Dear Seattle,
The correct term is “April showers,” not “April hellish fog and torrential rain.”
For reference, this is the view out of the same window on a clear day.
Author: devonpass
Best present ever!
You guys!!! The donations just keep rollin’ in. Thank you so, so, so much!!!
Every time someone donates, I get an email with the subject line, “A donation has been received from one of your friends…”
Every time I see that subject line, it’s like the best present ever.
The craziest thing is that most of the donations, aside from the ones made by Aaron and his parents (THANK YOU, Greta & Mark and Dwight & Maggie!), are from folks that I either don’t know in real life or have only met ONCE. Thank you for your incredible support and faith in me.
Tomorrow morning, I’m gonna KILL my first team run, and I’m gonna do it for you, and you, and you and YOU. All y’all.
Seriously. So excited.
Sorry for not posting yesterday… it was a boring day! Although I did go to yoga last night, and my DetermiNation fundraising total grew by another $100. Woo-hoo!
I wish I was a doctor so I could deliver a baby on April Fool’s Day and go, “It’s a MUTANT!”
I know that’s not even funny to anyone who has birthed or is about to birth a tiny human, so I’m sorry. I’m a weirdo.
Happy April Fool’s Day!
The other blog
I’ve been neglecting my other blog in favor of Tumblr, with its shiny, constantly changing dashboard, but tonight I posted on it… and it was stuff about running.
I actually went back through that blog and found the first time I mentioned Ben and embedded his 120-pound weight loss video. In that post, I wrote about how, in a weird way, he inspired me to buy a DSLR camera and start pursuing photography.
He inspired me to start taking my dreams seriously.
Whoa. Forgot about that part.
So, the reason I even had that big ‘ol camera at the Do Life: Seattle meetup was because of Ben. Sheesh. Go figure.
“Very nice!!!”
WE DID IT! Day 1 of American Cancer Society fundraising went fabulously, and I’ll put together a video of Do Life: Seattle outtakes this weekend! It’ll be up on Tumblr by Monday, April 4, for your enjoyment.
We raised a total of $111 today – MORE than my goal! Thank you so much to Aaron Pass, Ben Davis, Becks, Rob, "An admiring tumblr follower" and “Some dude living in VA who loves WA.”
In addition, thanks to everyone who sent encouragement to my Ask box today – your kindness blew me away. You’ve all helped give me the confidence I need to meet my ultimate fundraising goal and, oh yeah, run 13.1 miles!
I tackled 4 miles in 42-ish minutes tonight. Big sweaty times on the treadmill while watching ‘Sex and the City’ with no audio and no subtitles. Innnteresting!
Thanks again, everyone, for a great day.
Hi Dev, I’m so excited to see another tumblr-er doing determination. I really want to do it too but I’m nervous about the fundraising commitment. I’m a huge supporter of the American Cancer Society so I might suck up the fear and do it for one of my half marathons. We’ll see. Just wanted to say awesome job for signing up! Good luck fundraising and training!! – Melissa
Hi Melissa – thank you so much! I’m totally with you on feeling nervous about fundraising. In fact, I registered for my half marathon several months ago and specifically opted out of fundraising at the time. Then I thought about it some more and realized that nothing bad could come of making this commitment. I might not reach my fundraising goal, but at least I’ll have tried, done some good and made some new friends along the way.
Here’s the strange part: I signed up for DetermiNation and pledged my fundraising goal this last Friday. On Saturday, I learned that someone I know has been diagnosed with a type of stage four cancer. (I don’t know a lot about cancer, but I know that stage four is bad.)
I’m still a little nervous about raising the money, but right now, I’d feel a lot more uncomfortable if I did nothing. So many things are much scarier than asking people to throw down for a good cause!
Oh heyyyy, look who feels all cool in her very first tech shirt!!!
Very awesome that it came in the mail today since I’ve just kicked off my fundraising efforts for the American Cancer Society!
Only $19 to go until y’all are guaranteed a sweet Do Life: Seattle outtakes video! You have until midnight Pacific time to make it happen – click here to donate!
Of course, feel free to donate even more to help me reach my ultimate $1,250 goal! You know people who take pictures of themselves in mirrors with DSLR cameras and then flip them in Lightroom so you can read the shirt need serious help…
I’m totally listening to this on repeat to get pumped up for my run tonight.
True Life: Once, I had a lot of nervous energy before a bunch of people were due to come over to my house, so I blasted this song and danced around my room like a psycho. Aaron was there, and he may never recover from the sight.
Oh, man. If only I had access to parachute pants.
Let’s make a deal!
To keep my first day of fundraising for the American Cancer Society going strong ($41 raised so far!), here’s what I propose…
I have extra footage of the Do Life: Seattle meetup that didn’t make it into this video. Some of the clips are pretty funny – “outtakes,” if you will – and include fun moments starring Ben, Pa and other Do Lifers.
I’d like to round out the fundraising total to at least $100 today, so if we can hit that by midnight Pacific time, I’ll put together a fun “outtakes” video this weekend and have it posted on Tumblr by Monday, April 4.
That’s only $59 that needs to be donated here by midnight tonight! If you’d like me to make a fun "outtakes" video, just throw in a few bucks here and rally a bunch of Tumblr buddies to do the same. It’s for a great cause and it’ll give me an extra mental boost going into my intimidating first DetermiNation half marathon training run this weekend!
CLICK HERE TO DONATE, and please spread the word! Thanks!!
UPDATE: Mr. Ben Davis himself is the first person to throw down for this video – awesome, thank you! Click here to be all cool like Ben.
UPDATE #2: This is only Day 1 of fundraising, and I’ve got a goal of $1,250! I’ll be considering Tumblr challenges (like pushups or whatever – I’m a weakling) in exchange for donations – just submit your challenge/amount you’re willing to donate to my Ask box! Let’s make this reeeeeally fun!!
Hey Devon. I just saw your tumblr post and decided to donate. I’ll have to eat bologna sandwiches for the rest of April but it’s worth it. That’s a lie actually, and I don’t think that would be punishment anyways ;) I follow your blog and like what you post… I love running and anything Seattle, keeps me motivated! It makes me want to be there though. I don’t request anything like you said, challenges or otherwise. It’s a great cause and I’m lucky enough in life to be in a position to help random folks at random times. Oh… have fun running! Consequently I’ll be up there visiting my cousin in Seattle the first week of May and decided to run the Tacoma Half on the 1st. If you look way towards the back, the 9 minute milers, I’ll be in there somewhere! Good luck!!! Cheers, -James
THANK YOU, you rock!! Since this will be my first half and is my first time fundraising, this means so, so, so much. LOVE that the donation is in part because of how much you love Seattle.
Way to commit to the Tacoma Half – that’s sick! And if you’re with the 9-minute milers, that means you’ll run way faster than I will! Be sure to post all about it – good luck to you!!
Dev on Running 