Saturday, 18 APR 2009, 6:53am.
Status: we’re at $28,656.60 as of this AM, nearing 60% of our $50,000 goal! Please consider talking to your friends, families, and workplaces about Team WWP…we can use all the help we can get…
Tom & I have a couple announcements and thoughts we wanted to get out there, so here goes:
First, we’ve amended the schedule for our remaining races. We’ve just received so much feedback, so much positive response from Minnesota…so we’re going to bend this thing to end it in Saint Paul at the Capitol. We’ve spoken to the Race Director for the Twin Cities 10 Miler (part of the Twin Cities Marathon) and they’ve asked us to be a part of the event! As such, Team WWP has a couple of events in the Cities over the next few months, 4 July at the Afton Trail Run, and now rounding out miles 240 to 250 from Minneapolis, down Summit Avenue, all the way to the beautiful Minnesota State Capitol on 4 October…
Here’s the way the event schedule has rounded out:
1. Tucson Marathon (26.2 Miles) Tucson, AZ. 7 December 2008. (COMPLETED: 3rd Place!)
2. Old Pueblo 50 Miler (50 Miles) Sonoita, AZ. 7 March 2009. (COMPLETED: 5th Place!)
3. Harrisburg Area 5K (3.1 Miles). Harrisburg, PA. 10 June 2009.
4. Afton Trail 25K (15.5 Miles) Afton, MN. 4 July 2009.
5. Harrisburg Mile (1 Mile) Harrisburg, PA. 15 July 2009.
6. Annual Birthday Run (30 Miles) Carlisle, PA. 27 July 2009.
7. TransRockies Run (114 Miles) Colorado Rockies. 23-28 August 2009.
8. Twin Cities 10 Miler (10 Miles) Saint Paul, MN. 4 October 2009.
It all adds up to 248.8 Miles ~ believe me, I’ve counted. And I’ll make that last tiny bit happen at some point…Tom and I are thrilled to be able to finish this thing where we grew up, where our families are, because this truly has been a family & community effort.
As far as events – we’re still shooting for gatherings on 4 July in Afton, Minnesota and 4 October at the Capitol in Saint Paul. More details to follow…Tom’s just started work with MPR and has been extremely busy, and I’m moving from Southern Arizona to Central Pennsylvania this coming Friday…no excuses, just an explanation. We’ll get our feet moving again soon though…
My last thought. As a lot of you know, my right leg took a little bit of a beating at the OP50 Miler. The IT band (connective tissue on the outside of the quad) tightened up to the point that it was affecting my knee…it hurt a lot and pretty much ground everything to a halt. I had to stop running completely for awhile, and focus 100% on rehabilitation. Really, it’s like hitting the reset button. I started with one mile, half walking, half jogging. Then two. Three. And so on and so forth until two days ago, this past Thursday, I took on a 13 miler at a good clip and didn’t have any pain whatsoever. It’s still there, but the worst part is over and I’m nearly back to training normally. I’ve spent a lot of time working to get back to where I was, and a lot (a lot!) of money on sports massage therapy to heal, a lot of bags of ice applied to the right knee.
I’ve thought a lot about what this setback means in the context of what we’re trying to do…and, although I’ve hated every minute of it…this is exactly what Tom & I were shooting for…overcoming injury and pain to accomplish something meaningful.
So ~ training for this upcoming summer schedule starts now.
All my best & keep moving forward,
Matt