ONLY 12 DAYS TO GO!

We start the Tour Of Duty run on Thursday, 8-12-10, at 0846 hrs, from the Santa Monica Pier. Maybe I should start training!...........just kidding. I've been training just as I have for past marathons, but I'm unsure how my body is going to take 31 days of running in severe weather without much healing time in-between. Time will tell. For now I have a lot of loose ends to shore up. Luckily my biggest supporter, my wife Pat, is keeping me on track and stocked up with all the supplies needed for this adventure. Looks like a group of us will be riding down to California on the 9th of August to pick up the 7 brand new 40 foot RV's and transport them to Santa Monica. They will be used as our sleeping quarters and commissary when we are not running.

A lot of people have asked me "what leg are you running?". Here is how it works:

There are 15 American runners and 15 Australian runners. Runners are paired up (one American and one Australian) resulting in 15 pairs of runners. With the exception of 4 lay-over cities (Las Vegas being one) there will be at least one pair of runners running 24/7 from August 12 up to September 11, 2010, finishing at Ground Zero in New York. The 15 pairs are split up into 3 groups - each group traveling together in a separate passenger van. The 5 pairs rotate amongst themselves during their six hour shift. Once the six hour shift is complete, the group will be relieved by the next group of 5 pairs and advance up along the route to the RV's to eat, sleep and get ready for their next 6 hour shift of running. This averages out to about 13 miles of running per person per day! (9 miles/day for 2 days, and 18 miles/day every third day).

Keep your fingers crossed! Once the run begins I hope to update this Blog with route information and pictures daily if possible. See you along the route if you can make it.