Q&A

Here's some of the questions I've been asked so far - more to come!

Are you crazy?
Maybe.  But I think the reward is worth it.

Why don't you save all the training and work and just donate all your race fees and travel expense to psoriatic arthritis research?
I believe that giving money is a great gesture and absolutely critical to helping charities, but you also have to give of yourself.  If you read the other pages you will see that there are multiple goals and raising money is one of the biggest goals.  But it's not the only goal.
If I run these races, I hope it motivates other people to donate money and therefore multiplies my effort so I can actually raise a lot more money than I could have just by donating myself.  And I can help raise awareness along the way.  The costs of this challenge are quite a bit for me personally, but I expected that going in.

Can I get involved too?

Yes!!  There are so many ways you can help - please read the "getting involved" page.

What if you get hurt?
My plan is to continue even if injured, though I may decrease the mileage for races to 5K or run more 10Ks.  Obviously, I hope this does not happen and I'm trying to maintain a reasonable training program to prevent it.  In the case that I get a stress fracture or something equally bad, I will quit running.  I didn't go into this challenge expecting it to be pain free (you should see me try to walk the day after a race!), but I don't want to push my body beyond reasonable limits either.  Seeing the impact of psoriatic arthritis on my mom further proves to me how important it is to take care of yourself which is why I'm running but trying not to do anything stupid either.


Why not set time goals?

The number of races is more than enough of a challenge for me.  Last summer, I was running and working out maybe once a month (maybe).  Now, I'm running half marathons!  I fully expect to have good and bad races with hilly and flat courses and I can't expect my time to continue to improve.  I also hope to run races with other people which may change my pace.  So for me, the goal is to finish each race I start.  I would never want to turn down a fun race for fear of running a slow time.