Seven Weeks of Training Left Until the Country Music Marathon!

Hello team!

Can you believe that race day is a little less than 7 weeks away?!

As of today, we’ve raised $4,600 toward our goal of $40,000. It’s so exciting to see new donations come in each day – let’s all keep it up! If you have any questions or need ideas about fundraising, please let me know.

Please pass on any praise reports about your fundraising – we’d love to feature them on the Run for Mercy blog!

I wanted to give a little shout out to our top 3 fundraisers so far: Teresa Epps, Tina Brown and Sandy Haynie! Some of you are getting really close to $1,000 raised and earning a gift card!

RUNNING THIS WEEK
You should find your runs/walks getting pretty long by now. Keep in mind that it’s ok if you’re having some aches and pains or feeling tired and drained. You’re in the thick of training, and that’s totally normal. You’ll taper your runs/walks down a bit closer to rest day, and this will allow your body time to recover so that you feel fresh when you reach the start line.

Fellow team member Trish Squittieri and I will be running together Saturday morning. Should you be interested in joining us, please email me and let me know. We will run about 16 miles at a 10:30 pace. You can join us for some or all of it if you would like. We will determine a location later this week.

TEAM DINNER
We will have the team pre-race dinner here at the Nashville Mercy home on Friday night, April 29th. I will send out more specific details soon, but I just wanted to remind you that you must meet the $100 fundraising minimum to receive the invitation to the dinner. Keep up the hard work with fundraising!

SHIRTS
They have been ordered! When you reach the $100 fundraising minimum, you will be able to pick yours up here at the office so that you can train in it. I’ll let you know when they arrive. They are going to be AWESOME.

If you did not submit a shirt size to me, I was not able to order you a shirt. However, we do have some other Run for Mercy shirts that you can have if you would like one.

I hope you all have a great week! Please let me know if you have any questions about any aspect of preparing for the race!

-Melanie Blair, Team Mercy Coach

A Word on Fundraising from Community Relations Manager Whitney Nall

Hey team!! I am SO excited about everyone who has signed up to RUN FOR MERCY in the Country Music Marathon and Half Marathon in April! This is always SUCH a fun event and a great way to spread the word about Mercy to your friends & family. It takes a special person to want to walk OR run in a marathon OR half marathon – so I know just by seeing your name on the list that you must be disciplined!! I also have a feeling that each one of you is passionate about the work of Mercy Ministries.

I can’t tell you enough how valuable you are to our ministry! It’s through people like you that MORE people hear about Mercy and choose to give – even one dollar makes a difference. As you probably know, the residents at Mercy Ministries come completely free-of-charge, but the cost of caring for one girl at Mercy is $175 per day. We decided at the beginning of this year to make it our goal to raise $40,000 with the marathon. This would cover the entire cost of one girl at Mercy for a little over the average 6 month stay. It’s going to take a TEAM effort to reach this goal – but just remember that every single dollar raised is a blessing. We currently have 51 people on our team. That would average out to each person raising around $800. Now of course we will have some people raise more and some people raise less, but this gives you a ballpark figure to work with. If you need ideas on how to go about fundraising (sending letters to your contacts, social media, etc), please feel free to contact your awesome coach, Melanie Blair. We have put together some resources to make this an enjoyable time for all!! Blessings to you as you prepare for this race!

If you’re interested in coming by the Nashville Mercy Home to take a tour and see the work being done firsthand to really understand what you’re running for, feel free to email me at Nashville@mercyministries.com and we’ll get that set up! Thanks again for ALL you do to help these hurting young girls come to Mercy!

Meet The Coach for Team Run for Mercy, Melanie Blair!

Coach Melanie Blair

For the fifth year in a row, Mercy Ministries will have a team running in the Country Music Half and Full Marathon on April 30 in Nashville, TN! This year’s team is led by Mercy staff member Melanie Blair. Melanie first started running in high school where she competed on both the cross country and track teams. She knew early on that she preferred distance events to sprint events and made it a personal goal to someday run a marathon.

One week before her college graduation in 2005, Melanie completed the Country Music Marathon in just over five hours. She thought that once she reached her goal she would move on to other things, but Melanie found that she loved the training, the race day atmosphere and being a part of the whole running community.

At The Goofy Challenge

Over the past six years, Melanie has gone on to complete 10 marathons and 15 half marathons! In January, she ran both the Disney World half and full marathons to complete The Goofy Challenge – 39.3 miles of running over two days. This was also her third marathon in three months, an accomplishment that qualified her for the national Marathon Maniacs club! Melanie’s current personal records include 1:52:16 for the half marathon and 4:11:22 for the full marathon. She intends to break 1:50 in the half and 4:00 in the marathon later this year.

Melanie at Nashville's Run For Mercy 5K

Melanie’s current goal is to get Team Run for Mercy to the finish line of the Country Music Half or Full Marathon and she is here to serve YOU! Melanie can help you determine which training plan to follow, adjust it to fit your specific needs, answer questions and guide you to excellent resources regarding clothing, shoes and nutrition. She can also guide you in your fundraising efforts as you raise money to support the work of Mercy Ministries. You can reach Melanie at 615-831-6987 or mblair@mercyministries.com. Melanie will also be available for encouragement and advice at all scheduled group training runs. Whether you’re a beginning runner/walker or a veteran of distance events, Melanie will do all she can to get you to the finish line of both the race and your personal fundraising goals.

Over 35,000 people participate in the Country Music Half and Full Marathon each year. It’s an exciting event, and you won’t be disappointed. Join Team Run for Mercy to run and/or walk the race to raise money for the hurting young girls we serve at Mercy Ministries. For more information about training plans, group runs or joining Team Run for Mercy, please visit the team website at www.runformercy.com/cmmarathon2011.