Find Your Own Adventure while following MDS

Hope you are all enjoying the Blog coverage of the Marathon des Sables…and hope you are inspired by the efforts of your friends & family to choose your own adventure.

E-mail me at lisa@dreamchaserevents.com and I can help you see which adventure is right for you. I’d love to hear from you and help you find your dream and chase it down!

Some things to consider (the photo above is from Mt Kilimanjaro...an incredible place to visit!) Click on these three options to learn more about how we at Dreamchasers can make these adventures happen for you:

Climb Mt Kilimanjaro, run the Mt Kili Marathon or go on safari
Attending a Dreamchasers Camp
Running the Grand Teton Races


And now for a few laughs…here you go:

George Carlin's Views on Aging

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions. 'How old are you?' 'I'm four and a half!' You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key

You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead. 'How old are you?' 'I'm gonna be 16!' You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life ... . You become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed? You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone. But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60. You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!

You get into your 80's and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; 'I Was JUST 92.' Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. 'I'm 100 and a half!' May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

HOW TO STAY YOUNG

1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay 'them.'

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop.' And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

10.Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

And another update from the Sahara :)

LOOKING BACK TO YESTERDAY
So how did yesterday go? My student Jeff Grant uses this neat service that allowed him to send text messages to his Blog throughout the bus ride journey and from the bivouac yesterday (and thanks so much to Becky for keeping Jeff’s Blog updated!) Here is a bit of stream of consciousness from Jeff over the course of yesterday:

After a long drive on a rough and very twisty road, we just stopped for lunch - not at any of the several oasises we passed, but in the sun.

After 8 hours, just left the road. Driving on dirt toward the big dunes we'll run over on Sunday.
We're at the bivouac getting settled, it all seems surreal. We can see big dunes from camp. Watching beautiful stars over the Sahara. G'nite from Tent 77 in Maroc.

Last SMS updates in the A.M. before we check our non-race gear.

Just finished dinner in the desert. We're all ready for some sleep (in the Berber tents tonight). Admin checks tomorrow - 1 more day to go!



And I also came across a great Blog that highlights the efforts of Markus Schär and Joshua Kennedy-White, two MDS runners who are part of our US-Canadian-Australian Dreamchaser group…I love Markus’s description of his MDS motivation:


If an event requires a compulsory snakebite kit, flares, survival blanket and an insurance for funeral expenses, you know you are up to something serious ... Marathon des Sables 2008, here I come!

Fortunately for us, Markus's wife Uli (who explains that she only runs in cases of emergency :) updated their Blog

Joshua and Markus have dedicated their race to “The Fred Hollows Foundation, a non-government organisation whose vision is of a world where no-one is needlessly blind and of a land where Indigenous people enjoy the same health outcomes as all Australians” I wish them the best in this effort to help such a worthy cause!




AND WHAT’S GOING ON TODAY
Today they go through the admin check and continue to study their road maps. Here is a great description of the course on the darbaroud site…sounds like a very worthy challenge!

Tomorrow, the race begins!!!

Sleep well everyone…

Lisa