It has been about a month since my last blog post, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy. I spent some time redesigning the look of the site. We have a new logo, easy graphics to direct you where you want to go, and more information on my upcoming journey. I have also been getting in my training and I feel strong. Aside from my regular running and walking miles each week, I was the sweep for the Newport Marathon in Rhode Island with Beast Pacing. The sweep is the pacer who comes in last, shepherding the final runners across the finish line. I continue to learn new strategies and life lessons as a pacer and this race brought out many new insights. Expect an amazing race report on that in the next week. This week I pace at the Newburyport Half Marathon and I can’t wait to apply what I learned.
Although, there haven’t been any new blog entries we have some new pages on the site and some major updates to our itinerary. Here is a little introduction…
This page has been updated with all the most recent changes in the marathons I am running. I have confirmed that I will now be running 8 officially timed marathons over the course of the year (Alabama, Texas, Iowa, New York, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and Virginia). Adjustments needed to be made to both the calendar and the mapping. Some races have been substituted due to certain course restriction. This page has the most up to date version of the trip and you can expect that I will be around the marathon town for at least a day or two before and after the race day listed.
A contact page was necessary for some of the friends of friends who wanted to contact me but this is also a fine place to recommit to hosting so that I have an accessible folder of requests. Within the next week, this page will have a comprehensive list of the states and areas I still need a place to lay my head. As with anything, timing is everything, so some of my original hosts won’t be in town when I am there. Even in the states I already have slated, it’s good to have a back up plan.
This was the most difficult page to design. This journey has been incredibly personal for me and I find it very difficult to ask for help. I get a great amount of support from all of you about my running but in the end, this is just me, on the road, for hours on end. I don’t think of myself as a charity case and if I can’t afford to do this, maybe I should spend more time planning and saving. That being said, I have had many friends express that they would like to contribute and are looking for an easy way to do that. For me, I found it easier to think of these monetary donations as if friends were buying me a drink. I bring bottles of wine to dinner parties. I help christen new homes with unique bottles of liquor. For those who would like to contribute, I have sketched out some thank you packages and partnered with crowdrise.com. This site promises the least amount of administration fees, it is easy and safe for you to use, and as an organization, they have been incredibly supportive.
As always, I rely on you, my friends and readers for your feedback and support. I appreciate any comments or suggestions to make this site better and easier to navigate and utilize so please keep the comments coming. Thank you for running beside me and sharing the many miles I have yet to travel.
