Lace Up! Progress Weeks 9 – 11

Progress Weeks 9 – 11 

Week eleven comes to a close: 117.38 miles down, 212.62 to go!  36% of the way there. In week nine, I logged 16.84 miles, 7.01 of them running. In week ten, I logged 10.64 miles, 6 of them running. In week eleven, I logged 3.52 total miles, 2 of them running. I was pretty lax in week eleven for good reason: I unexpectedly lost my little blue-gray cat, Jimmy Dice that week. ☹ I did not put any pressure on myself to do anything except be present. I carry him with me as carry on.

All running days were at 2 miles except on 5/28 I slipped in a single mile on to see how my current mile time compared to when I first started.

Week 9:

5/27 = 9:11/mi

5/28 = Single mile at 7:56

5/30 = 9:21/mi

6/1 = 9:42/mi 

Week 10:

6/4 = 8:58/mi

6/6 = 9:34/mi

6/9 = 9:10/mi

Week 11:

6/12 = 9:31/mi

So far, I’ve secured $3,368 ($3,132.32 donated, $235.68 pledged) from 33 donors. I used the occasion of my birthday on 6/4 to promote this campaign and the numbers jumped! This gets me 31% to my fundraising goal. We can make it!

Be part of our success here! 

Dedication – Week 9

Miles this week go out to anonymous donor #1 – Matt N/A! Not sure exactly who this is but it goes to show you can support without any attention… despite this shout-out! You know who you are even if I only have guesses. Thank you, my friend.

Dedication – Week 10

Miles this week go out to my friend Chad, who I met in AmeriCorps on October 2^nd, 1998. We weren’t the fastest of friends but became the deepest of friends in due time. Chad was one of my first roommates when we got an apartment in San Diego in 1999 after our service year ended. Over time, we’ve both migrated to our native time zone on the East Coast and stayed tight through ups and downs of adult life. Here’s a classic photo of us hanging out around (and on) a dumpster in Silverton, OR in 1999. I was 19, he was 24. Yes, I’m smoking in this photo and yes, he has a cigarette behind his ear (behind the bottle he’s chugging). Man… we were quite young and had some bad habits. We’re mostly good boys now!

Dedication – Week 11

Week 11’s miles are dedicated to my long-time friend and colleague, Kate. She is part of the glue of our ToolBank USA crew, assuring legal compliance across multiple states among a myriad other tasks. For a good time, ask her about workers’ comp rules in any state territory where we have an employee (that includes Puerto Rico)!

Kate was an early supporter of this campaign. We agreed one week of music would feature Alanis Morisette’s “Jagged Little Pill” album. I have fulfilled my promise!

What’s in the Walkman?

Week 9 – The Flaming Lips’ “Transmissions from the Satellite Heart”

Week 10 – I can’t hear this album without thinking of Chad and the music we played on repeat in 1999 – 2000: David Gray’s “White Ladder”

Week 11 – As promised and without a hint of irony as defined by her, Alanis Morrisette’s “Jagged Little Pill”

Reflections

2 miles isn’t bad. I can see 3 on the horizon without much extra stress, just a little extra time. I have my days of triumph and my days of humility. I will note that I ran the day after I lost my precious little baby blue-gray cat, Jimmy Dice. The activity gave me a change of pace and scenery that was welcome, though I went into a little dry spell for a few days after that. I do think my body is accustomed to the cardio workout. I feel better on the days I run. Good to note for keeping the habit even after this campaign ends.

ToolBank Disaster Services Deployment

The most recent feature focused on a deployment in Tennessee following the Great Smoky Mountain Wildfires in 2016. It’s revealing to read back through these deployments and see remnants of service from disasters that have long passed out of the general public’s memory. This is part of the value of this documentation. Real people were impacted, real people served. This is a way to honor these people with—at the least—a little footnote out in cyberspace that includes some details that could easily be lost to time.

Read the full deployment post here.

See you soon and don’t forget to keep your sneaks laced up (like it’s 1995)! But don’t smoke like it’s 1999! Not good for running.