Archives July 2019

The SSOD race (Stone Stairs of Death), is going on its third year running this November 9th. This race is special…not just because it is run on the famous cobblestones of Savannah’s River Street and, up the infamous Savannah Stone Stairs of Death. This is a special race because we pick a person and/or family that has suffered and endured greatly due to illness and, during the process of fighting for one’s life has had the added insult of fighting to stay afloat financially. The money generated from this race goes entirely to the person/family afflicted by illness and financial debt.

I have had friends that through no fault of their own cancer has invaded their lives and left them broken, physically and financially. It is hard for me to fathom why a person that has fought a valiant fight with cancer or other debilitating disease and, during the process has had to endure financial ruin. Enduring and surviving a terrible illness is hard enough. Why should their finances be ruined too? Why should they spend the rest of their lives paying off the debt accumulated during their fight for their life? It shouldn’t be this way…not in a country as prosperous as ours. Unfortunately, it is this way. I know this first hand. Last year I suffered the worst health issue of my life. I had an extreme case of pericarditis. It almost killed me. Thankfully, I am still here and, still rebuilding my health. But, as good as my health insurance is I have come out of this with almost $20,000 in medical debt. I have a good job with a great organization but it will take me years to pay off this healthcare debt.

Now, lets talk about Stephanie Moore. In the southeast US, Stephanie is known well in the ultra running community. With her bright pink hair, tattooed body and Iron Maiden shirts she wears she is easy to spot at the starting line of an ultra running event. There is of course, more to this person than the pink hair, tattoos and Iron Maiden shirts. She is a bright and warm human being with a deep love for dogs and nature. She is an outdoors woman with a big heart. People are drawn to her because of her heart. She is what we call “good people”.

Through no fault of her own, Stephanie was afflicted with colon cancer at the age of 29. She’s battled cancer for the past four years even as the cancer spread to her liver. At 33, she is cancer free but, she is now fighting another war, -this one being a financial one. This should not be.

Although a small race, the SSOD race can make a huge difference in someone’s life. Through this small race (only 65 runners can sign up), we have the opportunity to pay it forward big time. Through this ridiculous race we have the opportunity of celebrating our health and, making a huge difference in someone’s life. We have the opportunity to help lift a dark cloud of financial debt from over a person’s life and, give that person some relief as she kickstarts her life again.

The SSOD race is not for everyone but everyone can play a part in helping out Stephanie. You can support Stephanie by a direct donation or sponsoring one of the runners. You may make a direct donation at the SSOD race registration site: SSOD4Stephanie

You may also sponsor a runner. If you know someone that is running this race reach out to them and let them know that you want to sponsor them. Here is a link to the runners signed up for the SSOD race: SSOD Runners

We have a goal of raising at least $10,000 for Stephanie. That is a lot of money but mind you, its just a drop in the bucket of the expenses Stephanie has endured. If we sell out this race that is capped at 65 runners, we can easily reach the aforementioned goal by each runner getting $155 worth of sponsorship. That’s not hard to do. Please reach out to family and friends and get them to sponsor you for this event.

I’m a firm believer in what goes around, comes around. Whatever you hurl out there will come back to you, whether positive or negative. Pay it forward, please! After we’ve covered the expenses of holding this race every cent over that cost goes directly to Stephanie Moore. Any donation you make goes directly to Stephanie Moore and does not get used for covering the expense of the race. The expense of this race is covered solely with the registration fee of the race. .

Until we get this shit figured out with healthcare in our country, lets step out of our box and help each other out. Its the right thing to do. Thank you so much!

All the very best,

Rough Runners.

The SSOD race (Savannah Stone Stairs of Death race) is a unique, challenging race. This is a race that is ALL Savannah! It puts runners on Savannah River Street cobblestone and up those treacherous, steep, uneven infamous 33 steps in downtown Savannah.

The purpose of this race from the beginning has been to help out people we know that are experiencing hardship. The first two year’s of this race’s proceeds ($2000.00 total) went to the Gail Thatcher and family. Gail’s daughter, Layla, fought hard to survive cancer and, in the process the family accumulated a lot of debt.

The recipient of the 2019 SSOD race is Stephanie Moore. Stephanie is a colorful character (literally had pink hair when I first met her). She is an ultra runner, dog lover, nature lover…she has an immense love for life. At 29 years of age, she was stunned to learn that she had colon cancer. At age 33, she had stage 4 cancer. Stephanie has fought an incredibly hard battle…physically and financially.

For the November 9th race, we’ve set a goal to raise $10,000.00 for Stephanie. That seems like a lot of money but its a drop in the bucket for the expenses she’s endured. The SSOD race is capped at 65 runners. We simply cannot put more runners than that on the 1/3 of a mile loop that runners will be running from 1 to 2 hours. More than 65 runners and we’ll have a bottleneck at the stairs and people running into each other.

The registration for the SSOD race is $50 per runner. That $50 registration will be used to help pay the costs of the race which averages $2000 per year to hold. $50 times 65 runners gives us $3250. Take away the $2000 and we’re at $1250. This is where we have to become creative in finding ways to maximize the collection pot for Stephanie. We ask each runner to recruit sponsors for their race. Ask your family and friends and, total strangers to sponsor you, the runner, for your race. They can sponsor you per mile you run or a lump sum. Like I said, we have to be creative in this endeavor. $10,000.00 seems like a huge number but with 65 runners it comes down to getting approximately $185 per runner to reach that goal. That’s not a lot of money! We can do this.

This year, I again, plan to run the SSOD race and, raise money for Stephanie. One thing I forgot to mention is that after race expenses, the rest of the money goes directly to Stephanie Moore. After the race we hand her a check and she does whatever she wants with that money…it’s hers.

With this year’s race we’ll offer extra shirts to sell as a way of increasing the take for Stephanie. The shirts will sell for $20 each. We’ll also provide stickers to sell to the sponsors.

We have an opportunity here to run an incredible, challenging race and also, in helping out someone that could really use some help. This is a great opportunity to pay it forward and, challenge yourself at the same time. The SSOD race is tough but so are you! And, so is Stephanie!

Please register for this race and get your sponsors!

Use the following hashtag for social media posts regarding the SSOD: #ssod4stephanie #run4stephanie

Thanks so much!

peace.

Rough Runners

I like memes. I cannot lie. They’re funny, provocative, inspiring, outrageous…they’re just fun to me. I am also a fan of trading cards such as baseball cards. As a kid I collected baseball cards. As a young adult I got into X-Men cards and, had a vast collection of them until a flood wiped them all out…that’s life, right?

Last month I was trudging through some deep, punchy snow on Mt Baker and sweat was dripping like a leaky faucet off of the tip of my nose and chin. I was exhausted but I had a goal that I wanted to reach. I wanted to make it to aid station 6 before 11:00 am and reach Mt. Baker’s Sherman summit during the Mt Baker Ultra. The thought going through my head was ‘do or die’. I wanted this so bad. As I rested my head on my trekking poles for the umpteenth time a meme came to mind. It was a picture of some dude standing with his back to the camera, on a barren hilly location, looking into a wide expanse of space and a thick fog quickly enveloping the landscape. In bold white letters above the dude, a statement read, “YOU CAN KEEP GOING LONG AFTER YOU THINK YOU CAN’T”. Those words hung over my mind’s eye and I put myself in the place of the dude and, continued my trudge toward the aid stations between me and my goal. To dramatically shorten a long story, I did not reach the summit but that’s a different story. This story is about memes and trading cards.

After that race (my failed attempt at the Mt Baker Ultra), the meme stayed with me but, it was no longer that dude, – that stranger in the meme with that powerful statement above him that was in my mind’s eye and, it was now actually me. So, I thought of making a personalized meme of me with that powerful statement. That seemed so arrogant, though. I mean, how could I share that meme with me on it…especially, after dnf’ing the race that inspired that meme? That thought led me down a path of thinking about the many people that inspire me. And, believe me, there are a lot of people that inspire me! I have a lot of friends that are runners, mountain climbers…these are people with amazing drives. They push themselves to new heights and further distances. They make it seem that the impossible is literally quite possible. I like to call these folks my tribe. And, that is when I began to think, why not make inspirational memes with the very people that inspire me, – my tribe? And so, I began doing that and, even made a running memes photo album on facebook containing inspirational memes with the very people that I love and I’m inspired by. Well, it didn’t stop there.

About a week ago my girlfriend’s son, Nicholas, was showing me his Pokemon cards and explaining to me what they’re about. I had absolutely no idea what the hell he was talking about BUT, the cards stuck in my head. As he continued explaining the Pokemon world to me my mind was thinking, baseball cards from my youth. It then hit me, how cool would it be to have ultra running cards or, simply, running cards? I mean, trading cards like the old baseball cards I used to collect as a kid? I then thought, who would actually give a shit about these? And, as thoughts usually do, they begin to mold a life of it’s own and quickly the thought evolved into, – make running cards of those very people that inspire me so much! I love keeping up with my running friends running conquests. I like taking pictures at races. I literally have thousands upon thousands of archived pictures I’ve taken at races that I host and, races that I go to that others host. I thought, I know photoshop just enough to be dangerous…I could do this.

For days, I continued to play out the idea of running cards in my head. Finally, I looked at a picture I had taken of a friend of mine at a recent run and thought, she ran 50 miles several months ago in one long shot. That had been such a big goal of this lady for the last couple of years. Finally, she achieved it and, I was there to witness it. It was quite an epic, moving moment. After this amazing feat by Luann the rest of the world continued moving on but I still found myself thinking about it from time to time. This was a big deal! This was a big deal to her. This was a big deal to me! I mean, she achieved this epic goal on a race that I host! How powerful is that? How moving! To make a long story longer, Luann became my first ever running card guinea pig. I googled “vintage baseball cards” and looked through hundreds of cards until I found one that I really liked and, created a template from it to use for my running cards idea.

After making that card and posting it online, I suddenly wanted to do more cards! So, I started cranking out more as I have time to do so. I’ve made another facebook photo album for running cards.

Posting these online vintage looking running cards seems to have struck a nerve with a lot of my running friends. They seem to love this idea. So do I! With these cards I get to share the feats and goals of my amazing running friends in a format that is so nostalgic. I literally love making these cards and posting them to that album and anxiously await a response from the subject of that card. My hope is that they will love it…My fear is that they will be offended by it. So far, a lot of love is emanating from these cards and, that makes me happy!

Can I monetize this? Probably not and, that’s not the intention. I’m just enjoying the process. I will keep making them and posting them online. I will continue making memes of my running friends and continue being inspired by them. Its wholesome fun for me. I hope you all that have seen these cards and memes like them as much as I do.

Thank you all for the great inspiration that you are in my life!

All the best,

peace,

Rough Runners.