Running to Stop the Runs - Preseason Part 2 - Cheerleaders and Fundraisers

So, after attending my fabulous CCFA half-effing-marathon meeting, I got the real scoop. In order for CCFA to train me, fly me to Miami (where the race is actually taking place), hotel me up in said race locale, and "cover" my race fees, I have to raise a grand whopping total of $3700. That's thirty-seven hundred effing dollars, for those of you who prefer your numbers qualitative form. When I ran a CCFA 5k - for which I spent almost two months training so that I could actually run 3 miles without stopping - I raised $1700. That was pretty sweet and I was proud of it, but that's not even half of what I need for this one. Sweet Baby Jesus, I'm gonna have to throw a party.

The other thing about the meeting that irked me, was something I expected. I've had friends who've done the whole Team in Training, etc, charity run circuit, so I knew the whole "yay morale, you can do it!!!!" factor would be omnipresent. Now, obviously I have nothing against cheerleaders, but if I'm already psyched to do something, or if I'm volunteering for 16 weeks of labor-intensive physical activity, I do not need exclamation points. I'm signing up for the freaking race, you don't need to be all perky PR to convince me. But, I am NOT running at 7am on Saturdays.

Which leads me to my next point - the workout. It doesn't look too bad, pretty typical for these kinds of races. I'll be running 4-5 days a week for incrementally increasing amounts of time. Of course, the downside is that the only team workouts are, like I said, Saturday morning at 7am. I like drinking on Fridays way too much to let this stop me, so it looks like I'll be running on my own.