Mental Health 8Hour Run

8-Hour Run

I'd like to thank all of those who participated or in any way contributed.

Runners
Mike Kopfenstein
Dan Gray
Andy Weinberg
Rich Breaux
Richard Cooke
Mike Siltman
Ollie Nanyes
Jim McIntyre
Nick Graner
Chuck Meyer
Dave Tapp
Paul Kelley

Sponsors
Bushwhacker
Sellers Ltd.-Susan Carter
Margaret Herman
Independence Village
Pete and Jane Kelley
Paul and Laura Kelley
Spon River Home Heath

We raised $370 for the Mental Health Association who will put it towards  good use for stigma reduction and suicide prevention. It also hopefully raised awareness of anyone who visited the website and hit the links.

We had but 15 participants however; by waiting to order anything until registration closed, we were able to have a nice, cozy, warm up for McNaughton run and a good meal afterwards.

All runners were paid a substantial appearance fee ($1) but all generously contributed it back to help a good cause, although several claimed that it was to maintain their amateur status.

Weather was perfect and i was very lucky as we had bad weather both before and after the race.

The course was a beautiful 5.1-6 mile loop but we'll call it 6 for
everyone's logs and egos as it was slow going. I thought the course was well-marked and the fact that some got lost after correctly negotiating the first one or two loops helps substantiate that ultra runners IQ's drop during long events and some of us were "swimming against the current" to begin with.

Next year I'll do less cutesy swag and I will, after 2 events of hats not coming in, get hats.

I'm no Andy Weinberg but I enjoyed doing the event, didn't lose too much money and will do it again next year and maybe limit it to 20 people.

My next run is the Mississippi to Lake Michigan Run. Am also charged with adding a cross-country run to Whitney's Walk which is a local suicide  prevention walk on 7/29/06. I am working on getting Danny Dreyer (Chi Running) to come do a seminar for the cc kids and others who may be
interested.



Paul