My 50-Mile Something – 50 Miles for 50 Years with 5.0 Events to Raise $5050!
Help Me Feed America - Donate Here!
What? A ridiculous attempt to punish myself for
making it to 50 years of age, by trying to cover 50 miles under my own
power all in one day.
When? Before the end of February, 2021. My birthday
is on the 6th, but I need more time to train. Hey, it’s my event, I get to
choose when I’m feeling it.
Why? To challenge myself physically, remind myself
that I’m still an athlete, and most importantly to raise some money for a timely cause!
Who Will Benefit? Feeding America with a fundraising goal of $5,050.00! To make it, I need 101 friends who will give $50!
I’m turning 50 next month, and in my typical way, I’m making a big deal about it. I was feeling inspired to dig into a physical challenge, something that would get me in over my head. As a former distance man in the pool, I am familiar with suffering. With most endurance events necessarily canceled for the foreseeable future, I drew inspiration from some alternatives where the fun reflected the person doing it, and didn’t involve an entry fee. Check out Beau Miles’ 24-hour Marathon (he ran a one-mile loop around his house every hour, while also finishing an ambitious list of chores), Brendan Leonard from Semi-Rad (who has made a career out of this sort of thing), or even my friend Hodding Carter (who a few years back retraced the revolutionary war journey of Benedict Arnold, who drug 1100 men in small wooden boats across the Maine wilderness to sack Quebec City, in November, in Maine, with no shoes – a hint as to how fun it was, more than 450 men deserted). No matter how crazy your idea, there is always someone crazier!
I’m calling my event the “50 Mile Something” -- 50 miles under
my own power doing some of my favorite activities. The plan, as it exists in my
head, is to find a suitable place where I can reasonably accommodate the following:
1. swim (for an unspecified distance), 2. paddle my sea kayak (10 miles), 3. mountain
bike off-road (30 miles), 4. yoga for an hour (I’m gonna need it), and 5. trail
run/hike (10 miles). I will complete all these activities and miles between the
hours of sunrise and sunset, hopefully.
Shari plans to join me for most of this, all except for the run, “You’re
on your own there, kid!"
It’s no moonshot effort, I know, but it’s a serious stretch for me at this point in my life. I am perhaps ready to do any one of these activities, but not all 5 in one go – NO WAY! 25 years ago, something like this would have only been a mildly longer, and perhaps more interesting, training day; but as they say, “that was then...”
Twelve years ago, when my beautiful bride turned 40, she participated in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. It’s a 40-mile event, over two days, and she set a goal of raising $4,040 for her 40 miles. Of course, she killed it, raising over $4,500! I am constantly amazed and inspired by her and this is exactly the kind of friendly competition that she encourages. I’ve set my goal for these 50 miles at $5,050.00!
With so many families economically impacted by the pandemic,
folks are having to make the difficult choice between feeding themselves or
paying the rent, utilities, and other expenses that keep us all alive. Having never faced these choices
before, I can only imagine how hard it must be.
I hope you will join me on this adventure, as we will update
my progress in training and as we get closer to the big day. Thank you for your support and for doing what
you can!
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