I have reached a very important milestone today - I am officially past the halfway mark of both my kilometre tally and my fundraising goal.

My new official Joints in Motion shirt arrived in the mail this week! Isn't it cute?I love it.

OK, I'm back from Halifax and ready to get going on running and fundraising now. My sister and I got together this weekend and hammered out some ideas for fundraising events that we're going to do together. The first being a couple of 50-50 draws at the Patricia pub (Hastings Street) on May 26th. If you're around, come say hello!

And if you want to donate to my sister, you can click here to see her donation page. she needs to catch up to the first deadline ($1425 by the end of May), so hopefully the events we have planned will pan out!  I'm so stoked that she's coming too. yay!

So I ran one-fifth of the Vancouver Marathon yesterday, my part being a relatively flat 10 K. I went as part of a relay team, the very awesome "Ligers" and it was super fun and I think I did OK considering I haven't run anywhere for about the last month or so.

Howevah, it was also a supremely huge wake-up call for how much longer I have to go on this marathon! I did my bit, went to BC place to get my jacket, went home, showered, had breakfast and coffee, played with the dog, and THEN went back to the stadium to meet up with the team. And somewhere along the way it occurred to me that come November that will be all me, all running that entire time. And it suddenly seemed very hard and very long and I had a little mini freak-out.

This certainly seems to be the year of running. Clearly, when you are training to run a marathon, you need to get a lot of running in, but now I've also signed up to run on a relay team in the Vancouver Marathon - in 3 weeks, yikes! I'm running the first leg, a 10K segment that will go past my house, so that's kind of exciting and I'm really looking forward to running with my new friends. The only problem is that I'm on vacation until 2 days before the race which means the only training I'll be doing is sitting in a pub in Halifax. That and maybe lifting lobster from my plate to my mouth. Neither of which is going to help the running, but anyways...it'll be OK.

Last night my sister and I attended the Joints in Motion information session for Athens, and I have to say that even though I am so crashed this week, it was pretty awesome. We watched a video on arthritis and heard from a woman who walked a marathon in 2004, got the details on fundraising and training and saw a slideshow of Athens travel pics. I didn't ever go to an information session before I signed up, so lots of it was new for me too and of course meeting the team is always great.

Check out fellow JIMmers Kim and Ralph Van Bruggen in the Oak Bay News (Victoria)! What an inspiring story! I've copied it to my flickr because the OBN doesn't archive their stories online, so follow the link to read it. I'll be running with them in Greece.

I've learned so much about arthritis since I signed up for the Joints in Motion run and it really is incredible that so many people think it is just a minor affliction that affects old people. That's a small part of it, but there are debilitating strains that attack children and adults and cause tremendous pain. Here are some facts you may not have known:

How common is arthritis?

A Health Canada study published in 2003 indicated that 1 in 6 Canadians has some type of arthritis (most commonly osteoarthritis), and 60% of them are under the age of 65.

Seen one of these cards? (or the alterna-version with me and my dog)

Keep reading this blog for past updates and the whole story, or go here for the summarized story and a secure donation site.

Any questions? Leave a comment or all my contact info's on the card. I'd love to hear from you. 

www.arthritis.ca/joints/bc/DeganBeley

I was having coffee with my friend last week and she suggested that I have a Greek themed party. Demonstrating my innate ability to not absorb anything, I was just like "Sure!" and then "Why?" But after patiently explaining to me that I asked for fundraising ideas and that I am going to GREECE to run this marathon, a Greek party would be very appropriate. Duh. I'm so glad that I have smart friends. Once the light bulb came on above my head, it was very bright.

So I'm thinking as soon as it stops raining this much, I am going to have a party with a Greek theme (and you are all invited, by the way!). I'm not too sure of the details yet, but there will be food and drinks and I *may* even belly dance at it. We'll see. Given that I haven't danced in public in oh, 7 or so years (and I am a lot fatter now than I was then!), it is yet to be determined if this is something people would actually want to see. I'm thinking maybe I'll get someone else to dance at it.