NYC Marathon 2013 for UNICEF!

I have some very exciting news to share! I have decided to run the NYC Marathon on November 3, 2013 with the UNICEF team! As a result, during the next two months I will be writing about interesting running locations around the US. In September I will be visiting Oregon, Texas, and Georgia and more locations to be announced at a later date! My travel blog will become a travel running blog!

I have teamed up with Albany-based Made in Truth Clothing to print t-shirts to the first 150 people who sign up to give at least $26.20 ($1 for each mile I'm running!). MiT will be designing a personalized logo and printing the shirts! More details to come.

Are you familiar with the work of UNICEF? The United Nations Children's Fund is a United Nations Programme headquartered in New York City, that provides long-term humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries. You might be familiar with the UNICEF collection boxes that children carry around during Halloween. Well, those collections go to assist millions of families worldwide.

Since 1970, the number of deaths for children under 5 years old has dropped from 17 million to 7 million in 2011, with every region in the world seeing marked decline. Those are amazing results, however at UNICEF they believe in zero, particularly in polio, measles, and maternal/neonatal tetanus. 1 child under 5 still dies every 5 seconds, and to UNICEF and their supporters that is a tragic number.

That's why I've teamed up with UNICEF. In just 2 months I will train to run 26.2 miles through all 5 boroughs of New York City. Besides pushing myself to get into shape, I'll be pushing to fundraise $3500 for UNICEF. To show all of my appreciation to my supporters, I will continue to look for great incentives! Right now the incentives are:

• Give $5 or more and receive a personal thank you card from me after we've completed the NYC Marathon!
• Give $26.20 and receive a great t-shirt! (More details to come on the t-shirts; expect shirts to ship in December of 2013)
• Give any amount and receive access to track my run during the NYC Marathon to follow my progress and realize that each step we took together and brings us closer to a world of zero preventable child deaths in the world!
• The highest donor will get a personal phone call or video chat from the NYC Marathon as a special thank you for their support!
• The first two people to give to my fundraising page online will receive a free UNICEF t-shirt to be received immediately!

You can give directly on my fundraising page here: http://www.crowdrise.com/teamunicefnyc/fundraiser/kristengrennan as well as through my blog (www.kristenginparis.blogspot.com) on the right-hand column.

You are my teammates and together we really can work to achieve this amazing goal. I cannot cross that finish line without you and you will be there with me the whole time! Stay updated via this blog on interesting runs around the States (as well as any marathon or UNICEF updates) by adding your email to our email list, on the right hand side of the blog. Thank you in advance for your support!