First one up

So the first race I'm going to be attempting is the Rochester half-marathon, a 13.1 mile run of fun. Since I'm not in the states at the time I haven't managed to set up a separate Chase account to deal with any donations so for this race I'll be fundraising using an operation offered by the marathon.

To reach my fundraising page for this half-marathon just follow this link. The donations made for this race are going to the Arthritis foundation (homepage), which deals with research and treatment of arthritis. Even doing some basic research on arthritis made me realize how prevalent the disease is and it seems like a pretty good place to start.

Any donations are welcome. Could be a dollar a mile, 5 dollars a mile, or whatever you deem fit.

For now,

- Jared Smith

Hey all

So if you've been directed here from my email you may know the gist of what I'm trying to do. For the others, here's my spiel:

For the last few years both of my parents have been pretty actively involved in triathlons and my brother and I have gone to most of their races to support them, even going so far as to participate in a couple of the sprint triathlons. However, this summer my dad did a half-ironman triathlon (involving a total of 70.3 miles) and being surrounded by that atmosphere is truly addictive. As a result, I've decided that in a years time I hope to do the race that my dad just accomplished.

In the year or so that I've got until this race (It's in July) I'm going to participate in as many local races and triathlons as I can and for each of them I hope to achieve a goal. The second reason that I'm thinking about attempting all this is to raise money for organizations in Indonesia. There are several efficient, well-run non-profits that I've dealt with before and I'll be sure to advertise the recipient of each donation on this blog so that you, the readers and donators can do some research as to where your donations are going.

So yeah that's just an idea that I had and kind of developed with my parents. Please send this along to friends and family and donate using the PayPal feature located at the bottom of the page (which will be up within the next few days, just need to make an account with a local bank once I get stateside).

Stay classy, San Diego