Who do I run for?

My god. It's been five weeks since I've posted. I have literally been so busy I've had no time to update this blog. My apologies, but I won't have time to fill in the back story until Saturday. Suffice it to say that my training for the NYC Marathon is in fact going OK. Not enough mid-week running, but getting the long runs done all the same. Injured, but minor and am in sports therapy for it. Keeping ahead of the lungs.

Below is a post I sent to the Google Phidip group. I hope you'll give it a read, and then visit my Team Boomer donations page and support my fundraising efforts. Thanks!

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Cast your iTunes into the Wayback Machine and revisit with me Fdip 135:

"We run for ourselves, for our health, for our family and friends, we run to honor, to celebrate, to achieve, and to accomplish. We run because we can…because at a very basic level we are good animals who were meant to move with purpose. We are runners; no better or worse than those who chose to practice an alternate motion of sport, or dance, or action…but we all have good reasons for being out there…and while we might not always be self aware of why we’re doing it: when someone asks you the inevitable question; you might want to consider what your answer will be…who do you run for?"

For four years, I've worked on entering the NYC marathon. I've earned my number four years in a row - and have cancelled my entry for the last three years, either due to injury or illness. Way back in March, when I heard Steve's words, I thought that this year, I must finish what I start and must do this thing or my pride would never recover.

But in the intervening months, I've realized my run on November 2 will not be for myself at all. I KNOW I can finish 26.2 - have done so once before. This run has to be for someone else - people who will never know I'm running for them.

So I'm raising money for Team Boomer, the athletic wing of the Boomer Esiason Foundation. BEF assists the Cystic Fibrosis community in a number of ways. We have a lot of runners in the marathon this year and we'll even have a table at the expo. You can come by and meet me Thursday or Friday. My run though, is still on my earned entry, not on the "bought" fundraising bib numbers. Those runners HAVE to raise $3,000. I WANT to raise $3,000. So I set up a First Giving donations website:

www.firstgiving.com/crisdopher

More importantly, I want to run with meaning, with purpose. I want something that will help me to stay focused on my task. To that end, I'm encouraging my sponsors to add a name to the list of names I'm inking on my race shirt, to memorialize those who have died of Cystic Fibrosis. Each mile for a different person, many of whom I've known personally.

You don't know me. All you know is that I listen to Phidip and have run the World Wide Half a few times. But I hope you'll drop by either my First Giving donations page or my blog and lend your support, either financially, emotionally, or both. For the dollars mean a lot ("put your money where your mouth is" comes to mind); but the stories and words of encouragement mean just as much.

is a secure website and your tax-deductible donations go directly to BEF.
is my blog. It needs updating, badly, and I'll be getting right on that.

So thank you, fellow runners. And to those of you who will be out somewhere on the race course ahead of me on November 2nd, I say "run long...run long...run long."

Cris Dopher
bib #44510
orange wave 3, corral B
Back of the pack