40 days to go!

Sorry I have slacked on posting here! I will cover some now and some later, alot has happened here recently. First of all, we broke the halfway mark on donations and are just shy of $13,000 right now. For all of you that do not use "facebook" you can still access our fanpage on the right side of this blog without being a member, just click on the link and you will go to the page. You cannot post anything unless you are a facebook member, but atleast you can read all the comments, we have over 1100 fans and new stuff pops up everyday.
-We had a bit of an RV situation a few weeks and really freaked me out for a day or two. Our original RV plan, excuse my language "went to hell" and I had no idea what we were gonna do. I called around and it was no less than $1000 to rent one for the weekend plus a $500 deposit. I called every RV place in Wichita and surrounding areas but no one was willing to assist us or donate one. So using the awesome tool that Facebook is, I sent out a plea for help basically. The next day I received a message from Julie Toft a friend of Angel and I's and an ultrarunner in the KC area. Julie spoke with a friend of her's named Mike Peek of the KC area. This next part is truly amazing, Mike e-mails me and has never even spoken to me before and said we have 100% commitment from him to use his RV the entire weekend. Need I say more about how awesome this guy is, I finally spoke with him over the phone the other night and he really is a great guy, saying things like "he is truly blessed and looks for ways to help others". He is now a friend for life!

-We are still going to need a few people who would like to help with driving duties on the RV, Mike and I would both prefer someone who has driven one before or isnt scared to drive it. I believe he said its a 32'foot RV. We basically have the first day covered with no problem at all, but going into friday night Sept 10th and Saturday Sept 11th, we may need some relief drivers. By that time we will be well south of Salina, Kansas and on our way to Wichita. Please contact me if you would like to help, I will get you in contact with Kyle Amos who is our "route" navigator.

-I have had many people ask about running with me. I will ofcourse never turn down a running partner but after speaking with my crew, they asked me to make a few things clear. We will not logistically be able to aid all the runners that come out, please bring your own food and water. Make sure you have a vehicle to drop you off and pick you up and the thing Kyle wanted me to stress the most is do not try to alter whatever pace I am at. I could go 10 to 15 min stretches where I have to walk or jog very slow. As much as I appreciate all the help we have to take those kind of precautions to make sure we make it to the end of the 224 miles. No matter how hard I have trained over the summer this will not be easy, I will hurt and by the end it I will mostly likely be the saddest excuse for a runner you have ever seen! I keep telling myself that my pain is temporary and I have planned and asked for it, the men and women we are fundraising for did not ask for the daily pain they endure. So I tell you ALL right now, if you catch me whining or feeling sorry for myself, tell me to shut up and move! I do not understand what words like quit or defeat mean, so I can assure you, that will not be heard.

Like I said before, I have about a month worth of stuff to tell you so I will stop here and tell you more in the next post. We have a shoe and apparel sponsor, among other things I would like you to know. Thank you for your continued support, I will either update this blog daily or every other day for the next 40 days until our event. There is not much time left but I know we can reach our goal! Semper Fi, Tony

Another Great Training Run

As many of you already know, we did a track fundraiser last weekend in the heat that proved to be successful for a couple of reasons. The first being we raised nearly $1000 and the second being I found out I could push my body at pretty extreme temps and still be OK. Well Friday night I went a different route. During the course of my "cross Kansas" run, I will be moving for multiple days, meaning a lot of fatigue. So this weekend I got in some fatigue training!
It started Thursday night. I stayed up till midnight and then made sure I was out of bed by 5am and moving. Went into work early, kept moving all day. Once I got off work I packed for the race and then got in my truck and drove to Tulsa, Oklahoma. About a two and a half hour drive. Arrived about 11pm and the 50mile run started at 12:01am. After checking in and getting my gear ready the pre-race brief started and WHAM!!! I started yawning uncontrollably. Usually this would freak me out right before a race, but its what I wanted. The first 20 miles I was moving way to quick as usual, although I was practicing my run/walking, run 20mins walk 1 min. By the end of the 2nd 10 mile loop the people told me I was in like 4th place. This is not what I wanted believe it or not. Running hard and racing is not going to get me to my goal of running across Kansas, I need steady forward motion and not breath taking speed. So I did what most runners at races would NEVER do. I sat down for 5 minutes. The people at the aide station were freaking out at first, telling me how great I was doing and keep pushing. I finally explained my situation to them and what I was training for and they all changed their tune. Most of them being ultrarunning vets understood exactly why I was doing what I was doing and why resting was of the utmost importance.
The final 30 miles I would go all the way down to 5min running and 1min walking. I decided to go to that extreme because I was testing new nutritional items and if i was going to have any adverse effects I could manage 5 mins of running on a bad stomach. To my surprise I had no issues with the new stuff and had a very enjoyable run to say the least. It was actually about a 52 mile race due to not being able to make it an exact 10mile loop. I think my 50 mile time was like 8:35 and my overall time was 8:53.
Throughout this fundraiser and the massive amount of miles I am putting in, my goal is not to get hurt or workout to the point it takes multiple days to recover. This run was perfect, no pain afterwards, no swelling and built a ton of mental toughness. Will possibly run the Summer Psycho 50k this weekend coming up and then ease back into my regular training for a few weeks.My final long training run will be pacing Rick Mayo back 50 miles at Leadville this year. Closing in on two months till the fundraiser run I feel my fitness is where it needs to be and it seems weekly I steadily progress, most of that due to my wife Angel talking sense into me about my speed I am running or when I am pushing myself to hard. Thanks sweetie!
On a money note, we broke $10,000 this week and hopefully as the event gets closer in the next two months the donations flow in!!! Semper Fi