Yup.

This Saturday, me and a dozen of my friends are going to dress up like Cavemen and run in the southeastern Warrior Dash.  Why Cavemen?  Because we managed to raise over 3,000 dollars for Camp Sunshine, enough money to send half a dozen kids with cancer to Summer Camp!

Win.

This has been an incredible learning experience for me (and hopefully will be a great experience for these kids), as I’ve never done anything like this before in my life.  Here are a few things I’ve learned:

• Picking a great cause is key. Camp Sunshine has been an absolute delight to work with, and they’re a such a great cause that I don’t think I could have picked a better partner.  Thank you Camp Sunshine!
• Helping people is fun! I had an absolute blast making the Nerd Dash announcement video, and I had a lot of fun learning how to build the site for Nerd Dash.  That’s right, I built that damn thing all by myself.  +1 Nerd Cred.  Hopefully I have some fun running the race too…even though I hate running, and the last time I ran one of these I lost to a 10 year old girl.
• Make sure you have time to train. So I’ll be running this 5k on Saturday, and the last time I ran 3.2 miles was….November?  Hell the last time I ran at all was probably November.  I’ve been sick for the past three weeks since Kid Rock, but who cares, it’s for a good cause and I’m not trying to win this thing…I’m trying to have fun and look ridiculous in the process.
• Make sure you have time to dedicate to the cause at hand. Aiming high was a good plan, but launching a fundraiser while spending half of the fund-raising time out of the country wasn’t smart.  I didn’t have time to promote the event or dedicate more time to making more videos to stir up excitement.  Oh well, now I know better.

I’m already thinking of plans on how to improve this whole system for next year, but I’m ready to make an ass of myself and have a good time on Saturday. I have tomorrow off, so I’ll be running around Atlanta trying to track down leopard print and brown fabric so we all have costumes to wear.  Sounds like a nice little Friday.

After that, we’re headed up to camp out and make our costumes (while enjoying the occasional adult beverage) Friday night and then racing on Saturday morning at 11AM. If you’re going to be at the race on Saturday, make sure you swing by and say hello.  I’ll be the kid in the middle of the pack, dressed up like a caveman and covered in mud, smiling from ear to ear.

Expect lots of pictures and videos.  And stories.  And hopefully no broken bones.

Let’s do this.

-Steve

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photo: Imamon