Skydiving in stilettos? That’s one item on Melissa’s life list of to-do’s and the title of her blog, where she also claims to have raised “an obscene amount of money” with Firstgiving.com

After crossing #1 (run a marathon) off her list last year, Melissa has been training for marathon #2 and will be racing in NYC on November 2. She’s raising money for the Achilles Track Club, a New York-based non-profit whose mission is to enable people with all types of disabilities to participate in mainstream athletics.

Melissa is at 90% of her fundraising goal and looking good to succeed in both fundraising and beating her PR in the next couple of weeks. If the comments left by her donors are any indication, she’s quite an inspiration to her family and friends, and she’s an inspiration to us as well.

Melissa’s done several things which have helped her to be successful in her fundraising:

• Included a personal story on her fundraising page about how she and her family support and are involved with the Achilles Track Club.
• Written a description of why she is passionate about the work that this organization does and why she is running 26.2 miles to raise money for them.
• Posted regular updates to her fundraising page about her training and past races.
• Linked her Firstgiving page to her blog with a widget.
• Blogged about her training, fundraising and racing.

Best wishes, Melissa, as you pound the NYC streets. We applaud your gusto!