Preppy Runner – Theodora Blanchfield

And it’s two days from today! As I sit down to write this, it’s 10:40am, so 48 hours from now, I will be crossing the starting line.

I. AM. SO. EXCITED. Also, I will be wearing that shirt until it stinks or until I put on my race day shirt, whichever one happens first.

Even without lots of cool events this week, I’d be jumping-out-of-my-skin excited, but through blogging and being pretty involved in the NYC running community, I’ve done some cool stuff this week.

Last night, I went to the NYRR Five-Borough Bash, a fundraiser that raises money to support NYRR’s youth running programs. Somehow, Ashley was invited and got to bring some of us, so thanks to NYRR and Ashley for the invite.

Mary Wittenberg, my girl crush on you was solidified last night. And I really like your boots.

She talked about our looming public health crisis. “At NYRR,” she said, “it is unacceptable to use to lose our next generation for unhealthy living.” People know us for our races, she said, but they should also know us for our deepest priority, the kids. NYRR’s Team for Kids was started in 1999 in Red Hook to provide free or low-cost health and fitness programs to children who might not otherwise have access to regular physical activity. Now, the program reaches nearly 100,000 children per year in all 50 states and in three countries.

The event honored Owen Ryan, who has helped raise significant amounts of money for NYRR.

The event also honored one of the kids who’s participated in the program, and he was pretty much the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.

The event also honored Cathy Lasry, who started a summer running program last year for high school girls. The program was three times a week for eight weeks, and Lasry promised every girl who finished a $1,000 college scholarship–and they all finished! She joked that she started the program because she wanted more people to run with.

We noticed some serious bling on her finger and her kids all had Chanel bags. When I googled her, I found out her husband is a prominent hedge fund manager. Makes sense. I’m glad to see she’s using her means to give back to the community.

 

We did, too, on a slightly smaller scale.

Me, Dori, Ashley, Melissa and Melissa Z

Me and Laurel

It was a fun (albeit very sober–I nursed one glass of wine) event, and thanks to NYRR for hosting us!

Speaking of NYRR, I happen to be running this sort of big race they put on this weekend.

If you would like to watch/stalk me, here’s how:

You can go to this website and put in my bib number: 52301 to track me via web or text message.

But the coolest?

If you have an iPhone or Android, DOWNLOAD THIS. I used this last year to track my friends, and it was incredibly accurate and worked far better than the text messages.

If you are spectating me and/or others, download this awesome spreadsheet from JackRabbit. If you put in my estimated finish time (let’s say 4:20 for these purposes, shall we?), it tells you at what time I should be at each mile.

EDITED TO ADD: If you follow me on Twitter or are my Facebook friend, I hooked up those accounts with some Asics app that will be tweeting my splits at 9, 13 and 22!

IF YOU ARE SPECTATING, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LEAVE ME A COMMENT TELLING ME WHERE YOU’LL BE SO I KNOW WHERE TO LOOK OUT FOR YOU! This is the kind of thing that will keep me going!