Thursday, August 26, 2010

2 weeks

Well, 2 weeks from today we start out journey. I am basically in cruise mode now, the training is done, just running minimal 30 to 40 miles a week to keep the cobwebs knocked off. Ran 50 miles last weekend in Leadville, Co. with my buddy Rick Mayo, he finished the Leadville 100 and I just paced back the last 50. I feel like I am ready, the temps are low 90's high 80's right now which is doable, low 80's high 70's would be a lot better though.
As for the fundraising, we are just a hair above $16,000, still about $9000 short but I have faith in people, we will pull out that $25,000, I know it! The drivers are set and tons of people are asking to run a few miles here and there with me. Tony Brown our route coordinator made final arrangements with law enforcement this week and other than a couple of construction areas we have to be careful in, we are good to go. Thank you everyone and Semper Fi

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Winding Down fast!

As I write this blog entry we are closing in on 21 days exactly till the start of my portion of this fundraiser. Tonight we sit at $15,203 raised so far. The goal we set was $25,000, is this still attainable, absolutely!!! Regardless of the final amount I know without a doubt there are thousands of people in the last couple of months that we have reached who never knew what the Wounded Warrior Project was. Now they do. From our fundraiser I have been contacted by 3 other individuals, two on the east coast and one in the Washington State area, all inquiring about how we went about our fundraiser. The first thing I tell them is that you have to have a group who believes in what they are doing, my wife has spent countless hours on this fundraiser. Dan Elsener was the reason we even got this ball rolling, without those two and there hard work this summer, I say without hesitation, this fundraiser would be no where near what it is today.

The territory manager for Mizuno USA, Sophia Wharton and her fiance Ben Holmes have literally clothed me to do this run. Sophia and her company provided me with ample amounts of new Mizuno Precisions and to top that her and Ben paid for extra pairs out of there pockets to ensure I had enough brand new pairs to change every 50 miles, thats 5 pairs of brand new shoes. Mizuno donated so much apparel for this, It would take me an hour to type it all! Thank you both, I am truly in your debt.

Brent Welch with Resort Promo Wear is still selling event shirts and donating a portion of the sales to us. Eric Steele the RD of FlatRock 25/50k is donating a portion of race entries to us, up till Aug 25th and Phil and Stacy Sheridan are doing the same with the Horse Thief Canyon 10k. Darin S. whom is running the Leadville100 this weekend is taking per mile donations and giving that to the fundraiser. People have been so giving it is unreal.

The American Legion Riders will be escorting me through most major towns along the route. Tony Brown our route coordinator has put his fair share of hours into this and will be with us as well for the duration. The post event party is at HOOTERS Wichita, they will be giving away visors, hats and shirts, plus other specials. That will be from 2-5pm Sunday Sept 12th, at the completion of the fundraiser.

As for me, this weekend will be my last long training run before the fundraiser. I will pace Rick Mayo back the last 50 miles of the Leadville 100. After that I am basically shutting it down for two weeks, with minimal running, just enough to stay loose. I am confident I have prepared myself the best I can, many 130 - 140 mile weeks this summer.The only concern I have at this point is the weather, if we get into the 90's it will definitely affect my body on day two. Other than that things are great and I am ready to get started and get this over with, so I can take at least a month off from running!!! Thanks everyone, Semper Fi, Tony

Friday, August 6, 2010

Post event party!!!!

You cannot do a fundraiser of this size and not have a post event party. So, Hooters of America, who by the way is a huge supporter of Wounded Warrior Project and the US Military in general has offered to do the following. Start September 1st, we will have a Wounded Warrior advertisement on the marquee here in Wichita. There will be a post event party from 2pm to 5pm on Sunday September 12th, following our fundraiser run. This should give me time to get cleaned up, go to MASS, sleep an hour or two and then go party! They are donating the following.

- First 50 men and women in the door get visors and t-shirts.

- 15% discount on food

- Whatever amount you donate to the fundraiser they will match with a gift card for your next visit.

- Kids under 10 eat for free

- Finally, Hooters of America will donate $1000.00 on top of all this to our fundraiser!!!

Needless to say we are very happy about this event. Please come by and eat, have a beer or 10 and hang out with me and the others.
Please remember if you are a runner that Eric Steele RD of FlatRock25/50k is donating $5 per entry and $10 if we get 100 entries by Aug 25th. I will be there running as well and would love to chat with any of you who show up. Getting close, only about a month out, lets get this done for the Wounded Warriors!!!! Semper Fi

Monday, August 2, 2010

Heating up!!!

Well today was pretty darn hot in Wichita, hit about 106 I think with a 115 or so heat index. So what did I do, yep, went for a run. No telling what the temps will be like a month from now, so I am pushing hard in this heat and the great thing is I truly feel like I am climatized about the best I can to it. Lots of water, endurolyte caps and a gel every now and then and it's all good. Now to touch on some more topics.

- Mizuno USA!!!! Sophia Wharton the mid-west rep for Mizuno has far exceeded what I would call stepping up and helping. Basically Mizuno has me set for the entire run and I mean everything. So I should be a running/walking Mizuno poster boy during the fundraiser. She has not only offered assistance but went out of her way to do it, so for all you runners or just people that wear shoes, shorts, shirts any type of athletic apparel, please look into buying Mizuno and supporting them. They have stepped up in a HUGE way. Just to be fair I will let all of you know that I contacted every major shoe brand out there a couple months ago, explained what we are doing for the Wounded Warriors and asked if they would kindly kick in a pair or two of shoes. All of them told me NO, except Mizuno.

- A Topeka, Kansas area runner named Darin Schneidewind will be running the Leadville 100 in a couple of weeks. The Leadville 100 starts in Leadville, Colorado and twist and turns through the mountains until you make it to Winfield, which is the 50 mile turn around. Then you get to do it in reverse! During this little jaunt, you go over the infamous HOPES PASS, not once but twice, basically climbing 5 miles straight up switchbacks getting up above 12,000 feet. The entire 100miles you are above 10,000 feet for the most part, piece of cake for a Kansan who lives at about 800 feet!! Well Darin is using this race to help raise money for our fundraiser, he is taking per mile donations. So far he has 4 or 5 people I think kicking in .50cents per mile. So, if you have any interest in motivating Darin to get through the pain, either email me and I will get you in contact with him or contact him through facebook. Oh by the way, Darin won the Kettle Moraine 100 mile this year in June, so if your gonna pledge, plan on paying, the dude is an AWESOME RUNNER!

- Runners here is one for you. The founder and race director of the FlatRock 25/50k races in September has given you an opportunity to not only run one of the toughest races in the midwest but help us by doing so. If you sign up for his race he is kicking us $5 per entry until August 25th, but wait there's more!!! If we get 100 people to sign up by the 25th he will give us $10 per entry, that is $1000!!! So, if you want to help and run a great race please check out http://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=1802433
Sign up ASAP!!!

Well that will be it for tonight, I will get a little more info on here in a day or two. If you have any intentions of coming out and running any of this, please give me a heads up here pretty quick. Tony Brown our route guru and point of contact with all law enforcement needs to give them a heads up to what kind of numbers to expect. Thanks and Semper Fi, Tony