The race is over...

...but the Kelly Murray Scholarship Fund is still accepting donations!

Greetings from recovery. Physically, I am feeling fine- a bit sore Monday, but I was back to the gym yesterday and this morning. Emotionally, I am a little overwhlemed trying to catch up on everything that got pushed aside in the run-up to the big day. I have lots more to write about the marathon, but I need to take care of a few things (like laundry and the job I actually get paid for) before I do that.

I do want to take a moment, though, to announce the final fundraising total: $3376! Hooray! Honestly, its more than I had hoped for and it will make such a difference in the lives of the students who are given the Kelly Murray scholarships. I can not say thank you enough to everyone who donated!

If you would still like to make a donation, it is never too late! The online fundraising pages are coming down, but you can always write a check to "Loyola University" and send it to:

Annual Giving
Loyola University Maryland
4501 N. Charles St.
Baltimore, MD 21210

Be sure to write "Kelly Murray Scholarship Fund" on the memo line of your check!

Also, if you have been inspired to do some fundraising of your own- in honor of Dr. Murray or for another cause- here is how Katie and I did it:

-We created accounts on Active.com (http://www.active.com/). Once we had accounts, we used the fundraising tabs in the "My Active" menu to set up our campaigns. We gave Active the contact info of our charity, they verified that it is legit, and we were good to go! Active processed all of the credit card donations, deducted a service charge, and mailed monthly checks to Loyola. For a small charity, it was a great system.

-We created our blogs on http://www.blogger.com/.

-We set up training logs on Daily Mile (http://www.dailymile.com/). With Daily Mile, we logged our miles (Katie entered hers manually; I synced my Nike+), and then used a widget from the site to send the running total to our blogs.

-We used the "share" functions on Active and Blogger to post our campaign updates and blog posts to Facebook. This was probably the most effective tool for getting the word out. We also did more traditional fundraising: emailing friends and family, putting up flyers at Loyola, speaking to our classes and churches, etc.

That's it! I won't say that it was easy, but it was manageable and totally worth it (much like running a marathon!). So don't be afraid potential marathoners and fundraisers. If we can do it, you can too!