One Month To Go!

In one month, I’ll be leaving town to go on this trip! I started this website about 6 months ago, and at the time everything about the project was pretty academic— my leg was still in a walking boot, there was snow on the ground, and the gofundme was sitting at zero dollars raised. But now, I’m back in running shape, it’s a beautiful late Spring day outside, and we’ve managed to raise over a thousand dollars. I’m registered for all 5 half marathons that I’ll be running and I have campgrounds and AirBnBs booked all along my cross country route. I still need to get a new crate for Mason and a big box of back packer meals, but otherwise I have all the gear we will need. It’s all coming together!

Yesterday, I ran a steady 6 miles on the Nickle Plate Trail and was pain free from all the various injuries I’ve been recovering from— the initial broken foot, my chronic hip issue, and the sprained ankle I suffered back at the beginning of April. Today, I jogged a light 3 mile recovery run, again pain free. I’ve been forcing myself to do at least 10 minutes of stretching a day, which has been a big help. I don’t know why it’s so hard to motivate myself to do it, but whenever I string together more than a week of stretching its impossible to argue with the results. And now that school has wrapped up for the year, I will be able to focus a lot more of my time and mental energy on getting ready for the trip.

I’m making it a goal to write at least a little bit in this blog every day this month, which explains why this entry is going to be a little short and disjointed. I think it will be a good mental exercise for myself though, and good preparation for the writing I intend to do once I’m on the road. So, I’ll be back tomorrow, hopefully with more to say. In the mean time, if you’ve made it this far and haven’t donated to the project yet, please consider hitting the “Donate” button up at the top of the page and making even a small contribution. Thanks!