Iowa lost last night.
I know, I know, they were at home too! Gotta give credit to Michigan State though, they turned up the D in the second half and Iowa went 1-13 in the last 10 minutes of regulation and OT. Tough, tough loss for the Hawkeyes, who led most of the game, but I'm confident they'll bounce back and be a top 5 seed when March Madness starts.
The good news is, the rest of the night was fantastic.
First, the CharityTeams group finally made it out to Hell, aka Newton, for our first hill run of the year. Cold weather and snow have forced cancellations the past 2 weeks, but it was awesome to finally get back out there and do some hard running with a great group of people. I'm actually going to write another post specifically about training and my running schedule, so I'll delve into more detail about the format of hills and the people involved in a later post.
I'll stop beating around the bush now though. Ok, maybe a little more messing around:
The REAL reason I'm writing this post today is because I had my first fundraising event, A Very Special Trivia Night, yesterday evening at Common Ground Bar & Grill in Allston. Geeks Who Drink, a Denver-based organization, runs the trivia sessions every Tuesday, but for a minuscule (i.e. $0.00) fee, they'll put on the exact same trivia night, only with an entry fee of your choice, with all the money raised going to a) a cash prize, and b) the charity of your choice. It's a really fun way to get people out on a Tuesday, have a ton of fun, and raise money for charity, all with zero stress of having to cover room or DJ fees, or that sort of thing. Great stuff.
I'm usually there for trivia each and every Tuesday with my team, Dikembe Mutombo(a decade-long trivia name for my friends, dating back to high school), along with 6-7 other teams on average during the winter. Yesterday we doubled that, 16 teams showed up in support, helping me raise $215.00 for the Shawn Thornton Foundation.
Our winners, apparent local-trivia-ringers Quiz in My Pants, were one of the few teams who I didn't know, but they still came out, donated, had a great time and ended up essentially eating and drinking for free. Read the full recap, along with YOUR results, answers, and of course, the all-important team names, on the Geeks Who Drink blog here. It's written by the Quizmaster, Corey (I won't use last names, he's kind of a big deal and I don't want to blow up his spot), who donated an additional $50 himself.
To everyone who came, who braved 12 degree weather, who did the hill runs with me then didn't shower(I didn't mind, I didn't shower either) and came right over, who came over from Somerville (I know it's only 4-5 miles, but it's a Big Deal to cross the river), or who just came down the street for a few minutes to say hello, thank you. I've been pretty excited for this to happen for a couple months now, and the reception was incredible. Seemed like everyone had a good time, win or lose, and I've already had several people ask me when the next one is, or tell me they're coming out to more trivia nights in the future. I love that, the more people who are involved, the more fun it is, so if I do end up doing this again, I'd love to see the same people there, and more!
So thanks for making my night, week, and month. You all get huge, awkward high-fives for that.
The grand total I've raised for the STF at the moment stands at $1,877, or almost exactly a quarter of the way to my $7,500 goal. I still need some help folks, but nights like these are so, so encouraging. Distance running can be a pretty lonely sport at times, but knowing I have so much support behind me makes it so much easier. My legs may be tired today, but man, I'm as excited as ever to run.
Oh yea, and by the way, the Bruins won, and Shawn scored on Tim Thomas. He was excited.
Hell of a day.
