T-10

First and foremost, the amount of donations that have been generously given in the last week are astounding, and we are growing by leaps and bounds on our way to $10,000 in support of the wonderful Fisher House Foundation.  A huge thanks to the following people for their incredible support in the last week on our way to that goal:

- Lauren Morales
- Robert Capodanno
- Brian McGovern
- Michael Bishop
- Peter Hornak - Old racing buddy from back in the early days of my running career!
- Robert Strauss
- Thomas Ayoub
- Francis Counselman
- Rebecca Smith-Coggins
- Kerryann Broderick
- Terry Kowalenko
- Annie Collier
- Bryan Jordan
- James Jones
- Christina Doukeris
- Patrick Minicus
- Daniel DeBarba

We are now up to $3,100 and nearly one-third on our way to the goal of $10,000 for such an incredible organization!


Please donate to the Fisher House Foundation in support of my Western States 100-Mile Run!

One of the coolest things is right now, we have received donations from all over the country, including New York, Indiana, Connecticut, Ohio, Colorado, Michigan, California, Virginia... pretty cool!

My training this week broke down as follows:

- Monday - 50-minute recovery run
- Tuesday - 1:32
- Wednesday - 1:28
- Thursday - 1:31
- Friday - 1:18 - Sandy trails at transition between Afghanistan and Alaska
- Saturday - 1:33 - More sandy trails before late night travel to come home to Alaska
- Sunday - no run (travel home to Alaska!)

Running on the sandy trails at Manas Air Force Base.  It was like running on a beach in most areas.

Training week total - 8:12 (or 492 minutes) translates into 60-65 miles... not where I wanted to get up to, but I could not do a full long run due to time constraints with travel (see below)... I will definitely make up for it this coming week, don't worry!

This past week has been more about major travel than running, but I have tried as best I can to push forward with my training nevertheless.  This week I successfully redeployed from Afghanistan back to Alaska, and after a year abroad in Kandahar Province, I am back at Fort Wainwright, running once again in clear dust-free skies and with a lot more green trees (and a lot less brown desert) around me.  The travel took me into a third country for a few days, and then on a 17-18 hour journey home, crossing a total of 14 time zones in the process, but finally arriving on Sunday afternoon to my wonderful wife, Erin, and my now-huge son Jackson.  I am so thrilled to be back with them, but much to their dismay, I can't necessarily throw aside my running now that I am home.

Arriving home on Sunday to a happy wife and son!

I have thankfully found a pair of solid hills that will help me prep for the elevation ups and downs that I will encounter at Western States.  Birch Hill is part of Fort Wainwright's ski hills, and has a perfect 3-mile long hard hill that will help push my quads.  Approach Hill sits on the east end of the Fort Wainwright runway and provides a solid 1-1.5 mile loop up and down an extended hill that will help compliment the rough Birch Hill.  I will take pictures of them this week and post soon.

In the meantime, I am readjusting to a new time zone (lots of impromptu naps... again to the dismay of Erin and Jackson!) and getting back into the swing of things back in America.  Again, thanks to all of the incredible support above!

Please donate to the Fisher House Foundation in support of my Western States 100-Mile Run!