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!!!!