Halfway Home!

This morning I awoke to find that I had received a couple of new donations late yesterday, both from friends of my mom's from high school. The exciting thing is, these donations put me over the halfway point in my fundraising! I now have $1150 towards my $2200 minimum! Very exciting!

Although I have set my personal goal at $3000 this year (which seems reasonable since last year I raised $4800), I am still very excited about this milestone. Raising just over $1000 in 4 months seems completely doable--that's only like $55 a week in the next 19 weeks before the event!

Workshop Milestone

Last night, Vikkie and I went to a 3-Day workshop at a Dick's store in KC, put on by a few walkers who are participating in their 6th 3-day this year. They presented information about shoes, packing, gear, apparel and event logistics. Although most of it was review, it was good to be reminded of some things I probably would have forgotten!! There were a few new tidbits of information that were helpful, and I was also glad that Vikkie came along to learn a little more about how to prepare for the event.

We also met a really nice woman named Beth, a breast cancer survivor herself, who is walking in the San Diego event this year as well. She actually grew up in that area and has walked San Diego for the last four years, and she says it's absolutely wonderful! She gave us a few climate and travel related tips, and also informed us that around 4,500 people walked in last year's event! It's going to be huge!

Another (very silly) reason I wanted to go to the workshop was so that I could put another sticker on my milestone badge! Although it seems a little childish, each participant is given a little badge that you can use to chart your progress as you prepare for the event. There are stickers for reading through the manual, getting your first donation, taking your first training walk, reaching higher donation levels, taking longer training walks, etc. There is also a sticker for attending a workshop, which I can now add to my badge!

I have to admit that before I registered last year, when my friend Cindy was telling me about the badge and how you record your individual milestones, I thought it sounded kind of silly. Then as soon as my milestone badge came in the mail and I started putting stickers on it, I realized it was kind of addictive, even if it is a little childish!

Last year the only milestone I didn't reach was securing a matching gift. I couldn't seem to find any of my donors who worked for a company that would match, which is ironic since both Chad and I work for companies that have matching gift programs! Unfortunately KU Endowment only matches gifts to KU, and last year I didn't have any donors who worked at Westar! I'll have to remedy that situation this year!

Training Schedule

Last year, I followed the suggested 24 week training schedule put out by the 3-Day organization. Not only did that feel like an eternity, but by the time the event rolled around, I felt completely over-prepared. The walk didn't really turn out to be that hard after 580 miles of training!

So this year, I decided that I'd use the shorter 16 week training schedule as a guide, and then create my own less time consuming plan instead. Last year, the walks that were difficult to fit into the week were the 5 and 6 mile walks on the weekdays. Trying to walk 6 miles before work means getting up at 5 a.m., which I'd like to try to avoid if possible! Instead of walking 3-6 mile walks on 2 different weekdays, I decided I would instead walk about 2 miles every weekday. Since I walk the dogs about a mile and a half almost every night anyway, it won't be much of a change in schedule, and all in all, the weekly miles will be about the same. So, here is my planned schedule:

So only about 4 more weeks until I get started! I'll definitely be looking for walking partners during those weeks, so if you're interested in joining me, definitely let me know! :)

San Diego Weather

Over the weekend I started thinking about the climate in San Diego, wondering what I would need to pack with regard to walking apparel. I've been there in the summer and know that the weather is generally sunny and 75 almost every day during that time of year, but I wasn't really sure what the weather is like in November. I did some Googling on the subject, and came up with this webpage (which is really a site to help plan your wedding) with some great info on San Diego weather in each month of the year. Here's what it says about November:

November has a normal maximum temperature of 69.9 degrees and an average minimum of 53.9 degrees which shows the greatest mean range of any month. It also shows a noticeable cooling trend and the mean temperature of 62.0 degrees is 5.7 degrees lower than for October. Since hot, dry easterly winds decrease during the month, maximum temperatures of 90 degrees or higher have occurred less frequently than in September and October. As a rule, temperatures seldom have gone above 80 degrees or below 40 degrees, although 97 degrees was recorded in 1977 and 1976 and 36 degrees in 1919.

Precipitation increases with the monthly average becoming 1.45 inches and the number of days with a measurable amount is 5. Regardless of the fact that there have been several Novembers with no rainfall, the rainy season May be said to begin during the month as amounts in excess of 2 inches have been recorded on several occasions. The greatest monthly total was 5.82 inches in 1965.

High winds have been infrequent but an unusually severe storm in 1944 produced a maximum of 51 mph at the National Weather Service.

More sunshine can be expected in November than any other month. Total possible sunshine is 74 percent. Clear days average 15, partly cloudy 7 and cloudy 8 with 4 days of heavy fog. The relative humidity averages 72 percent in the early morning, 57 percent near noon and 61 percent in the late afternoon.

More sunshine than in any other month--AWESOME! :) With average highs of 70, I probably won't really need to buy many other "performance" apparel items for cooler temperatures like I was thinking I might need to do! I think my tank tops and t-shirts will do just fine when it's 70 and sunny!!

Let's Get Serious

Now that the Relay for Life is complete, I'm ready to start getting serious about my 3-Day fundraising. I recently surpassed the $700 mark thanks to my friend and coworker Laurie (who is herself a breast cancer survivor), which puts me within a few hundred dollars of the half way point! This week I need to send out donation forms in the mail to a few people who requested them after receiving my email, as well as to a few donors from last year who don't have an email address. Since I have to complete my fundraising 30 days before the event in order to do online check-in, that means I have just under 4 months to get my fundraising completed! I need to get on the ball!

In other 3-Day related news: a new logo for the event was recently unveiled! Pretty exciting, I know. Although I'm not as big of a fan of hotter pink, I hope that means that we'll soon be receiving t-shirts just for registering like we did last year. They always serve as a great conversation starter and a great way to identify other 3-Day walkers around town. Last year I met a fellow walker at a softball game, and this year I met one at Mutt-n-Strut who will be walking in Cleveland.

Within a month or so I'll start my official training, so I'll be posting the details of that within the next couple of weeks. At that point I'll be looking for walking partners! :)