Today, this here blog reaches two milestones: 900 posts and over 33,000 subscribers.

While I suspect 32,000 of you dear subscribers are pornbots, I am still deeply moved to have had the privilege of your eyes, ears, and attention over the past two years.  And since I imagine many of you new-comers know little of me, my blog’s mission, or why a guy featured on Tumblr Spotlight: Sports rarely ever posts about sports, here’s a quick recapitulation:

• My name is Abel Charrow.
• When this blog began, I was racing a marathon a month for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
• I did pretty well; finishing under three hours in one race, under 3:10 in two more, and placing in a fourth.
• More importantly, the project raised over $15,000 for the LLS, and proffered invitations for my participation in a number of other inspiring and gratifying charity projects.
• I’ve received more than my fair share of compliments and thanks.  I’ve accepted them graciously, and continued to portray myself here as insufferably benevolent and modest (I’ve done a tremendous job at that).
• In truth, I have a behemoth of an ego (as many competitive athletes do), which offends swiftly and bruises easily.  Which drives me to judge quickly, to grow frustrated and bitter and discouraged, and to dwell in jealousy towards those whom have gotten more by doing less.  But it also drives me to go further, push harder, reach higher, and to never be satisfied with yesterday’s long-gone laurels.
• Every day of training, of fundraising, of organizing benefits and writing this blog was a constant challenge of channeling the best of me for public consumption and condensing the rest for only my closest confidants to suffer.  I now think this was a mistake.  I should have allowed you to see the bad with the good: the injuries, insults, setbacks, and uncertainties.  Though I hate to admit it, I am only human, after all.  
• I did not begin this project because I am a naturally altruistic person; charity has been my atonement.  When I was 23, my cousin Eric was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer.  I was not there for him.  I was too self-absorbed and naive to understand the pain, lonesomeness, and uncertainty he was facing.  Only after he was again deemed healthy did we talk, and he chided me for being a careless and insensitive friend.  He was right, and I promised to make it up to him.  
• This blog has been my way of paying penance.  When I set out on the 6n6 Challenge, I set a few rules: Never would I actively seek recognition; Never would I advertise on this blog; Never would I personally profit from my efforts.
• While I’ve vigilantly tried to stay true to those guiding principles, I must admit, in many ways, I have profited.  The experiences resulting from my efforts here have been both immeasurably rewarding and life-altering.  The 6n6 Challenge, and the projects that have spawned from it, bring meaning, direction, and light to my life.  
• Over a century and a half ago, Horace Mann said, “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.”  That quote used to haunt me.  Used to.

This has been a small victory, but -at the risk of sounding self-satisfied- its a victory nonetheless.  My posts may be less frequent and focused as before (as I take this hiatus from charity work to focus more on my professional life), but please know the intention and heart is still here, and I look forward to the day I return whole-heartedly to charity work.

It has been, and remains, an honor to be invited into your world and to have you as a part of mine.  Thank you.