One of the things I miss about working in Galway is the lunch and tea rituals. Lunch tends to be rushed or desk affairs in the US, and while the Irish abroad normally make time to go to the canteen here, I miss the long (and often frankly ridiculous) conversations over cornflakes. One long discussed issue with my colleague Declan over cups of stewed tea in Galway is my reluctance to sign up for any sponsored fundraising events which are less than something I’d roll out of bed for, say, for entertainment on a random Saturday (rules out climbing Croke Patrick, anything which involves ‘walking’ anywhere in Galway, any run under twenty miles, etc.) Declan was mystified by this. In theory, the actual event is a token to coax people to donate money to charity. My attitude is that if people are going to shell out good money to sponsor me for an endeavour, I should at the very least suffer for it; the money must be earned in blood. The last two years I chose a marathon for sponsored fundraising, and (especially the first year), I suffered authentically for it, both in training and on the day. Two years after terrifying marathon number one....well, it’s getting a bit old. So what next?
 
Well, folks, I’m back running with Johnny. This year I’m doing a marathon double (no quits). I’m running the Moose Marathon on the Superior hiking trail in September (and quite frankly I think I’ll earn dinner on this one alone) in September, and rounding off the running season and my US sojourn with the New York marathon in November. 
Johnny Donnelly (a former Saw Doctor* and Galway man) is running over 2000 miles over the next four years for Seachange, an Irish based non-profit organisation.   Their mission is to raise funds and awareness for Microcredit projects, targeting the world’s poorest people, empowering them to lift themselves with dignity out of extreme poverty.   Microcredit is the distribution of tiny loans to the poorest of the poor, without the requirement for collateral.
 

Dee, Valeria and Eric

 
Why run to raise money for Seachange? I love running, and it makes me happy and keeps my life on an even keel. Sometimes it helps me to push the corners of the envelope in my comfortable middle class life – by testing what I can achieve (and how much I’m willing to push the barriers). I like being able to harness this to raise money for a cause which not only helps others but gives them the tools to help themselves. I’ve met Johnny running at a few races in Galway, and I am continuously impressed by his drive and commitment to this cause. I joined him last year at the Dublin marathon to raise money for Seachange and am excited to do it again this year.
You can learn more about Seachange, and the concept of microcredit here: 
http://www.seachangefoundation.ie/
About the marathons....
I had vaguely ambitious ideas when I got here about running some long trail races during my summer in Minnesota. With work commitments and all the rest I settled on the Moose Mountain marathon (an incredibly technical and hilly one!) on the Superior Hiking trail as the culmination of my season here. I ran the spring Superior 25km shortly after arriving in Minnesota in May, and, boy, did I suffer. Over the summer, I’ve got some hill strength and found my trail legs; to the extent that I was still pretty fresh last Saturday after running twenty miles of trails with Eric and Vale in Afton State Park all the while wrestling an overzealous Alaskan husky puppy called Cooper. But that's another story.

Dee - Run Johnny Run

I’m delighted that Eric and Vale, who have been my patient trail companions for a lot of the summer long runs, will be lining up exactly one day before me to start the Sawtooth 100 mile race on the same route as the marathon. They’ll be crossing the finish line around the same time that I finish my paltry marathon... I’m hoping to be done in about 5 hours (but don’t hold your breath).
Then to New York in November – where I really will be running with Johnny. In Irish fashion, I got the invite to run in Dublin with Johnny – I’d already entered the New York marathon **– so I mailed Aisling and said in true Saw Doctor’s fashion (assume Tuam accent) ‘Jaysus, since I’m there already we might as well meet up and have the craic. Like.’ I have no pretensions to a great road marathon time this year eight weeks after thrashing my legs on the mountains, but I’d like to point out that (possibly in the pinnacle of my sporting career ever. EVER), I Officially Qualified for the New York marathon, cruising in with a generous seven seconds to spare under the NYC auto entry qualifier time of 3:23:00 at Dublin last year. Better yet, not only am I running with Johnny, my training partner Miriam Wall (and fellow Athenry AC member; another NYC qualifier!) is joining me along with Sarah from the Galway triathlon club in New York. And I’ll be travelling from Minnesota to join the Irish Abroad with Kami, another Minnesotan ultramarathoner, with whom I’ve already braved a trail race in Wisconsin (the good news being that we’ve already room shared so no bust ups are expected over the weekend). I’m happy that I’ll be lining up for both races with new friends from my summer in Minnesota.
 
 
So go on – make my day. Sponsor me a few bucks for Seachange. I’ll be working hard for it!
As Seachange is no longer affiliated with a charity fundraising website, I don’t have a fancy charity page this year - we’re cutting out the middle man. So if you’d like to sponsor me for 52.4 miles with Johnny, you can donate directly to Seachange via PayPal at the following link:
http://www.seachangefoundation.ie/paypal.php
If you do this, please mail me at [email protected] to let me know you’ve donated so that I can keep track (and get credit for it.) 52.4 don’t come for free.
If you happen to see me (I’m in the US until mid November) or in Ireland (from mid November), you can also sponsor me in hard cash (all currencies accepted). But DON’T FORGET!
*For those among you who are not Irish or living under a seashell, this is who the Saw Doctors are (it helps understand them if you attended Irish teenage discos in the early 1990’s):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hIJOOM4TdM

** I would also like to point out that this is not one of those fancy charity race packages, both races will be funded by the Bank of Dee.