The Starting Line: How to Get Involved

Friends, thanks so much for your enthusiastic response to Run for their Lives. I realize that in my impulsive first post, I asked you to come with me without really even telling you where we were going. Details, details.

So let's talk about where we're going and how to get started.

1. Join dailymile and sign up for the Run for their Lives challenge.
Whether you're looking to 2012 as the year to start running, keep running, or reach a new PR, if you plan to run a mile, will you join us in running for their lives? We've set up a challenge at dailymile to run 146 miles in support of Love146.org and the battle against human trafficking. Let's tally our small steps together for one big distance!

To sign up for this social networking site with a fitness twist, you can use your Facebook or Twitter account to sign in or simply set up a new account. Dailymile is simple, free (of course) and can be tailored to share as little or as much information as you choose. For example, I usually just track my mileage and pace, but don't post my running routes on the off chance some creepy stalker might try to locate me. (Not that he could catch up with me if he tried. Yeah, creepy stalker, you're creepy AND slow.)

I've used dailymile over the past several months primarily to track my training in terms of overall weekly mileage, average paces and to figure out how many miles are on my running shoes. But more on that later. For now, here's what you need to know. Sign up. I'm serious. Go right now. I'll wait for you.


2. Okay, so you're back? Great. Next, we need to make sure you don't miss any of the riveting updates and posts that will be pouring forth from this site in the next ten weeks. There are a few ways to do this. You can join this site using the "Run Along, Now" widget to the right.  You can subscribe to the feed in a reader, or you can enter your email in the space to the right to receive updates delivered to your inbox. And if you're an over-achiever, you can do all three. Knock yourself out.


3. If you plan to participate with us in some way, and you have a blog, please leave me a comment below with a link to your blog or website so I can add you to a soon-to-be-created link list. 


4. Find and sign up for a race in your area. Larry and I are signed up to run the USA Rock N Roll Half Marathon in Washington, DC on March 17th,  as are a handful of our friends and family members. Some are traveling from afar, and others may just be walking from their house to the starting line. If you register to run the DC event, please let me know! Email me with your name and  contact info at mylestonesblog at gmail dot com so we can include you in the event-specific activities. (If you're thinking of signing up, the USA Rock n Roll Marathon is running a special of $15 off registration when you use the code RESOLVE. The offer is good until January 5th, 2012.)


5. Some of you (God bless ya) have already asked about how to donate and where to direct potential sponsors for an upcoming race. I'm working on a process for that--hopefully one that will allow us to tally all the donations that have been made through our Run for their Lives efforts. Stay tuned, and I'll be back to you shortly!

It's possible I set a PR for word count and exclamation points. I'm not usually this exclamatory, but this is exciting stuff, folks. Okay then. You have some homework to do. And some miles to run. On your mark, get set, go!