240miles for Open Meadow. Yeah, I Got Game

When I was young, in High School, the teachers, advocates and staff at Open Meadow Alternative Schools made personal sacrifices in their own lives to help keep me on the right path. They would help me outside of school, call and check in during non business hours, write letters and speak on my behalf during my routine probation juvenile court appearances. This kind of dedictation and sacrifice towards something that one feels "passionate" about has stuck with me throughout my late teens and early adulthood. Many of my characteristics to "stick it out", the never say die attitude and dedication were influenced on me during my years at Open Meadow. When you are surrounded by that kind of love and compassion on a daily basis, its hard to forget.....even 13 years later (wow, its been that long since I graduated). It is this type of devotion and commitment that is allowing Open Meadow to turn many of Portland's "at risk" youth into important, contributing members of our community for the last 40 years.

Starting tomorrow, April 9th, 2012 I will begin my journey to run 240 miles in two weeks! Athletes Lounge (Portland's full service Triathlon Store and TOP 10 Triathlon Retailer in America) has offered to purchase a table for 8 at Open Meadow's 2nd Annual Trivia Fundraiser Event- GOT GAME? from me for completing the challenge.
Thank you Athletes Lounge for this support, it means the world to me!!
I just love having this event that the school puts on annualy. Its great not just because its a super fun evening, but because its a great chance for me to show other important people in my life today where I came from. And why I give so much of my time and effort to helping and giving back to this great organization.

Run 240 Miles in Two Weeks?!!
Yes, it comes out to 17.14 miles per day. This is going to be an interesting 14 days, and I will try to update this blog or my Facebook page every couple of days on my progress. Instead of hammering out long 17mi runs every day, I will be shooting to run 2 (or maybe 3) times per day of around 5-7miles per run.
Hopefully this will help in my training (and not hamper it) for my big race on June 17th-- Vancouver USA Marathon
I'm not sure how hard this is going to be, but we will sure find out wont we?! If I need to take an easy day, I am going to be smart and take it....Lets just hope I dont have to run 55miles on the 14th day just to hit my goal! Stay tuned.......


PS- If anyone is interested in learning more about GOT GAME?- Open Meadow's fundraiser trivia event (it is a BLAST!), or just Open Meadow in general, please contact me joshua@grindstonecollections.com