 29 minutes, and 20 seconds(http://www.oprah.com/tows/slide/200311/20031103/tows_slide_20031103_pd_02.jhtml).

This is all relevant because when you run long, you need a mantra to take your mind off the task at hand. While preparing for my last marathon, I learned that Oprah's time was just the kind of time I wanted to beat, and therefore, this simple mantra became clear:

BEAT OPRAH!

Well, come the day of the 2007 Houston Marathon, I didn't exactly do that. I actually failed by a fairly stunning 17 minutes, though I was struggling with an injury, so we'll say that's to blame! Not long after this last effort, I became aware that Chicago would be holding their 30th marathon and would have over 45,000 competitors. I knew Chicago is regarded as one of the world's best marathons .... I also knew that's where Oprah lives! Though my mantra became a bit longer, it truly had a renewed relevence:

BEAT OPRAH - IN HER OWN HOMETOWN!

My mission seemed simple at this point; train my hinney off, go to one of the flattest courses running knows (flat is good!), hope for cool weather, and blow the doors off Oprah's personal best. Things got a little complicated when, during registration, I clicked an honest looking box, asking an honest little question:

"Would you like to learn about running to raise money for charity?"

While there are several charity 5K races I run, I've never raised money during my marathon running. This was about to change when I received information about the American Cancer Society's (ACS) Charity Runner program at the Chicago Marathon. The idea is simple: raise at least $850 for cancer research. Sure, they give you a running shirt, but it basically just plays on your desire to raise money for charity. As for desire, it's not exactly a secret that I support cancer charities when I get the chance (maybe I'll post why one of these days, but not right now). It is a relative secret that I spent several months this year planning and almost executing a 5K charity run benefiting MD Anderson Cancer Center (I wanted to bring the Terry Fox Run back to Houston, but it wasn't meant to be). So running and charity has been on my brain this year; I quickly signed up to be an ACS Charity Runner.

Which brings us back to Miss Oprah. I could just ask people for donations (and if anyone I work with is reading this, that day is coming :), but really, I want to earn your money. I want you to keep on giving the money you give to other charities, but I want to convince you to add a bit more on the top for the ACS. To earn those precious greenbacks of yours, I'm offering three things with this blog:

1. Details of how I am training to beat Oprah. For the runners out there, you'll get a view of how a seasoned, grizzled, and slow veteran of the marathon game gets into running shape. You'll also learn the secrets that I have never used in my training that I hope will propel me to success!
2. Since Oprah has more money in pocket change than I will ever make in my life, I'm going to use non-running days to post on the topics of personal wealth and finance. As anyone who has ever seen my "retire early" spreadsheet will attest to, wealth and financial planning are a couple of topics that peek my interest ... and I think I know more than many when I speak on the subject.
3. Comedy. Jokes. A barrel of laughs! I know I crack myself up, and I think I can do the same to you. I have some interesting stories and insights to weave into this blog; I think you'll get a kick out of them.

Well, that's it for now. If along the way you learn something from this blog, or just want a lazy way to donate to charity (it just takes a couple of clicks!), I hope you 'll use the donation link on the upper left of this blog to drop a few dollars, euro, or quid into the coffers.

Take care.