In the post about Fab Female Pauline Newsholme, Eddy said he plans to run a marathon with his friend.  Bless those marathon runners, but my brain short circuits when it tries to comprehend the attraction of running for 4 hours straight, or however long it takes a normal person to run one of these, especially when you consider all the other things you could be doing during those 4+ hours…like sleeping.  Or eating.  Or sleeping.

My sister ran the Boston Marathon several years ago.  My sister doesn’t enjoy exercise.  But she enjoys ridiculous challenges.  My sister is crazy.  But I don’t hold that against her.

Anyway, Eddy my good man!  You want to run for a good cause and were wondering how to go about doing that?  Well, as I like to say, I live to serve.  And I’m all about people helping people.  So here are a few things you can do:

1. If you’re going to run a big, popular marathon, it’s best to contact the marathon organizers directly (if the race is big enough, it should have its own website where you can register online and stuff).  A lot of times, the big marathons have partnerships already set up with different non-profits that you can sign up to run for.  For example, the NYC Marathon has partnerships with the American Cancer Society and other groups.  You want to look for a link like this one, which lists the charities associated with the marathon.
2. If you’re going to run a smaller, more local marathon that doesn’t have a website, you can still try asking the organizers about any partnerships they have.  If they don’t have any, then you can strike out on your own and collect money yourself or through an online collection site, using something like firstgiving.com, which lets you set up a collection page for free, but deducts a fee from whatever you collect before mailing checks out to the charity of your choice.  Here’s a list of other online collection sites.  If you decide to do something like this, runners typically ask for a certain amount of money for a set distance…like $5/mile or something (I’m totally making up those numbers as an example.  I don’t know what the standard is.).  Then you collect the money, and follow through by finishing the race.
3. The other thing you can do is contact charities directly to see if they have marathon programs.  For example, the American Cancer Society has something called Team ACS, which lists running events they’re associated with, or if the event you’re running isn’t listed, you can still raise money through their site.
4. If you’ve never run a marathon before, something you might find helpful is to join a training program sponsored by a charity.  Basically, they train you for the marathon and you raise a set amount of money for them.  It’s a fairly straightforward exchange.  For example, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has a program called Team In Training.  Here’s a list of other training programs.

Hopefully, that’s enough to start you off on your noble quest, and anyone else who’s interested in running for a good cause.  I tip my hat to you because goodness knows I would start crying after the first mile.