Announcing Training Mileage and Race Time Contest

I invite you to participate in a contest for a chance to win $25 Amazon gift certificate. All you have to do is make a guess at:

1. How many miles I will run training for the marathon between January 1st and April 19, 2010, not counting the marathon itself.
2. How long it will take me to complete the Boston Marathon.

I will select two winners after the race--one for the closest estimate of my total training mileage and one for the closest estimate of my race time. Please feel free to refer to my running log to help you make the estimates. And here is a hint--my total training mileage for January will not change, but my ankle will be strong enough to start gradually ramping up my miles in February.

Here is how to enter the contest:

1. Please make a donation to the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge. The suggested donation for a single contest entry is $5.
2. Submit your best guess by filling out this contest form.

You can enter the contest multiple times! The more you contribute to the fight against cancer, the more estimates you can make increasing your chances of winning! Good luck and thank you for your support!

Bake Sale Results

On Tuesday, I held a bake sale at my workplace to push my fundraising along. After baking non-stop for 3 days, I was delighted by the results of the sale. Through support and generosity of my coworkers I was able to raise $494.61!!!!, which will also 100% match by my employer. THANK YOU!

As always, the bake sale was another great learning experience. Besides the lesson on dough volume, I also got a lesson on wrapping—as much as it seems like a super cute idea to wrap cookies in red colored saran wrap, I will avoid it at all costs next time. And that should not be too hard to do—I do not normally stock up on red cling wrap.

Reactions to cookies wrapped in red cling wrap:

• What kind of cookies are these bright red ones? (Probably the mildest comment)
• Are these left over from the Valentine’s Day? (It did not help that for additional cuteness I used a heart shaped cookie cutter for a good portion of the ginger bread cookies.)
• I thought you were selling burger patties

Notes for next time:

• Do not double up the Betty Crocker Gingerbread Cookie recipe and expect it to fit into the KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer
• Do not try to be cute and wrap cookies in red colored

Pulling the Plug on the T-Shirt Project

In the last 48 hours, no one expressed interest in my Running To Stop Cancer DFMC t-shirts I will not proceed with the project.

But not to worry. I am shifting my focus to the bake sale coming up on Tuesday.

DFMC T-Shirt Potential

Would you be interested in a DFMC t-shirt?

I am trying to gage how much interest there would be to buy a DFMC t-shirt.
These are technical fabric, white t-shirts. Sizing is unisex. The t-shirts are made in the USA by Leslie Jordan, Inc. The design will be screen printed onto the t-shirts.

The reason I need to gage interest is because it would be prohibitively expensive to order and print fewer then 25 t-shirts. So I want to see if there is enough interest to justify the order.

The price will be $27, where $11 is the cost of the t-shirt, and $16 will go directly to Dana-Farber.

It will take approximately 3 weeks for the t-shirts to come in once I place the order. So I will assess the number of completed forms in the next 48 hours to make a decision on how to proceed, and will notify everyone who fills out the form as to whether any t-shirts will be printed.

If you are interested, please feel out this form. You are under no obligation to buy anything, but it would be great if you could please fill out the form as accurately as possible.

If there is enough interest, and the t-shirts are ordered, I will bring them to DFMC group runs and meetings. If you do not live in the Boston area, I will be happy to mail them to you.

T-Shirt Order Form

CURRENT NUMBER OF T-SHIRTS ORDERED: 4

T-Shirt Sizing Chart

	XS	S	M	L	XL
Chest	32-34	35-37	38-40	41-43	44-46
Waist	26-28	29-31	32-34	35-37	38-41
Hip	32-34	35-37	38-40	41-43	44-46

T-Shirt Front Logo









T-Shirt Back Design

Who Won the Tickets to the Nutcracker?

Thank you so much to all of you making donations to Dana-Farber supporting my Boston marathon run! The winner of the opportunity drawing for the 2 tickets to the Boston Ballet performance of the Nutcracker at the Opera House has been selected.

The winning ticket number is:

6857015

If you have the winning ticket, please contact me as soon as possible, so that I can present you with the ballet tickets.

Enter to Win Tickets to the Boston Ballet Nutcracker

It is still not too late to enter the opportunity drawing for 2 tickets to the Boston Ballet performance of the Nutcracker at the Opera House on Saturday, December 15. The drawing will continue through December 1. Please see the original post for more details.

Win Tickets to the Nutcracker

Enter to win 2 orchestra seat tickets to the Boston Ballet Nutcracker performance at the Opera House for Saturday, December 15th, 7:30pm.

Instructions:

1. Make a donation. Suggested donation is $20 per entry. Yes, you can have multiple entries.
2. Please use the Contact Helen form to let me know that you would like to enter this opportunity drawing.

Hurry, the drawing will close on December 1st.

Race Times and Training Miles

The following table shows bets made so far on how many miles I will run while training between December 1st and April 21st, not counting the race itself, as well as the guesstimate of my race time.

	Name	Training Miles	Marathon Time
1.	Julie N.	420	4:37:11
2.	G. A.	?	4:04:44
3.	May Jiang	150	4:06:00
4.	May Jiang	410	4:00:00
5.	Marcia & Jim Gordon	600	3:56:20
6.	Dorothy & Josh Kern	102	5:20:04
7.	Laura & Jomar Ochoco	605	3:55:00
8.	Dr. Robert Rosenthal	250	4:25:09

If you have not placed your bet, there is still time!

Bet on Miles and Race Time

Accurately guess Helen's nettime for the Boston Marathon and the number of miles Helen will run between December 1st 2007 and April 21st 2008 not counting the race, and receive a magnificent prize!

Two winners will be announced after the race is complete—one for the most accurate number of training miles run, and one for the most accurate marathon time. Each winner will recieve a $25 Amazon gift certificate as well as a surprise gift.

Instructions:

1. Make a donation. Suggested donation per one pair of numbers (time & miles) is currently $5. You can enter as many times as you would like.
2. Submit your bet by filling out this form.

Check out what other people have been guessing here.

Check back often, as my training runs and times will be posted. You can change your bets or make additional bets anytime via new donations. Make your bets early, as the suggested donation amount will go up as my training progress. (The theory is that you can guess more accurately as you follow my training pattern weekly and watch the times of my long runs).

While nothing prevents you from filling out the bet form without making a donation, only donors can be declared prize winners.

How Can You Help

• Support me by making a donation to Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge
• Participate in one or many of my fundraising activities
• Donate a service
• Help spread the word
• Share my story with your friends, family, collegues
• Link your website/facebook, friendster, or MySpace profile to this blog
• Put up a flyer in your workplace or school--I will be happy to send you one
• Share your fundraising ideas
• Volunteer to host a garage sale--you provide the garage/front yard, and I will come up with things to sell
• Tell me what you think about anything and everything