Birth of a Blog: The first post.

I am finally making a goal of 2012 a reality. I had wanted to start my blog on January 1st, but due to the fact that I was away in Big Bend National Park and didn't have any internet access, this goal was postponed.  Only a month late, I am finally getting my thoughts out there. (Keep in mind that I am a newbie at blogging and this may be choppy and unorganized until I figure out what I am actually doing :)  )
 Originally, I had wanted to start a blog as a means to discuss my upcoming training for IMWI ( I signed up with my boyfriend after waiting in line for over 2 hours on Monday, Sept. 12). However, the more I thought about it, I really wanted to get the word out sooner about what we were doing.
A little background info:
   In conjunction with IMWI, I had decided awhile back that I really wanted to do some fundraising for a charity to make this event even more meaningful. When I trained for my very first marathon back in 2007/2008, I signed up with Team in Training and realized that racing for a cause really helps keep one motivated. I never had a personal connection to the cause, but I was lucky to meet so many inspiring people along the way. After moving here to Austin, I decided I wanted to put my efforts toward a cause that was close and personal to my heart, the Multiple Sclerosis Society.  My mother has suffered from MS, since late 2001, when she was diagnosed at age 40.  My parents live in Wisconsin still and I chose the Wisconsin Chapter in hopes of her possibly receiving some direct benefit from our fundraising efforts.   Scott(my boyfriend) and I launched our fundraising website in November with a lofty goal of $15,000.  To date: we have raised $1,202.41.
To visit our website and make a donation, click here:  http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/DiYFundraisingEvents/WIGDIYEvents?px=4555832&pg=personal&fr_id=18226
We are accepting donations all the way up through the day of the event.  Once my official IM training begins, I will be blogging on a regular basis about fundraising, training, and MS. In the meantime, there will be posts involving my training for the Boston marathon which takes place on April 16th, 2012! I will also be randomly blogging about things that inspire me such as music, food, fashion, art, and any other interesting thoughts that may be blogworthy.