If you know Jamie and I, you probably know how much we love to travel.  What you may not know, at least not by looking at me, is that I got in to participating in all kinds of races, just for fun, a bunch of years ago.  Eventually, two great things go great together.  If you like exploring new places, the 26.2 miles of a marathon covers more  ground than you think and you get to see parts of places that you never would as a ordinary tourist. 

Somehow, I convinced Jamie to run the half marathons while I run the full.  As much as I’d like to credit my powers of persuasion, when you’re starting with an enthusiastic, adventurous person who’s always up for something new, like Jamie, it’s not that hard.

Well, I turned 50 this year in January and my knees are telling me I should lighten up on the marathons. This will be my 5^th marathon in consecutive years so I wanted to find a good one.   After some internet research, I found a race in Edinburgh, Scotland.  Even though we
like to try new places, we've both been to Edinburgh before as tourists and loved it.  If you haven’t been, you should really go, it’s one of the most picturesque cities in Europe. 

You also may not know that Jamie and I actually met in Scotland exactly-ish 10 years ago.  Also, race day is on her birthday, May 26.  So, marathon/half marathon, traveling to Scotland, Jamie’s birthday and right in the exact place where we met 10 years ago to the day (or close enough … it was Aberdeen in June) ... the decision was easy.

To make it even better (and because my part of the race was sold out and my entire plan was almost out the window) we decided to run for a charity.  Honestly, this makes it a better opportunity to get exposed to charities and causes that we wouldn't normally get exposure to back home.  Jamie and I both looked through the approved list of charities, separately, to come up with a cause we wanted to support and OneKind was first on both of our lists!  If you follow either of our Instagram feeds, you already know why.  OneKind is doing great work protecting Scotland’s animals from cruelty.  OneKind advocates for all animals, wild and farmed, including, you guessed it … Foxes! 

I hope you guys can be a part of the experience too by donating to OneKind.  So that you don’t think I’m only asking for donations so that I can run in the race, I am donating an amount sufficient to qualify for my entry.  Anything we raise here is just for giving.