If you’ve
read the book, you know Sherman is a burro.
Yup…4 legs, tail, twitchy ears and a stubborn streak wider than the
Mississippi river. Chris rescued
Sherman from sure death and as part of nursing him back to health he would take
him running. Chris set the goal of getting Sherman healthy
enough that together they could run the grueling World Champion Pack Burro Race
in Colorado. The race is 14.5 miles up
a mountain with a 3000-foot elevation gain and then 14.5 miles back down. Some would think running 29 miles on
mountain trails is enough of a challenge but try convincing a donkey that he
wants to do it with you.
We’ve
already established in past blogs that distance runners tend to be a few apples
short of a bushel so you won’t be surprised to know there are dozens of crazy,
sometimes life threatening, races out there. Of course, wherever you find the combination
of alcohol, testosterone and a bet, you know the result may be entertaining but
not particularly sane. For those that find marathons to be a walk
in the park, there are numerous 100 miles races. And since that is not challenging enough,
lets’ do them on trails…. over mountains…across streams…in rain and snow….in
some cases without any support (what…no water stations?). Did I
mention that these races typically take 24 hours or more to complete which means
running in the dark often in locations where mountain lions, bears and snakes
live. In those areas it might be smart to let
someone go ahead of you.
If that
isn’t enough of a challenge there are longer races, like the 200-mile 5-day
race across Wales. Or how about the Moab
Utah 240 mile run in the dessert mountains around Arches National Park. I recently ran in the area one morning and
it was already 75 degrees at 7AM. If
you are partial to heat, there’s the Bad Water 135 (miles) that runs through
Death Valley and ends with a run up Mt. Whitney (over 14,000 feet). Rumor has it you have to run on the white
line on the side of the road because the blacktop will melt your running
shoes. For those runners who can
spare the time and are in a hurry to go nowhere, there is a 3100-mile run over
52 days. It’s run in NYC on a .6-mile
loop (over 5100 laps).
The one
thing that most of these races have in common (besides the questionable sanity
in entering) is it takes a team of support people to help the runner be successful. In the Bad Water race for example, runners
are followed by support teams in RVs to periodically help the runners to cool
down (sometimes by putting them in ice baths).
My team in
past years have been the generous people who have supported my marathon efforts
by donating to Help in the Nick of Time to help families facing the challenges
of pediatric cancer. In 2022 that
allowed us to double the families we helped. But there are even more families who need our
support and unfortunately relying on my Marathon Challenge alone is not
enough. So, this year I’m inviting more people to get
involved by setting up a Help in the Nick of Time Virtual Run/Walk. Shortly I’ll be releasing the web site where
anyone can join me by either committing to run/walk a 5K (3.1 miles) at one
time or run/walk 26 miles over 47 days between March 1 and April 16 (the day I’ll
attempt my Marathon Challenge and the day before the Boston Marathon). The
site will allow you to post your results and everyone who completes their
challenge will get a run T-Shirt. You have the option of going it alone or
putting together a team of your family and friends to join you. All
proceeds will go to supporting children with pediatric cancer and their families.
We all either
have been impacted by cancer or know people who have. Here’s a great opportunity to do something
for yourself and put a smile on the face of a child battling cancer. There’s
also the added benefit giving cancer the finger.
More info
coming shortly….warm up those running/walking shoes and start recruiting your
partners!
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