Sorry I have been slacking on the updates, things have been busy! I will start off first by thanking Mark Berry. Mark is a Omaha, Nebraska resident who will also be doing a fundraiser for the Wounded Warrior Project this summer, by running his first 100mile race at the Heartland 100 in Cassodey, Kansas. Mark has sent out information about our fundraiser to just about everyone in Nebraska I think and all his hard work resulted in a live interview this morning on KFAB radio. I think the interview went well and hopefully we got the word out to some more folks also.
We are just a bit shy of $7000.00 on the money end of things, we have a long way to go to $25,000, but next Tuesday June 8th is our "On the Border" night, we will get 10% of ALL sales for the night, so please come out to the New Market Square "On the Border" if you can, for those of you in Wichita and the surrounding areas. We also have our track run at the end of June at the Maize South Track, also we have a stellar group of people in Wellington, Kansas organizing fundraisers and possibly a track run there as well, keep you posted. Dan Elsener is also in the process of organizing a track run/fundraiser in Indianapolis, Indiana. Sounds like I should have no problem getting in my miles!!! I am going to work on raffle tickets this week, I promise!!! No new raffle donors last week.
I previously posted that Lisa Smith Batchen would be here this week in Wichita for her fundraiser, well they had a logistical error and will now be in Dodge City, sorry if you planned on coming out and running.
Training
I have previously stated that I will do two heavy mile weeks and then one light week to allow my muscles to recover. This week coming up is my light week, no more than 30 to 35 miles of running, I will cross train and try and knock out a few weights. Last weeks mileage is as follows
MONDAY
AM-10.32
PM-10.50
20.82 Total
Tuesday
AM-10.43
PM-10.15
20.58 Total
Weds
PM- 15.90
Thurs
AM- 10.45
PM- 13.65
24.10 Total
Friday
OFF day
Saturday
27.25
Sunday
26.85
136 miles total for the week.
Pretty productive week of training, no injuries and no soreness, so i am quite happy with the results. After this rest week I would like to knock out back to back 130mile weeks and see how I feel? Thank you everyone for all the support, we are 101 days away from the event!!!! Gonna be here before we know it. Semper Fi !!!!
Monday, May 31, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Lisa Smith Batchen fundraiser
Lisa Smith Batchen is a very accomplished ultrarunner that is running a 50miler in all 50 states in somewhere around 60days. She will be in Wichita, Kansas on June the 3rd to do her 50 at Sedgewick County Park. Please check out her webpage http://www.runhope.com/ If you have any other questions please contact me!!!!
Getting there!!!!
Sorry about the late end of week post. Last week we received confirmation from Joe Prusatis of the donation of 4 free entries to his races for the raffle. For those of you that do not know Joe, he is a race director in Texas of just about every ultramarathon that goes on down there. He has given us a free entry to Rocky Raccoon, Bandera, Cactus Rose and Nueces. Adding all of these up I am sure we are around $500 or more of free entries.
As for the raffle, I wanted to have the tickets done this weekend but I was tied up doing other things, I will work on it this weekend and try to get them out to you guys. We have broken the $6000 mark on donations, so that puts us right at about 25%!!! We also have a group in Wellington, Kansas that is starting a fundraising campaign for us down there.
My training is going well, did not quite get in the miles I wanted to last week but life kind of got in the way, I will make up for it the next two weeks!!! Thank you all of you for the support and please keep it up, I promise to do a better job updating this blog!!!! Semper Fi
As for the raffle, I wanted to have the tickets done this weekend but I was tied up doing other things, I will work on it this weekend and try to get them out to you guys. We have broken the $6000 mark on donations, so that puts us right at about 25%!!! We also have a group in Wellington, Kansas that is starting a fundraising campaign for us down there.
My training is going well, did not quite get in the miles I wanted to last week but life kind of got in the way, I will make up for it the next two weeks!!! Thank you all of you for the support and please keep it up, I promise to do a better job updating this blog!!!! Semper Fi
Friday, May 14, 2010
End of week report
I am doing my end of week report a few days early, since we will be visiting friends this weekend. I will start off with my training for the week. Not much going on really, it was my "easy" week, I ran Tues, Weds and Thurs. Two of those days I did speed work and one day I did incline work on the treadmill, I only ran 5 miles each day. Tomorrow I will do 15 miles and call it good for the week, a nice easy 30 mile week running, did a lot of weights and other strenghning exercises. Next week since I am good and rested up, I will be aiming for somewhere around 115 to 130 miles, kinda depending on the weather. Karla Gregg wrote a great article on our fundraiser this week in the Wichita Running Examiner, a newspaper in Missouri is doing a spread on our fundraiser next week and we were contacted by two more radio stations. Not to mention the 20 or so e-mails I received this week from various people stating the have passed our press release on to paper and media outlets all over the country. We have over 800 fans on the Facebook fan page, every state is represented as well as 7 different countries!! Word of mouth is the best way to spread the word.
I received a new pair of shoes from Sophia at Mizuno today. Since my 15 miles tomorrow will be on trail, I will wait till Monday to properly break in those Mizuno's, probably somewhere in the ball park of 22 to 25 miles??? Very excited about those shoes, I have been a 100% Asics guy for years, but something tells me that I may be changing it up. I have tested out all the other gear Mizuno sent me and it is all top notch! I highly recommend all of you to give any Mizuno product a go, the shorts especially, they are called the "Mustang". I liked the pair they gave me so much I ordered 3 more pairs the next day!
The RAFFLE!!!! We will be doing one raffle only, which is not a bad thing really. I contacted 5 race directors, various health and fitness clubs and other groups pleading with them to let me hold a raffle or help me advertise it. One group, the American legion Riders offered to help us promote it and other than that no response from anyone else??? So, July 10Th at the Summer Psycho 25k/50k at Wyandotte County Park we will hold one raffle. We will start selling tickets next weekend and have an online option for those of you not in the Kansas area if you would like to participate. The tickets will basically consist of your name and phone number, if you win and are not present, I will contact you and get your mailing address and mail the gift to you. Since we anticipate people from other states buying tickets we have mainly tried to stick with national chain businesses, so that way they can be used anywhere. We do however have some very generous local businesses owners who have pitched in more than there share, so if an issue comes up where you get a local Wichita prize we will address that issue then.
HOOTERS!!! Spoke with one of the regional reps for Hooters today, Amanda. She confirmed that Hooters will host our post event party Sunday Sept 12Th at there Wichita location. She is working with US Foodservice trying to get a substantial food donation from them so we can have a FREE food buffet possibly, as well as drink specials/door prizes. For our June 26Th track fundraiser a few of the "Hooters Girls" from here in Wichita will be coming out to the track to help out as well. Amanda and I will be having a face to face meeting sometime in the next month or so to work out the post event party and a time line, I will keep you posted.
Raffle donors as of 5/14/2010
-On the Border
-Nu Way
-Denny's
-Red Beans Bayou Grill
-Sonic
-Applebees
-Buffalo Wild Wings
-Famous Daves BBQ
-Olive Garden
-Pei Wei Asian Diner
-Texas Roadhouse
-PF Changs
-Outback Steakhouse
-Best Buy
These are the places that I actually have gift cards in hand, I still have a lot of people and businesses that have given me verbal commitments, but like I have said before, I will only promote those who have come through for us. Also, 90% of those businesses I mentioned donated multiple cards, one for example is Outback Steakhouse, they gave us 4 - $50 gift cards for the raffle. So I strongly encourage all of you going out to eat this weekend or anytime for that matter to support these businesses, because they are supporting the Wounded Warriors 100%!!!! Every Friday I will update new gift cards and donations received by businesses.
Thank you for all the support and thank you for helping our nations Wounded Warriors. Semper Fi!!!!
I received a new pair of shoes from Sophia at Mizuno today. Since my 15 miles tomorrow will be on trail, I will wait till Monday to properly break in those Mizuno's, probably somewhere in the ball park of 22 to 25 miles??? Very excited about those shoes, I have been a 100% Asics guy for years, but something tells me that I may be changing it up. I have tested out all the other gear Mizuno sent me and it is all top notch! I highly recommend all of you to give any Mizuno product a go, the shorts especially, they are called the "Mustang". I liked the pair they gave me so much I ordered 3 more pairs the next day!
The RAFFLE!!!! We will be doing one raffle only, which is not a bad thing really. I contacted 5 race directors, various health and fitness clubs and other groups pleading with them to let me hold a raffle or help me advertise it. One group, the American legion Riders offered to help us promote it and other than that no response from anyone else??? So, July 10Th at the Summer Psycho 25k/50k at Wyandotte County Park we will hold one raffle. We will start selling tickets next weekend and have an online option for those of you not in the Kansas area if you would like to participate. The tickets will basically consist of your name and phone number, if you win and are not present, I will contact you and get your mailing address and mail the gift to you. Since we anticipate people from other states buying tickets we have mainly tried to stick with national chain businesses, so that way they can be used anywhere. We do however have some very generous local businesses owners who have pitched in more than there share, so if an issue comes up where you get a local Wichita prize we will address that issue then.
HOOTERS!!! Spoke with one of the regional reps for Hooters today, Amanda. She confirmed that Hooters will host our post event party Sunday Sept 12Th at there Wichita location. She is working with US Foodservice trying to get a substantial food donation from them so we can have a FREE food buffet possibly, as well as drink specials/door prizes. For our June 26Th track fundraiser a few of the "Hooters Girls" from here in Wichita will be coming out to the track to help out as well. Amanda and I will be having a face to face meeting sometime in the next month or so to work out the post event party and a time line, I will keep you posted.
Raffle donors as of 5/14/2010
-On the Border
-Nu Way
-Denny's
-Red Beans Bayou Grill
-Sonic
-Applebees
-Buffalo Wild Wings
-Famous Daves BBQ
-Olive Garden
-Pei Wei Asian Diner
-Texas Roadhouse
-PF Changs
-Outback Steakhouse
-Best Buy
These are the places that I actually have gift cards in hand, I still have a lot of people and businesses that have given me verbal commitments, but like I have said before, I will only promote those who have come through for us. Also, 90% of those businesses I mentioned donated multiple cards, one for example is Outback Steakhouse, they gave us 4 - $50 gift cards for the raffle. So I strongly encourage all of you going out to eat this weekend or anytime for that matter to support these businesses, because they are supporting the Wounded Warriors 100%!!!! Every Friday I will update new gift cards and donations received by businesses.
Thank you for all the support and thank you for helping our nations Wounded Warriors. Semper Fi!!!!
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Check out the PODCAST!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, pretty darn good week if you ask me. We still haven't broke that $5000 mark, but we will, seem to be stuck around $4700? We received about 4 more gift cards for the raffle this week and I sent out a handful more requests. The way it's looking right now we probably won't have two raffles, can't find any takers here in Wichita so I am at wits end begging people to let me hold a raffle. Next weekend we will start selling raffle tickets for $1 a piece and we will have an online sign up as well. You do not have to be present to win, I am going to make a raffle ticket with name and phone number on it, you can buy as many tickets as you want. The raffle will be held sometime during or after the Kansas City Trail Nerds Summer Psycho 25/50K on July 10Th at Wyandotte County Park here in Kansas. If any of you out of staters choose to help and buy a raffle ticket, if you win I will call you and get an address and mail you the prize! I will keep you posted.
There is a link at the top of the page if you have not heard the podcast yet, it's about 20 mins long. I would like to thank Ben Holmes who had lunch with Kevin from Endurance Planet earlier in the week and put the bug in his ear!
Speaking of raffle this brings me to my next point. Over the last two weeks I have received multiple e-mails asking me who the restaurants/businesses are that are donating. I was going to wait a while before I stated the donors but one lady made a great point. She wants to support businesses that support the Wounded Warriors, so next Friday I will post a list of all restaurants/businesses that have graciously donated and I will do this every friday from here on out until the raffle. On the flip side of that, she wanted to know who has turned us down. I told her I would rather not name the people who said no, although a few of them I would like to. Let me just tell you this and for those of you from the Wichita area it will clear a lot up. I drove down Rock Road and Maize Road one month ago, I wrote down every restaurant/fast food/other businesses I felt might donate. For those of you not from Wichita, just picture that main street in your town where you have the choice of about any restaurant or store you can think of. So, without naming the names of those who said no, that should clear it up for most of you. I do not expect every business to donate to our fundraiser, but like most other veterans and families of veterans, I will support the places that support those that serve in uniform; its that simple.
I received one of two pairs of shoes that Vasque donated to me for training purposes, the Mindbender, great shoes as usual! This shoe is super lightweight, I ran about 32 miles in them on Saturday morning, it says a lot about a shoe when you can pull it out of the box, throw it on, go run 30 plus miles and not have an issue. Thanks Vasque! I also received a VERY UNEXPECTED package from Mizuno USA this week, specifically from there Midwest Rep, Sophia Wharton. She sent me shorts, shirts, sleeves, jacket, long sleeve and shoes on the way! Needless to say I was a running Mizuno poster boy today, I kinda felt guilty and dirty running in my Asics. Sorry Sophia! I have not made it up to Topeka yet, but Willie Lambert with Great Plains Running Company has gear there waiting on me, keep you posted on that.
Other than that, things went great this week, put a little over a 110 miles in pain free. This next week will be an easy for me, no more than 30 miles. I have spoke with 4 newspapers, 3 radio stations and one nationally syndicated talk show; should be a busy summer! Don't forget to check out the shirts at the top of the page as well, there are t-shirts, running shirts, hoodies, kids clothes etc etc etc. We get 50% of all sales of the clothing, that is Brent Welch owner of Resort Promo Wears donation. Thank you everyone!!!
There is a link at the top of the page if you have not heard the podcast yet, it's about 20 mins long. I would like to thank Ben Holmes who had lunch with Kevin from Endurance Planet earlier in the week and put the bug in his ear!
Speaking of raffle this brings me to my next point. Over the last two weeks I have received multiple e-mails asking me who the restaurants/businesses are that are donating. I was going to wait a while before I stated the donors but one lady made a great point. She wants to support businesses that support the Wounded Warriors, so next Friday I will post a list of all restaurants/businesses that have graciously donated and I will do this every friday from here on out until the raffle. On the flip side of that, she wanted to know who has turned us down. I told her I would rather not name the people who said no, although a few of them I would like to. Let me just tell you this and for those of you from the Wichita area it will clear a lot up. I drove down Rock Road and Maize Road one month ago, I wrote down every restaurant/fast food/other businesses I felt might donate. For those of you not from Wichita, just picture that main street in your town where you have the choice of about any restaurant or store you can think of. So, without naming the names of those who said no, that should clear it up for most of you. I do not expect every business to donate to our fundraiser, but like most other veterans and families of veterans, I will support the places that support those that serve in uniform; its that simple.
I received one of two pairs of shoes that Vasque donated to me for training purposes, the Mindbender, great shoes as usual! This shoe is super lightweight, I ran about 32 miles in them on Saturday morning, it says a lot about a shoe when you can pull it out of the box, throw it on, go run 30 plus miles and not have an issue. Thanks Vasque! I also received a VERY UNEXPECTED package from Mizuno USA this week, specifically from there Midwest Rep, Sophia Wharton. She sent me shorts, shirts, sleeves, jacket, long sleeve and shoes on the way! Needless to say I was a running Mizuno poster boy today, I kinda felt guilty and dirty running in my Asics. Sorry Sophia! I have not made it up to Topeka yet, but Willie Lambert with Great Plains Running Company has gear there waiting on me, keep you posted on that.
Other than that, things went great this week, put a little over a 110 miles in pain free. This next week will be an easy for me, no more than 30 miles. I have spoke with 4 newspapers, 3 radio stations and one nationally syndicated talk show; should be a busy summer! Don't forget to check out the shirts at the top of the page as well, there are t-shirts, running shirts, hoodies, kids clothes etc etc etc. We get 50% of all sales of the clothing, that is Brent Welch owner of Resort Promo Wears donation. Thank you everyone!!!
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Closing in on $5000
Hey everyone. We are about $400 shy of $5000!!! We are getting there slowly but surely,hopefully after some of out June and July fundraisers wrap up the money will start flowing in! Other than that, not much new is going on. Putting a ton of miles on my legs and still trying to get as many gift cards as possible for the raffles. Still no definite spot for the Wichita raffle but we are working on it. Kinda baffles me how much trouble we are having in Wichita???
As for the KC raffle, Ben Holmes and Trail Nerd nation have that under control! I am looking forward to that raffle and the great group of runners that come out to those events. Check back in a few days. Semper Fi !!!
As for the KC raffle, Ben Holmes and Trail Nerd nation have that under control! I am looking forward to that raffle and the great group of runners that come out to those events. Check back in a few days. Semper Fi !!!
Sunday, May 2, 2010
End of Week training
Well, another week of training in the books. In my opinion it was very productive, got in a lot of miles and was injury and pain free. As I have stated before, throughout the summer I will do two really high mileage weeks in a row, somewhere around a 100plus miles each week and then an easier week, somewhere around 30 to 35 miles of running. On the easy weeks I will also get miles on the bike and hopefully once the weather warms up a little more, start getting a lot of pool time in!!! So here's how the week went for me.
Monday
AM= 7.25
PM= 11.20
Tues
AM= 9.25
PM= 11.20
WEDS
AM= 10.40
PM= 10.25
Thurs
AM= 8.40
PM= 10.15
Sat
23.90
Sun
15.25
Week Total = 117 miles
I will only run 5 days this week, I am taking tomorrow off to heal from this weekend and i will take Friday off to get ready for the weekend. Semper Fi!!!!!!
Monday
AM= 7.25
PM= 11.20
Tues
AM= 9.25
PM= 11.20
WEDS
AM= 10.40
PM= 10.25
Thurs
AM= 8.40
PM= 10.15
Sat
23.90
Sun
15.25
Week Total = 117 miles
I will only run 5 days this week, I am taking tomorrow off to heal from this weekend and i will take Friday off to get ready for the weekend. Semper Fi!!!!!!
Saturday, May 1, 2010
First Month Results
As of today we have one full month of fundraising in the books and have $3,800 in donations to this point. We are quite a ways from $25,000 but we have quite a bit going on in June and July, so hopefully the numbers will start raising quickly. On the business donations like I said before, I have found that the few businesses that are looking at helping us have anywhere from a 30 to 90 day period before they actually pay out the donation. I have four businesses that have gave me a verbal "YES" for a donation, but I am not counting any money till we have it.
Great Plains Running Company in Topeka, Kansas has graciously donated Hammer Gel, HEED Sports drink, socks, compression sleeves and speaking with some of there vendors about shoes. Willie and Karen Lambert the owners are going above and beyond to help our fundraiser, so please, if you are in Topeka, Kansas please look these fine people up. It's a family owned local running store!
Vasque Shoes has generously donated 2 pairs of shoes for me to train in, they would have loved to do more but budget restrictions have a lot of companies in a bind right now. Thank you Vasque, I will never complain about free running shoes. I do not have the exact number yet but Brent Welch at Resort Promo Wear in Wichita, Kansas is doing our shirts (link is above if you have not bought one!!!) and he said Monday when he gets the month end numbers, in his words "we will be very pleased". Many of you have contacted me that you bought shirts and hoodies and I would like to thank all of you!!! I have more gift cards than I can even begin to name, once I get them all in, I will let you know which businesses are stepping up to help the Wounded Warrior raffle. For the most part about 95% of the businesses I have went to or e-mailed have had open arms or at least had the courtesy to contact me back and let me know why they cannot. For those businesses who have not, just start doing push-ups!
Below is the list of April financial donors, these are in order by first name, no order as to who donated what.
Allie Lawerence
Alvin Wynia
Chris Fryer
Debbie Webster
Eric Steele
Phil Contreras
Gary Clark
Jacquelyn Fryer
Jamie Stewart
Jessica Caizza
Joe and Joyce Prusaitis
Julie Toft
Kevin Delong
Laurie Euler
Lee Crane
Luke and Jennifer Campbell
Mike Adams
Randy Albrecht
Robert "Bob" Murphy
Roger Laughary
Sara Morales
Seth Weil x2
Sheryl Kustra
SSGT Ethan & Mrs.Melody
Stuart Ray
Tony and Angel Clark x2
Those names above are responsible for the first $3,800. Some of the other groups that have stepped up are the American Legion Riders, they will be escorting me through a few towns along the route. Tony Brown has the logistics and mapping all done for the route and the US Marines, US Navy and US Army recruiters here in Wichita and OKC are helping in a big way with our "mini"fundraiser/track run in June. I will be posting a schedule of events at the top of the blog page in the next week for the months of June and July. Kristi Mayo has finished our press release and has compiled a HUGE list we are gonna get it out to. Sorry if I forgot anyone, email me and I will get you in the end of May report. Thank you for all your support everyone, I know we will reach our financial goal! I will put a end of week report tomorrow of my training for the week, so check back tomorrow night. In closing I will give you a quote from my buddy Kevin Delong. Earlier this week I thanked him for all his help and hard work, he then told me "no thanks needed, people need to quit just saying they support the troops and start doing!" Well said Kevin.
Great Plains Running Company in Topeka, Kansas has graciously donated Hammer Gel, HEED Sports drink, socks, compression sleeves and speaking with some of there vendors about shoes. Willie and Karen Lambert the owners are going above and beyond to help our fundraiser, so please, if you are in Topeka, Kansas please look these fine people up. It's a family owned local running store!
Vasque Shoes has generously donated 2 pairs of shoes for me to train in, they would have loved to do more but budget restrictions have a lot of companies in a bind right now. Thank you Vasque, I will never complain about free running shoes. I do not have the exact number yet but Brent Welch at Resort Promo Wear in Wichita, Kansas is doing our shirts (link is above if you have not bought one!!!) and he said Monday when he gets the month end numbers, in his words "we will be very pleased". Many of you have contacted me that you bought shirts and hoodies and I would like to thank all of you!!! I have more gift cards than I can even begin to name, once I get them all in, I will let you know which businesses are stepping up to help the Wounded Warrior raffle. For the most part about 95% of the businesses I have went to or e-mailed have had open arms or at least had the courtesy to contact me back and let me know why they cannot. For those businesses who have not, just start doing push-ups!
Below is the list of April financial donors, these are in order by first name, no order as to who donated what.
Allie Lawerence
Alvin Wynia
Chris Fryer
Debbie Webster
Eric Steele
Phil Contreras
Gary Clark
Jacquelyn Fryer
Jamie Stewart
Jessica Caizza
Joe and Joyce Prusaitis
Julie Toft
Kevin Delong
Laurie Euler
Lee Crane
Luke and Jennifer Campbell
Mike Adams
Randy Albrecht
Robert "Bob" Murphy
Roger Laughary
Sara Morales
Seth Weil x2
Sheryl Kustra
SSGT Ethan & Mrs.Melody
Stuart Ray
Tony and Angel Clark x2
Those names above are responsible for the first $3,800. Some of the other groups that have stepped up are the American Legion Riders, they will be escorting me through a few towns along the route. Tony Brown has the logistics and mapping all done for the route and the US Marines, US Navy and US Army recruiters here in Wichita and OKC are helping in a big way with our "mini"fundraiser/track run in June. I will be posting a schedule of events at the top of the blog page in the next week for the months of June and July. Kristi Mayo has finished our press release and has compiled a HUGE list we are gonna get it out to. Sorry if I forgot anyone, email me and I will get you in the end of May report. Thank you for all your support everyone, I know we will reach our financial goal! I will put a end of week report tomorrow of my training for the week, so check back tomorrow night. In closing I will give you a quote from my buddy Kevin Delong. Earlier this week I thanked him for all his help and hard work, he then told me "no thanks needed, people need to quit just saying they support the troops and start doing!" Well said Kevin.
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