Why am I training for and running the NYC Marathon? I've been asked this question many times over the past few months, so I thought I'd share. These adorable little faces are the reason I am running! Well, these are just a few of the reasons, there are many more, just as amazing. The kids in the picture above are just a few of the beautiful faces I have come to know over the past few years. Hayden's mom, Adrienne, designed this for us to use in our fundraising efforts. By sponsoring me, you will be helping these kids, and many more. How, you ask? Well the SBA is dedicated to enhancing the lives of every person living with Spina Bifida. Through play groups. Through seminars. Through public awareness and education. Through research. They want each and every person living with SB to reach their full potential.

Training is going well....but HOTTTTT!!!! Even running in the evenings when it's a bit cooler has been tortorous some days. My biggest hurdle has been time management I suppose. With the heat I don't want to take the kids with me, so most days I have to wait until Jonathan gets home from work. Even then, it's usually getting dark by the time I'm finishing up and my dad and Jonathan have given me the talk about running alone at night. But I've made it work, even if I am finishing up at 11pm, I haven't missed a training run yet.

I also haven't been getting much sleep....bedtime has become a war zone. From the time Brenden was born he was ALWAYS a great sleeper at night. 12+ hours, no waking up. Needless to say, not anymore. Instead of getting in bed and going right to sleep he screams...to be tucked in, fix his pillow, just one more hug, turn his music up...something. It's been horrible. He's also been waking up a lot in the middle of the night, which again, is very unusual for him. It's been going on since before his birthday and has just gotten progressively worse. I really don't think it's anything with the shunt as he has had an MRI since this whole thing started. I had been going in when he wakes up, worried that his screaming would wake Madelynn. But I think that has just made it worse, so last night was night 1 of making him cry it out. He cried well over an hour when he went to bed and then woke up a few hours later and cried for over an hour and a half before falling back to sleep. Hopefully this does the trick because I am starting to feel like a zombie....6-10 times of him waking up each night is really starting to catch up to me.

Don't forget about my fundraising efforts. Many thanks to those who have mailed me a check, I will be mailing in the first batch probably this week. There will also be some fundraisers coming up, I just have to lock in the dates and then can spread the word. If you wish to donate online, head over to www.spinabifidaassociation.org/nycmarathon/donate and be sure to choose my name as your captain!!