Charity of the Month is the newest way Team Tizzel is helping to support some very worthy organizations. As part of this program, we will dedicate a post to a charity that we will sponsor through the month by donating Holly's training run money.
August: In August we sponsored St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in honor of our friends who lost a young relative to leukemia. We will be donating $125 plus a matching gift to St. Jude in honor of AJ. You can still donate too by following this link. #slyestrong
One thing the Charity of the Month has taught us is that you never know what tomorrow brings. We thought we had a map of what charities to sponsor over the next couple months....then stuff happens. A former coworker of Dave's lost his only child in the lightning strike off Venice Beach, CA near the end of July. The freak accident took the life of 20 year-old Nick Fagnano whom was preparing to fulfill his dream of attending USC as a transfer student.
From what we've read, and what Dave knows about Nick's dad, he seemed like a great kid ready to take on the next chapter of his life. Here's some of what his mother shared at his funeral:
"Taken to heaven by a flash in a cloud, this beautiful young man, who radiated joy, kindness, humor and love touched the lives of everyone he encountered. He had a maturity and wisdom that was beyond his years, yet an innocence of spirit that was evident from kindergarten all the way into his adult life.
Nick had to work harder than many of his friends to get good grades. Reading was never easy but he overcame this challenge by dedicating himself to long hours of studying. He found mentors in some of his favorite teachers, and he knew when to ask for extra help from his parents or his tutor, Josh, who helped him throughout high school. Nick’s awareness of what it took to be successful came through his ability to bring together a team to get things accomplished.
A light as bright as Nick’s cannot be extinguished. A flash of lightning and dark clouds give way to fingers of sunlight streaming down from heaven. Those fingers reach around our hands and our hearts and lift us upward toward a brighter future for all impacted by this terrible tragedy. While the immediate family cannot fathom their loss of Nick, those around the world who are touched by Nick’s life will know that there is great hope for our young men and women to show us all a better world."
The training jar money will go to the scholarship that was setup at USC in Nick's honor. It will be awarded to transfer students displaying exemplary character. Donation information is available from this link. It's a little tricky to do online so at the end of the month we'll write a check.
Charity of the Month is the newest way Team Tizzel is helping to support some very worthy organizations. As part of this program, we will dedicate a post to a charity that we will sponsor through the month by donating Holly's training run money.
July: In July we sponsored Give Kids the World as part of our Mickey Milers Running Team annual fundraising drive. Our donation of $125 will be matched by a corporate matching gift (you can donate too through this link).
St. Jude has always been on our radar for a charity of the month sponsorship. They do incredible work and have touched the lives of many. We moved them up to August because of a Facebook post from our friend Michael (Team Tizzel Guest blogger of our #goofyinaday series).
We had learned several months ago that his cousin's son AJ had lost his life while battling leukemia at age 20. Through articles and Facebook posts we learned about AJ's courage, spirit, and kindness. AJ became close with the staff at St. Jude that did so much for him during his 14 months of treatment. You can read more about AJ in this local newspaper article.
Michael's daughter Callie (age 10) is honoring AJ's spirit of by kicking off her own fundraiser for St. Jude. Michael and Callie's brother Cole (14) are pitching in as well to help meet her goal of raising $1,000.
There are many ways you can help:
Callie is selling awesome loom bracelets. Donations are $5 for each bracelet and payment can be made via the link below. Be sure to leave your email so she can ask about your color choices. We bought a few extra to give out to friends.
Cole is likely on lawn mower patrol. He has no online presence so you'll just have to track him down somewhere in the D.C. suburbs.
Michael's selling race-inspired magnets on Etsy that benefit specific charities. St. Jude will receive all proceeds from sales of the Avengers and Star Wars magnets. You can link to each one here, or check our sidebar for links.
Another way: Just donate! Click the button below to contribute to their campaign (same link as the one for the bracelets).
A few weeks ago Team Tizzel kicked off it's new fundraising and awareness program: Charity of the Month. As part of this program, we will dedicate a post to a charity that we will sponsor through the month by donating Holly's training run money.
February results: Our first charity was Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute - the cardiac research arm of Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago - the folks whom gave Dave his new heart valve. Bluhm got an added benefit of some January carryover funds, so our donation will be $130 PLUS another $130 corporate matching gift (you can donate too through this link).
Since distance running is one of this site's focus areas it's important for us to remember the events of the 2013 Boston Marathon and recognize those that helped the victims. Through Spaulding's programs they are helping people whom have suffered major injuries and have lost limbs get back to normal a normal life. Check out this 1 minute video to learn more:
Our friend Michelle is running the 2014 Boston Marathon as part of the Spaulding Team.
"Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital is proud to once again partner with John Hancock as part of their non-profit marathon program. Over the past two years, 47 members of the Race for Rehab Team raised over $300,000 to support Spaulding's Annual Fund, dedicated to providing support to the hospital's most pressing needs including: patient care, teaching, research and capital improvements. For the past 8 years, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital has successfully recruited more than 100 individuals to run the Boston Marathon in support of the hospital, and has raised almost a million dollars."
Michelle is an avid runner and cohost of The Mickey Miles Podcast. Michelle has a very personal connection to Spaulding:
"I'm running to benefit Spaulding Rehabilitation
Hospital in Boston, MA. It is part
of MA General and is one of the hospitals that has worked with several Boston
Marathon bombing victims. My
mother was a nurse at Spaulding for 31 years. She was a teacher and mentor to
other nurses and, even when she had Stage 4 cancer, insisted on nursing until
she could no longer do it. 10
years ago we established a fund in her name at Spaulding. The Marlene Scribner
Fund grants one nurse an all-expense-paid trip to the national nursing
conference and is awarded each May during Nurses Week."
We want to help Michelle honor the patients, staff, marathon victims, and her mother by getting her over her financial goal. There are two ways you can help out:
The first way you can help is to donate via credit card directly to her fundraising by clicking on the donate image below:
Another way to help is to buy one of these cool magnets designed by our friend Michael. Your $10 will go directly to Michelle's funds.
Some things you find that a lot of runners have in common is their generosity and willingness to take up a cause. Attempting physical feats give many an opportunity to raise money and awareness for causes close to their hearts. As you know Team Tizzel is part of Team AllEars: a Disney-centered running team focused on raising money to fight breast cancer. We'll talk more about our fundraising efforts in the upcoming weeks since October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In today's post we're going to focus on a person we met in Pocatello, Idaho that has a unique goal.
We mentioned that Holly ran a few miles with Eddie Vega in her Pocatello Marathon race report. Holly discovered this barefoot runner was doing so to raise awareness for his cause - Soles4Souls - a non-profit organization focused on clothing impoverished children in order to help curb illness and disease. We thought running Pocatello barefoot was amazing in-and-of-itself, however we were more inspired by Eddie when we read the personal message on his fundraising page:
In honor of my late mother and father, Rita Vilbar Vega and Charlie Macuto Vega, I will attempt to run a marathon (26.2 miles or 42 kilometers) completely BAREFOOT in all 50 United States and 7 Continents to raise awareness for the poor children who have no shoes. My plan is to complete this goal in five years by June 22, 2018.
Through the Soles4Souls charity program, every $1 donated will provide one pair of shoes to an impoverished child living in the Micronesian Islands and the Philippines. Currently, there are an estimated 300 million children all over the world who lack basic footwear, and you can help provide them with valuable protection from harmful wounds and infectious diseases.
My goal is to generate enough donations for 262 pairs of shoes for every marathon I run BAREFOOT in each of the 50 United States and 7 Continents for a grand total of at least 14,934 pairs of shoes. However, my journey will not end here because there would always be a poor child somewhere around the world without shoes to wear and, according to the United Nations, there are 196 countries in this world. I think you can pretty much guess what my next goal would be.
By the way, if running a marathon seems daunting, imagine running it BAREFOOT. That's what I initially thought until I finally had the guts to run my 68th marathon completely BAREFOOT. It was then that I noticed how much attention it garnered from other runners and spectators which kind of made me feel like a "Rock Star". That's when it occurred to me that I can actually use this as a way to bring awareness and raise funds for my favorite charities.
If I succeed, I will become the first person ever to run a marathon BAREFOOT in all 50 United States and 7 Continents. Note, that there are currently only 62 persons in the world that have completed such a feat and that's with wearing a pair of SHOES! On another side note, as of June 22, 2013, I completed a marathon in all 50 United States wearing Vibrams "Near-Barefoot" Shoes.
Over the weekend we saw a post on Eddie's Facebook page stating he finished his 13th barefoot marathon - in Australia (continent number 4 for him). Want to help out? Go over to Eddie's page on Soles4Souls.org and make a donation.
We are very happy to finally announce our newest project. Team Tizzel has launched a new web page, www.racechasebook.com, in support of our new ebook titled Race Chase: Expert Advice About Seeing Your Runner on Race Day. We've created a complete guide to spectating a distance race and helping runners get the most from the experience. Holly and Dave have logged many hours on both sides of the race course so it's only natural that they publish a guide to help folks enjoy race day.
Race Chase: Expert Advice About Seeing Your Runner on Race Daycontains over 40 pages of tips, tricks, advice, pictures, and illustrations. The book teaches spectators how to analyze a race course so they can maximize viewing opportunities, use technology to support their runner, and to ask the right questions at the race expo. We jammed a bunch of knowledge into one document. We also added a bonus section about navigating Walt Disney World's Marathon Weekend.
Race Chase: Expert Advice About Seeing Your Runner on Race Dayis available for purchase right now for $6.99. Credit card purchases are handled by PayPal but you do not need a PayPal account. Once you complete the transaction process you will get an email link to download the PDF file. We chose a digital version over a print version so it could be accessible during race day via smart phones and tablets, and of course printed out.
Here are a couple sample pages:
Not really into running or watching a race? Well, here's a reason to buy our book: Net proceedscollected from sales in 2013 will be donated to Avon's Breast Cancer Charities as part of our fundraising efforts with Team AllEars.
Please support our efforts by buying the book, letting your friends know about it, make an added donation to fight breast cancer through our Avon page, and follow us through the social media outlets:
Note: With this being Dave's first half marathon, we'll leave all of his thoughts on that topic for another post and try to keep this report as focused on the race as possible.
You know it's Disney race season when you have 3 alarms and a wake-up call set for 2:30am. The Walt Disney World Half Marathon takes place on the Saturday (this year January 12) of the WDW Marathon Weekend. We were out out the door by 3:15 and drove over from the Boardwalk Hotel to Epcot. We really like the Boardwalk for Marathon Weekend because of the ease of driving to the race start area. Usually takes us about ten minutes.
Once we got to the Runner's Village we met up with Team AllEars for conversation, group photo, pep talk, and corral matching. If you want to hang out in the corrals with friends you either need to leave together or keep in constant contact. Disney will start suggesting you leave for corrals starting at 4am for a 5:35 race start. The walk is just about a mile from the Runner's Village. We left around 4:20 or so and it took over an hour to get in our corral. We were in a sea of humanity (25,000 racers) squished together on a slow waddle to the start line. We made it to our corral when the National Anthem kicked off.
We were in Corral E which meant we would actually start the race around 6am. Each corral was sent off with fireworks. Drew Carey, star TV's The Price is Right, was at the start waving hello to the runners. At 6am the course is still pretty dark. Disney had some generator lamps brought in to supplement the other street lamps, but for our pace it remained mostly dark until around mile 4. We decided at the beginning to run our own races which meant Holly would go faster than Dave.
Disney strives to entertain runners the whole way. Between Miles 0 and 4 we saw high school bands, Chip and Dale with NASCARs, Jack Sparrow and a pirate ship, Jack Skellington and Sally, and kites. Yes, mile two's entertainment was people flying kites - in the dark. At Mile 4 we hit the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC), which is the first large spectator area along the course.
Right before hitting TTC Dave passed Holly while she was standing on line for a Jack Skellington photo opp. Our friend Dan met up with him at TTC and they traveled together towards the Magic Kingdom. Right around Mile Marker 5 Holly caught up and we entered Magic Kingdom together. At the very end of the hub/Tomorrowland Bridge we ran into our Team AllEars cheer section and found our friend Amanda there. We traveled Tomorrowland and Fantasyland together and started going through the back of the castle to Main Street.
Thanks for the nice picture Dan
Usually people have the opportunity to run through the front of the castle. We stopped dead halfway through the castle, because the course was so congested, and started walking through at the same pace we walked to the start line. In Liberty Square/Frontierland we split up to continue running our own races. As we entered backstage we found the princess parade float for a photo opp and the 10k marker.
After leaving the backstage area there was a good two mile stretch of narrow course. We never really thought about how many one way roads there were on property. When you cone-off all those roads to divide them in half it creates a crowded situation. During this time we were passing The Grand Floridian, Polynesian, the speedway, and a golf course. There was a Lilo and Stitch photo opp and some fake wedding by the wedding pavilion. A bit after mile 8 the course opened up as we approached World Drive for the return trip.
This is the time we started really feeling it warm up. Miles 8 - 12 are pretty much wide open streets with no sun protection. Disney did a great job with water/Powerade stops a little over a mile apart from each other. After mile ten some uphill work starts. Time to take a steep exit up to an overpass. This ended up another slow bottleneck area. Coming into Mile 11 was a nice downhill complete with entertainment by more kites. Dave spent some time here with friends Tom and Molly. As racers go down the hill they can see the next step is a hairpin turn up to another ramp. Holly spotted Dave from the ramp - must have been 4-5 minutes apart. We were separately greeted on the overpass by our friends Eddie and Mike. They finished the race and came back through to cheer for folks. When you get to this final overpass Spaceship Earth (the ball thingy in Epcot) looks pretty close and you get the feeling it is almost over.
Before getting into Epcot and Mile 12 there was a Phineas and Ferb meetup and a large spectating area. We saw lots of friends cheering on the runners at this location. Dave met up with Holly just after entering Epcot. We did the last mile together through Future World. We stopped for a picture of two and looked for a Duffy photo opp, but there was no Duffy today. We crossed together with a time around 3 hours 12 minutes and were met at the finish line by our friends Faye and Jim.
We went through the lines and picked up our bananas, water, Powerade, and snack box. RunDisney puts together a pre-packed box that includes things like Larabars, almond roca, nuts, raisins, chocolate......
We drove back to The Boardwalk, showered (Dave had a beer to celebrate his first half marathon finish), went into Epcot for a World Showcase lap, went to our Team AllEars meet in The Dolphin. At our Team AllEars meet we learned the team had raised over $78,000. Since Team Tizzel was the highest raising team we got to be part of the reveal and it was an honor. After the meet it was back to Epcot for dinner at Tutto Italia with our friends Faye and Jim. We called it an early evening since another 2:30 wake up call was coming for Holly and Jim to run the marathon the next morning.
Here's our video from the race. Sorry if it's a little long......
Overall RunDisney put on another great race. The one complaint we really have for the half relates to the overall crowd levels and bottlenecks. With that aside we both had a fun time during the race.
Next up, Holly's report on Sunday's Marathon/finish to the Goofy Challenge.
