Starting out!

Hey everybody!

First, thanks for checking out my blog! I'm really excited to be running 13.1 Boston for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America! The Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA) is a truly great organization and does amazing work in funding successful research for Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis (UC).

But the whole reason I came across this race was kind of by chance. I've been looking to get back into long-distance running now that my rowing days have come to an end. So just recently I signed up for and ran the Super Sunday 10k just this past Super Bowl Sunday.

I have to say I did a lot better than I thought I was going to do. I was shooting for a time around 45:00, which was pretty aggressive considering I just had a flare-up of my Crohn's disease just a couple of weeks prior to the race date. But I finished 57th out of the 791 runners with a time of 40:56, which rounds out to 6:36 mile splits. Needless to say I was happy about my time! And the rush that I got from passing, pacing, and finishing with other runners reminded me how much fun and exciting it is to race, as well as how much I've missed it. So I went home and instantly started looking up other races that I could run. Since a 10k wasn't all that bad, I looked up some upcoming half-marathons in the Boston area. Through my searching I found out that the CCFA was the official charity of the Inaugural 13.1 Boston! Pretty amazing if you think about it.

So after work this past Thursday I went to the informational meeting to see what the CCFA and 13.1 Boston are all about. Well, it's the Inaugural 13.1 Boston this year, which is awesome. There's a whole series of 13.1 races held in major cities throughout the country, but this is the first year that the race is coming to Boston. What's even more awesome is that the CCFA is the official charity of 13.1 Boston, which means that there's going to be a ton of people running the half-marathon on behalf of Team Challenge.

As a little side note, one of my cheesy New Year's resolutions this year has been to simply do more things that I want to do instead of putting them off to some later, indefinite time in the future. And while I was at the meeting I thought to myself, "You know what? I want to do this. I have to do this." So I committed myself to raising $2500 for the CCFA and raising awareness about Crohn's and colitis by running the 13.1 Boston half-marathon. While I can handle running the half-marathon, I will need your support in helping me raise $2500 for the CCFA. You can make a contribution by going to my personal fundraising page here or clicking the link on the right side of this page! You can also keep track of how we're doing with fundraising by checking my fundraising thermometer also located over to the right.

So here I am, getting ready to enter into training for my first-ever half-marathon! I'm pumped even though I've never done this before! But I'm going to put together a training plan and stick to it, so by the time race day rolls around on June 27th I'll be prepared to race hard and achieve my goal time.

I'll be making regular postings about my training, fundraising, life with Crohn's disease, awesome things about the CCFA, and more right here on my blog. So check back regularly for updates!

Also, I've enabled ads on here, so whatever money that I end up making off of this blog will be donated to the CCFA!

Please help me race to the finish and find a cure for Crohn's and colitis by clicking here and donating today! I'd just like to a big THANK YOU in advance for generous gift!

Thanks for checking out my blog and joining me in my journey to the Inaugural 13.1 Boston on June 27th! Be sure to check back soon for more updates!