It’s that time.  Remember when I made my first public plea for support in my for-charity triathlon endeavor?  Scroll down to refresh your memory (it’s entitled Triathl33t With A Cause).  This is my second and last plea for help.  In a nutshell, I am training for a triathlon which I will be running on September 10th in Pacific Grove, CA in honor of Team In Training.  For those of you who haven’t seen their purple and green brochures everywhere, Team In Training is a program run for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to raise money to find a cure for blood cancer.  I have a nifty donation page and everything. 

There are several reasons I chose to do this:

1) I’ve wanted to do a triathlon for a long time and the coaching and team support offered by Team In Training was alluring.

2) I live, breathe, and dream video games.  While I love my job and this industry, I was in need of some balance and thus sought a non-video-game-related way to feel like I was making a difference in people’s lives.

3) After doing my homework about various charities that I could be a part of, I found that The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society together with Team In Training offers not only a great program for the fundraisers, but it gives back more to its community-in-need than most.  And now, after the last few months, I’ve acquired a shocking new perspective on how many people are affected by diseases like leukemia, lymphoma, or myeloma.  Ask around.  According to my own personal experiment, if you ask 5 people you’ll find at least two (likely three) who have known someone with blood cancer. 

I know some of you probably saw my first blog about this go by and you figured you’d come back later to donate.  Well now is later.  If you check out my online donation page you’ll see that I’ve still got a way to go before I reach my fundraising minimum.  I need your help reaching my goal and, in exchange, you will not only be supporting a great cause but you will be making it possible for me to kick my own butt through a 0.9 mile swim, 25 mile bike, and 6 mile run to make it across my first triathlon finish line.  If giving money for blood cancer research isn’t enough, at least think about how fun it will read my post-race stories of what crazy things my athletic masochism made me do this time. 

Again, donating is easy.  All you need is an internet connection (go ahead and check that off your list), a credit card, and the will to click here.  Donate whatever you can; every dollar makes a difference (bigger donations make bigger differences.  teehee!)

By the way, that bike I bragged about in the last blog?  It’s still wonderful and nice and still shiny and red.  I wouldn’t sell it for all the money in the world (though I will use it to raise money for cancer research...)