Tuesday, September 30, 2008

What's this all about?

My dad, Jesse, was recently diagnosed with Prostate Cancer. I want to help but don't know how; I'm not a scientist, or a doctor, or a nurse, and I feel helpless. About the only thing I know how to do is run and raise money. So support me in my efforts to raise money and race over 400 miles.

The statistics on Prostate Cancer are shocking.
  • This year, over 186,000 American men will be diagnosed with Prostate Cancer.
  • 1 man dies every 19 minutes from Prostate Cancer.
  • 1 in six men will be diagnosed with Prostate Cancer.
These are our fathers, grandfathers, brothers, sons, husbands. Prostate Cancer has a high cure rate, but only when caught early, and only because of treatments made available through ongoing research. Money donated to the Prostate Cancer Foundation helps support these research efforts. That's why it's so important that they receive our financial support.

To raise awareness, and to raise funds, I will complete seven ultramarathons over seven months:

Heartland 100 mile (October)
Rockledge Rumble 50k (November)
SunMart 50 Mile (December)
Bandera 100k (January)
Cross Timbers 50 Mile (February)
Three Days of Syllamo (50k/50 Mile/20k) (March)
The Texas Marathon (x 2) (April)

My goal is to raise $4,392, which is $10 for every mile I will race.

To reach my goal I need your support! No amount is too small (and, of course, no amount is too big!). There are two ways to show your support:
  • Donate now! Make your donation using a secure website: http://athletes.kintera.org/other/runforpopi
  • Make a pledge per mile! After each race I will send you my race results and you can make your donation based on my race. This will allow you to spread your donation out over seven months. To make a pledge, just email me with your "per mile" pledge. For example:
    $1.00 per mile = $439.20
    $0.50 per mile = $219.60
    $0.25 per mile = $109.80
    $0.10 per mile = $ 43.92
    $0.05 per mile = $ 21.96
Keep checking my blog for updates on my fundraising, training and racing.

Thank you for showing your support!
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1 comment:

John Quigley said...

Hi Marshall,
I've posted the following comment on my blog, in response to yours. It's 23:25 here in ireland, so I'll read your blog sometime over the next few days.
John

Thanks Marshall. The blog (which is nearly two months out of date - publication seems to be inversely related to my recovery!) is intended to help people like your dad to have an idea what they might be facing. It's not to everyone's taste, but then most readers will never be faced with the decisions your dad and I have.

My fitness has told a lot and i'm sure it will in your dad's case too.

Nearly 5 months on from the op., and I am fully continent, except for occassional slight leakage when racing or doing speedwork. I completed a 15 mile race in 2:04:07 on Sunday Oct 5th and a 7k cross-country race on Sunday 12th, with no problems either day. Times are way down, but hey!, when I was making my surgical decision, I was prepared for the event that I might never be able to run again.

Best of luck to your dad. btw, the day of the op. will probably be rough on your mom, so give her all the support you can. Your dad will probably be 'out of it' on anasthetics (did I speel taht OK?) and won't know much about it.

October 14, 2008 3:20 PM

October 14, 2008 at 3:28 PM

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