THE MARY-THON

At Cincinnati's Flying Pig Marathon
Final Mile

This will come as a shock to most folks, especially my closest friends and family members, but...I'm not a natural athlete.  I know, I know.  One look at me and words like "tri-athlete," "ripped," and "abs-so-hard-you-can-bounce-quarters-off-them" immediately come to mind.  Sadly, this is not true.  Friends, believe it or not, my major form of exercise is moving knitting needles (or lifting a spoon from a pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream to my mouth).


 Well, it's that time of year.  Thanksgiving is days away and Christmas shopping is looming.  It's the season to think ahead to all the wonderful changes I'm going to make in my life in 2012 (after I lose enough weight to rebutton my pants and detox from my fruitcake-induced sugar coma).  My mother and I have been contributors to Project Linus for a number of years, providing blankets to kids in need.  In this month's newsletter I came across a way to benefit both myself and Project Linus in 2012.

Come January I will begin taking part in a Mary-Thon!  This exercise program was begun by a Linus volunteer (yes, named Mary) as a way to motivate herself and others to get active and stay active.  You can take part without it costing you a cent, but if you join with a premium registration ($35), you get extras like a bracelet, t-shirt, finisher's certificate, and (wait for it, wait for it) a medal!  Those who have read my drivel long enough know that I'm wild about awards.  Tell me I have the shot of earning a medal, a patch, a pin, or a ribbon and I'm in. 

There are three types of Mary-Thons:

• Half Mary-Thon:  Any exercise for 30 minutes, 3 days a week, for 26 weeks.
  
• Mary-Thon:  Any exercise for 30 minutes, 5 days a week, for 26 weeks.
  
• Mega Mary-Thon:  Any exercise for 30 minutes, 5 days a week, for 52 weeks.

I'll be going with the full, regular (i.e., not Mega) Mary-Thon.  It's on the honor system, with participants simply logging time, and Project Linus will receive $15 of the registration fee.  I'm a sucker for a medal and I'm a sucker for something benefitting charity and I'm a sucker for anything that promises to help me put down the needles and get my butt off the couch.  Anyone wanna join me?

St. Jimmi

On the subject of self-improvement combined with charity, I wanted to tell everyone about a goddess of a woman named Lori who is losing weight while raising money for Recycled Doggies, a rescue group near and dear to me.  Our beloved St. Jimmi came from Recycled Doggies in March and this group does tremendous work with shelters dogs of all sorts, even the ones who are considered "unadoptable."  Lori is chronicling her journey through her blog, dogs-lbs, and encourages readers to pledge money per pound lost.  I might also add that Lori was foster mother and now adoptive mother to a very special dog named Tristan.  (You can read his story here.)  I was actually helping to transport a couple other dogs the day they brought Tristan out of the shelter and I seriously thought this poor dog had post-traumatic stress disorder from what he endured at his previous home.  He was so terrified and paid no attention to my attempts to comfort him.  (I take this kind of thing personally, as I always assume every dog will love me as much as I love him or her.)  I wondered what would become of him and then I started seeing updates on Recycled Doggies' Facebook page.  The transformation is simply incredible and if you have time to look at a video of Tristan playing with his adoptive siblings, please do.  It gives hope to anyone trying to save shelter animals. 


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