fundraising grand finale (because yes, there will be an encore or two)

With the fundraising event at See Jane Run this Sunday fast approaching, I thought it was high time I did a follow-up post to my new year, new raffle post a couple of weeks ago to let you all in on all the fabulous prizes that have been so generously donated to our in-store raffle.  Here's the list, somewhat in the order the items were donated:

• $20 gift certificate to See Jane Run, also hosting the brunch-style shopping event (mimosas, anyone?!)
• a "Beauty Bash" at Benefit Cosmetics in Berkeley (valued at over $800!)
• Gu T-shirts and samples of highly sought after new flavor: peanut butter!
• signed copy (signed by co-author Sarah Bowen Shea) of Run Like A Mother
• certificate good for copy of Train Like A Mother, by the same duo as above, out in March 





• $15 gift certificate to James & The Giant Cupcake (I can personally vouch for these cupcakes, more often than I should admit)
• free entry to any Brazen race (I've heard nothing but great things about their races)
• $25 gift certificate to The Pasta Shop
• $25 gift certificate to Crepevine
• Q-Link Pendant (a $99 value!)
• a 1-night stay courtesy of Personality Hotels (winner's choice of 4 hotels in San Francisco's Union Square area!)
• gift certificate good for a pizza from Zachary's!
• $100 gift certificate to First Crush restaurant in San Francisco
• $25 gift certificate to La Farine





• $20 gift certificate to Homeroom (yummy mac 'n' cheese restaurant I've blogged about before) 
• $20 gift certificate to Great Harvest PLUS one loaf free each month for a year!
• Free Functional Movement Screen at SOL (Sports + Orthopedic Leaders)
• $50 gift certificate to Puccini & Pinetti in San Francisco

Phew. Not bad, eh? We tried to really highlight the Rockridge shopping area in Oakland, since that's where the See Jane Run store is, but we have quite a few donations from elsewhere in the world of running and in Oakland, Berkeley, and San Francisco (many of which you'll enjoy even if you're not a runner!). So if you haven't already donated to buy your raffle tickets in advance, do it now! Raffle "tickets" are 2/$5 or 10/$20 in advance (you can think of these as "entries" if you donate online but rest assured we have a spreadsheet and actual raffle tickets so it's all good - you will be in the drawing on Sunday if you donate online!); 1/$5 or 5/$20 on the day of the event. And while most of the raffle items will be best enjoyed by a Bay Area resident, that's not necessarily true for all items (and hey, aren't you due for a visit??) and you DO NOT have to be at the event to win.

That said, if you are at the event on Sunday from 11 am to 1 pm, get there early because we'll have goody bags chock full of, well, goodies for the first 50 shoppers! Seriously, these bags courtesy of See Jane Run are already full from their latest race and I haven't even added the Gu or the Luna bars!

So other than fundraising, you might be wondering how my actual training is going so far? Pretty well, especially considering I was suffering from some serious IT band woes around this point in my training for Big Sur in 2001. I do have a new pain - some soreness on the inside of my knee, wrapping around from my calf muscle along that tendon, along the side of my knee to my quad, ever since we did 10 miles at Lake Chabot a couple of weeks ago. I was blaming my shoes but got the green light at TranSports earlier today (no pronation whatsoever! and in neutral running shoes, no less!) and walked out with a foam roller instead. Stretching, strength training, and cross training are, it seems, just as important as clocking in the miles. I'm hoping to add in a bonus yoga workout once or twice a week beginning next week since I only have about a month left to use a Groupon good for 10 sessions! All that said, I'll aim to complete 12 miles this weekend in one of Oakland's gems, Redwood Regional Park.

Stay tuned tomorrow for another edition of pasta and a movie (and, because I know you were looking for it last Friday, an explanation of what I ate and watched - or didn't - last week)!