Welcome to the Terry Talley Berlin Marathon Fundraising website for the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society. 

The MS Society of the United Kingdom is sponsoring my run and in return I have set a goal to raise £500 (approx. $1000) before the marathon which takes place Sunday, September 28, 2008.  With your support, I'll be able to meet, and even exceed this goal.  In addition to raising money for the MS Society, it is also my goal to run a Boston marathon qualifying time of at least 3 hours, 20 minutes, so wish me luck!  I will return to this website each week to update my "training notes" (see below) for your reading pleasure as well as updating the image for your viewing pleasure so please keep returning to take advantage of the newly updated content.

My family and I currently live in Germany, and have resided in Europe for the past 7-8 years in both Germany and Italy.  I am a computer programming contractor and my wife, Angela, is a Phyiscal Therapist and writer.  We have two wonderful daughters, Alexandria (12) and Samantha (8) and a variety of pets including our dog Max, cat Nero, two rabbits (Sugar Cookie and Fuzzball), and a Guinea Pig named Chip.  Running marathons acts as our excuse for traveling around Europe and visiting numerous destinations.  Future plans include the Two Oceans Marathon in Cape Town, South Africa, the St. Petersburg Marathon in St. Petersburg, Russia, and two other marathons which, in the past, I had to pull out of due to injuries: the Zurich Marathon and the Paris Marathon.

Donating through JustGiving.com is the fastest and most secure way of submitting your donation when sponsoring me.  It's also the most convenient way of submitting a donation through the use of your credit or debit card.  JustGiving.com takes care of processing the transaction and funds are directly transferred to the MS Society, therefore, leaving me free to concentrate on my task at hand...training for the Berlin marathon.

So, please make a donation to help support the MS Society, the families and people who are affected by MS all around the world, and our "run" to help make a change.  We greatly appreciate your support!

Sincerely,
Terry Talley (and family)
terry@terrytalley.com

Training Notes for Friday, October 03, 2008                       
Just completed my Berlin Marathon, finally!!

It was a struggle, though.  I developed leg cramps at KM 31 (around mile 18-19) and things just escalated from there, but I stopped and stretched every 5KM after that, increased my salt intake as well as potassium, and managed to make it across the finish line at just over 04:18:00, not my best time (actually, far from it) but finished, nonetheless.  I even joined some other runners from the United Kingdom who were also running for the Multiple Sclerosis Society...pretty cool.  The trip to Berlin, in itself was incredible (its actually the second time I've been) and the marathon experience was well worth it.  The Berlin Marathon is certainly second to none in the category of crowd support you receive.  People in the city literally lined the streets from beginning to end during the entire race!!!  I was absolutely stunned at the turn-out!  Since I didn't really meet my goal time, I'm considering running the Frankfurt Marathon on 26 October (about 3 weeks) to see if I can't taper much better for that race and perform closer to my expectations.  I certain I can do it and I really think it was a poor tapering that led to my leg cramps, but you learn from your mistakes, make adjustments, and try again.  I'll let you all know how things go.

I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has supported my run and for your words of encouragement.  I'm glad I had the opportunity to run this race but, more so, I'm glad I had the chance to support a cause that is important to me at the same time.  If you know of anyone who would still like to donate a little, please urge them to do so.  My site will still be accepting donations through December of this year and I haven't reached my goal yet of 500 British Pounds.  So, please, put the word out and help me reach my goal!

Thanks again for everything and enjoy the "finisher" pic!

Favorite Links:
http://www.marathonguide.com/ (favorite running site)
http://www.coreperformance.com/ (favorite training site for running)
http://www.mssociety.org.uk/ (MS Society in U.K. website)
http://www.real-berlin-marathon.com/events/berlin_marathon/2008/index.en.php (Berlin Marathon website)
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=723405343 (my wife's Facebook site)http://www.angelacerrito.blogspot.com (and her blog site)