Walking the mall

Christie O'Sullivan is going to give a new meaning to running around in the mall next weekend.

Starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 27, O'Sullivan will run and walk on a treadmill for about 10 hours inside Westfield Countryside Shopping Center to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. She will only take short breaks to change her wardrobe.

O'Sullivan started working out on a treadmill a few years ago, after she gained weight having her two boys, now age 2 and 3. She loved working out and soon found herself losing more than 50 pounds.

"Crossing a finish line or finishing a marathon is symbolic of achieving a goal in life," O'Sullivan said Tuesday.

On Sunday she will run and walk in place as part of the Web-based Team Shrinking Jeans. Her goal is raising money in the fight against Leukemia and Lymphoma. O'Sullivan hopes to raise $3,000 in donations towards the team's overall goal of $50,000.

She said she will be thinking of a former co-worker who survived a bout with the disease.

When it came to raising her $3,000 she said, "I figured I needed to take drastic measures by doing something crazy, like running on a treadmill in the middle of the mall for 10 hours."

Her treadmill will be set up near the Ruby Tuesday's entrance on the first floor of the mall at U.S. 19 and S.R. 580, in Clearwater. Lifestyle Family Fitness, the gym in which she works out, is supplying the treadmill.

O'Sullivan said her plan is to have fun while raising money for an important cause. She will be a human billboard, one hour advertising a donor, donning her prom dress during another hour and occasionally dressing up wearing wigs or hats. While trekking along she will report on social networking sites like Twitter, her Facebook fan page, called Christie on the Treadmill at the Mall, and her blog.

A stay-at-home mom and a freelance writer, O'Sullivan acknowledges she was pretty overweight after giving birth and decided to write about her weight loss on her blog, http://www.babytealeaves.blogspot.com. She began writing for a fitness Web site, the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans, at http://www.shrinkingjeans.net.

Bloggers support each other in their weight-loss and fitness endeavors, O'Sullivan said. She is now not only doing the half-marathon with the Sisterhood, she is preparing for the St. Anthony's Triathlon, to be held next month in St. Petersburg, and the Miami Man Half-Iron Triathlon, in November.

"I often look in the mirror and ask, 'Who is this person?' " O'Sullivan said. "What I love most about my new life at home is inspiring other women, other mothers, not just to lose weight but to unlock that superhero that lives within themselves. Crossing a finish line during a marathon is so metaphorical for life, and I love to cheer on women as they see the strength within themselves."