How Many Katie Holmes Does It Take to Run a Marathon?

The answer if, of course, 28.4.  (How's that for cryptic and intriguing?)

So about 3 weeks ago, I woke up and had a really bad idea.  I decided I should run the Chicago Marathon.  I was on some post race high from completing Barb's Race a few weeks before.  I even convinced Chris to sign up with me.  He, being a more seasoned athlete than I am, realized it was a dumb idea and decided not to do it.

I, however, am still young and inexperienced.  So, not only did I sign up, I did a series of not smart things:

1. After signing up, I went on vacation for 2 weeks and did not run.
2. After not having run for nearly 4 weeks, I went wine tasting, drank much wine, and ate at a vegetarian restaurant the night before my 16.5 mile run (the longest distance I've ever run).  Run was not pretty.
3. I stopped taking my asthma medication for some reason several weeks ago.
4. I signed up to fundraise for this race for the Chicago Diabetes Project. Not in and of itself a dumb thing, but I only have 8 weeks to raise $1500. 

So this is where Katie Holmes come in.  She ran her first marathon (NYC) a few years ago in 5:28.  I remember laughing at her, considering her slow and lame.  This was before I had any idea of what it really takes to run a marathon.  But she's a celebrity, so laughing at her is what we (I) do.  Let's be honest, she does deserve a laugh from time to time.  (Tom Cruise, bad dancing, nothing good since Dawson's Creek, Tom Cruise, etc.)

So now as my long runs grow longer, 5:28 is in fact looking completely respectable to me, and I have made it my goal to complete my first marathon faster than  Katie Holmes.  That's right.  I am pathetic and lame, just like her.

If you were to so kindly jump over to my fundraising page, you would find a list of suggested donations.  One of which, is $52.80, $10 for every hour it took Katie to complete the marathon.  This has proven to be a popular choice of donations.  Which leads me to think that maybe much of fundraising can be done in increments of $52.80.  My goal is to raise $1500 by October 10.    Now, I have close to 3 Katie Holmes worth of funds.  Thanks to my friend Heather, I have this sort of mental model in my head.   I need 28.4 Katie Holmes to complete my fundraising. We'll call it 28.  I have 3 complete.  I just need 25 more Katie Holmes to finish this off.

Ok. This is vaguely creepy, but what are you going to do?  My HTML skills have withered away and this interface is pretty bad, so my actually being able to complete this matrix on this page will be challenging.  But know in my head, if you donate, I'll pick a little Katie just for you!


Thanks for your time.