http://www.crowdrise.com/onefundbostonmarathon2014/fundraiser/ralphdumke

Welcome to my first blog! 

I will be posting my thoughts and ideas from time to time, but I will also focus the next couple of months on updating everyone on Fundraising efforts for The One Fund Boston as I train with the official fundraising team for the 2014 Boston Marathon!  Please click on the Crowdrise link above and donate to the ONE FUND.   Also, please check in and see what we are up to and how we are doing on our fundraising.  We will be adding raffles and gifts and I will be adding input from others that have checked in. 

The original idea for this blog actually came before I was selected for the fundraising team.  I always come back from my runs and go in and chew on Maria’s (she is my wife for those that don’t know) ears with all the things I thought about when I was on my run.  She always looks at me like…**where do I buy a straightjacket?!?!**…but just smiles and actually says “good idea”.  So, now I am going to be able to share them with you.

This morning I ran the Waterfront 10 miler in Palm Coast, Florida.  At the start they read a dedication to the race to Meg Menzies.  She was a wife and mother of 3 young children from Richmond, Virginia that was killed this week while on a training run for the Boston Marathon.  An online campaign was started to have everyone dedicate their Saturday run to #megsmiles – and it gained over 80,000 supporters in less than a week on Facebook!  The starter finished reading the dedication and it was completely silent, but was quick to point out that as a runners we need to be grateful to be alive and running another race and to make everyone aware of dangers to us with drunk drivers, texting and distracted drivers.   Once again I too was reminded how blessed I am to have my health, my family and friends and how quickly that can change for a family. 

Enjoy every day like it was you last.

Now get out there and run………………………………….