Marathon For Charity

Hey Goleros Team!

Many of you may know my wife Kira. She makes it to games a couple of times a year, usually with our daughter Sofia, although sometimes I get to just bring Sofia on her own. What you may not know is that she's an accomplished runner (much like some of the players on this team) and has completed 5 marathons over the last couple of years. Well, this year, she's going for the Marine Corps Marathon on Sunday.

Oddly enough, the Marine Corps Marathon has been an especially difficult hurdle to clear. The first time she registered for it, she got pregnant (well, I guess that was my fault). The second time, she had a freak accident at work and broke her kneecap a couple of months before the race. Well, the third time is the charm and it looks like she is ready to run and complete her 6th marathon.

Since she has run more than a few marathons, she decided that this year, it would be a great idea to run for a charity. We are close friends with a family (one of Sofia's best friends) who has a autistic child named JP. As we've gotten to know them, we've seen how autism has impacted their family and how complex and complicated this disease
really is. JP is a cute little kid (I've enclosed his picture) and so Kira decided that it would
be best to run for an autism charity, in this case, the Organization
for Autism Research.

She's got a web page here: http://www.firstgiving.com/kiravanderlan where you can make a donation. This is the last week before the race,
so consider making a donation of $100, $50, or $26.2 to support this
cause.

Thanks for taking the time to consider Kira's race.
She's amazing. In her training, she had to do a 20 mile run. To make
it more interesting for herself, she entered another marathon in
Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, with the plan of cutting out around the
18-20 mile mark. Well, she missed the cut-off point and because it was
an out-and-back type course ended up running the entire marathon. So
any donation you make is a 2-for-1 deal, since Kira will have polished
off two marathon distances in less than a month!!! Yes, she's amazing, and I am one lucky dude.

See you all this weekend and thanks for taking the time to consider this great charity.

- Jeremy