Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Join Me In My Walk From Texas To Alabama







I wrote last week about my challenges for 2012. My first challenge is to read the bible all the way through in a year. My second challenge is to walk from my home in Texas to my home in Alabama. Well, not really. I am going to walk the same distance for the year: 719 miles. I have already logged 2.4 miles toward this effort. If I can go farther, that is great. But my goal is 719 miles.


To add to the fun, I am logging my progress on the +3Network to raise a little money for charity. The +3Network is a cool website that puts money for charity together with exercising. Companies have committed to donating money to a particular cause. A participant teams up with the cause and then logs their exercise for the cause for the day. For every unit of exercise logged the company donates money to the particular cause.




Members can win prizes after completing challenges for which they sign up. Organized bike rides and hikes are some of the group activities organized by non-profits and individual groups. Members can participate in these as they desire.  However, most of these occur in California, where the web designers live. I would love to see some started for the Austin, Texas area on that website. Garmin GPS units can be used to track and upload activity automatically.


I chose breast cancer as my charity to honor my Mamaw, Marguerite Ratcliff and my grandfather, Aubrey Robbins. Mamaw survived breast cancer, only to have it recur as bone cancer later. My Papa Robbins died from lung cancer when I was only seven years old.  Anhu footwear provides the funding for this cause. Other causes include Second Harvest Food Bank, Rebuild Hope, Project Open Hand, Cal Poly SLO Cross Country, Nevada Cancer Institute and The American Heart Association. But there are more.



On the website, members can link to other members and keep stats on the money raised within a group. Almost any kind of exercise qualifies. Running, biking, swimming, skateboarding, spinning, weight room sessions, yoga, walking the dog. Almost anything that you can imagine is included for credit. Please feel free to join me on this site and send me a friend linkup. 

Neighborhood walking is a little boring for me, so I get a little help here from my MP3 player, to listen to music and scripture if I want while I walk. After I finish, I upload my progress onto the +3 Network, and then click on the Facebook link to post my progress and the monetary contribution. Other people I know take a camera with them on their walks and runs and take a picture of the sunrise or something else that captures their interest. I frequently enjoy these posts on Facebook. 

With help from my MP3 player and inspiration from the +3Network to track my progress, I look forward to finishing my 719 mile trek this year. Won’t you join me with an exercise goal of your own? Please visit +3Network and send me a friend request so that we can participate together.

Linking up with Laura and Jen











8 comments:

  1. What a worthy goal and a deserving cause, Kathi. Just had another woman in my family diagnosed with breast cancer yesterday. That makes a total of eight--just for breast cancer.

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  2. Do you live in Austin? That's my best guess looking at your map. I'm really excited for you about this goal of walking and the amazing cause you are helping!

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  3. Yes I am in Austin. You are too, aren't you? I never knew! Wow! Cool! Jen, I am just starting out on this exercise thing, but small strides add up to big steps, right? Blessings, Kathy

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  4. I am sorry to hear that, Megan. The great news is that they can do so much more for it than they could 40 years ago when my grandmother was diagnosed. Praying for your family member!

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  5. What an interesting way to accomplish this goal. I so need to get back into my exercise. I'll look into this further.

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  6. Do look in to the +3 Network. I need friends to link up with. Right now, I have only one friend.:)

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  7. You. Are. Awesome.

    I've never heard of this program before, Kathy! I run every other day anyway...I wonder if I can incorporate that into some kind of goal they might recognize? I'm definitely checking this out! Thanks for the info! When I read the title I thought maybe you were going to walk to Laity Lodge next year :). Now that would be interesting.

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  8. That would be interesting! LOl! I'm not quite that brave... But I think that it would be great if you joined this. It is fun to track progress and move a little money for a good cause. Blessings, Kathy

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