Written by When I planned to start this blog, my goal was to motivate others to be more active through journal entries from my own experiences or the experiences others who motivate me. Today’s entry is about the latter.
When I was looking for course info on the National Marathon, I entered a post on one of Active.com’s boards. I received a reply from a fellow runner, whose profile name is tattooedangelwings. At the bottom of the post she closed with, Run Strong, Dana and www.52beginnings.com being the curious person that I am, I decided to check out her blog and this is what I found.
The blog 52 Beginnings belongs to Dana Casanave, a 29 year old runner and mother of three from Leesburg Virginia. Here is a little information about Dana. In 2004, she wanted to lose weight, she was overweight was a child which continued into her early twenties. She decided she wanted to lose weight properly, no more crash diets for her. She started out running on a treadmill—something she despised at first. She did stick with it and as she began losing weight, like many of us she began to feel different. Overall Dana lost 70 pounds and began to enjoy running.
In 2006, struggling with motivation she decided to sign up for a race so to regain focus to her workouts. She signed up for the Rock n’ Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach — even though she had never ran more than seven miles. She began to see if she could run this distance. She run the 13.1 mile distance on her treadmill and continued training for months until race day.
On race day, although nervous and making by her admission making “a lot of mistakes,” she finished. Two weeks later she went to Philadelphia to run the Philly Distance Run Half Marathon. Almost four years later she has completed 14 more half marathons, 23 marathons and 3 ultra events (races over the 26.2 mile distance).
Dana has a new challenge for 2010, starting in January — she plans to run 52 marathons in 52 weeks. She is doing this to help raise money and awareness for 25:40. 25:40 is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping children in South Africa survive the HIV/AIDS epidemic. 25:40 supports and fosters the creation of orphanages, health clinics, day care centers and other entities critical to the care and development of children who have felt the impact of AIDS. In her own words Dana, “plans to run each race for a different child and make a different beginning for 52 children that have lost so much.”
Last Sunday, Dana was in Carlsbad, California running the Tri City Medical Center Marathon, today she ran the Ocala Marathon in Ocala Florida, two marathons down and 50 to go. After reading Dana’s blog this morning my debate about going out for a quick training run before work in 18 degree weather became a non-issue. I layered up and out I went.
If you want to track Dana’s progress or read her Blog 52 Beginnings it can be found at http://52beginnings.com/
If you want more information about the 25:40 organization, they can we found at http://www.2540.org/
Let me know what you think. You can leave a comment if you want with a question or suggestion.