Running for a Cause, Using the Power of Charity to Motivate

As i wrote in my 2013 Goals post, I said that one of my goals this year is to run 500 miles. That is a lot of running. ...Well, its a lot of running for me anyways. Last year I only logged about half as much.

So, to keep myself accountable to actually put the miles on the road, I need to up my motivation because there are certainly going to be days when I just don't want to get out of bed and on the road. One of the things I'm doing to stay motivated is right here - telling everyone that I have a goal.  It is amazing the difference it makes, when everyone knows what you are doing.

I also have another great motivator that I am using to keep me running this year.  I am making my effort count for something bigger than myself.  By running for a charity, I feel that every step I take has a greater purpose than just getting me fit.  Every step I take is important.  What a motivation!  Every time I go out for a run, I'm not only making myself better, I'm helping make the world better too.  Every time I run this year I will be raising money for two great causes.

The first charity I am running for Is Sebastian Riding Associates.  SRA provides therapeutic horse riding to people with special needs. They are an amazing group of people that provide an great opportunity for so many people.  To coordinate my fundraising efforts, I decided that I would do some research and see if there are organizations out there that manage individuals trying to raise money for various charities.  To my surprise, there are several organizations out there that do this exact type of effort. I chose to go with Razoo because I found their website easy to use and it seems well suited to the way I wanted to raise money.   Since I have the goal to reach 500 miles this year, I wanted people to be able to sponsor me on a per mile basis.  Razoo was very easy to set up and integrate into this blog.  Check out the page I created (Hannah's Horses) to get the word out about what I'm doing.  Oh and Hey... please help me reach my goal. 

Donate online to Hannah's Horses at Razoo

I am also using Charity Miles to track my workouts and donate to Autism Speaks. Charity Miles is an APP that can be installed on your smartphone. Just turn the app on and select the charity you want to raise money for before you start your workout.

The APP will use the GPS on your smartphone to track your progress and they donate $0.25 for every mile run or walked. They will also donate $0.10 for every mile biked. It's as easy as that!  Plus it keeps a log of your workouts so you can see how much if an impact you are making. Awesome!!  In addition to that, this APP can be used at the same time as your other workout apps.  For example. I turn on Charity Miles and then I turn on Runkeeper as my training APP and they both run concurrently.

So what are you doing to motivate yourself this year?