to making it count

I had (what I thought) was a great idea during my long run today (14 - yeah!). I was out there running and wondering what the heck good it was doing anybody but me. I am not into doing a Team in Training for whatever reason. There has to be a way to make all of this running count for something.

Something Nathan and I have never followed through on is consistent charitable giving. Yes, we do give to our church and the occasional donation to disaster relief. I have started donating blood on a semi-regular basis (OK, I've done it exactly twice, but I am scheduled to give again next week!). So I propose this - for every mile run and every 3 miles biked, we contribute $1 to the charity of our choice. You know Nathan and I both keep all of our workouts on spreadsheets (dorks!), so this should not be hard to track. The person completing the mile (or 3) decides where the money goes at the end of the year. For example, last year I ran 800 miles, so I could donate $800 to the charity of my choice. I don't know how many Nathan ran/rode last year. Whoa, this may cost us some money.

I came up with this idea on Lap 1 of 3. In fact, I did my best "thinking" on Lap 1. Anyway, on Lap 3 I found a $1 bill on the ground. I almost ran past it thinking, "I am not going to pick up someone else's dollar!" But then I thought "I am not rich, I am not going to just run past a dollar!" Anyway, as I went back to pick it up and then continued on I realized that this could be "a signt affirming my great idea. What do you think?

PS - Extra points to the first person who can correctly identify the movie I got my post title from. :)