Well, after running all those miles, climbing the insane Mount Whitney, going back to Vegas and then going back home.... it's back to work.Lisa came home to a mere 1,651 emails in her Inbox. A good 500 seem to be from either Mr. Moses Odiaka from the credit and accounts department of Union Bank of Nigeria or an anonymous Samaritan giving her stock tips for an undiscovered company with Big News. Either way, it looks like Lisa is poised to receive a wad of cash for AIDS Orphans Rising!
In fact, so diligent is Lisa in her work that I received an email asking if I have been following my training schedule while she was away. Because I know how busy Lisa must be, I decided to not respond to that question. I was just thinking of her. Really.
Now that the crew has access to computers, the photos are coming in fast and furious. We're working on a thorough gallery which will be up shortly, but here are some great links in the meantime.
Ben Jones, a wonderful guy and great photographer also known as the Mayor of Badwater, has a set of 559 photographs from the Badwater Ultramarathon. The above photo is number 529 or so-- if you pop ahead to the 520's, you'll see a series of fantastic finish-line photos. (By the way, Leigh and Annemarie are in the crew van behind the runners, which is why you don't see them in the picture.)
Ben Jones' Gallery
Crew member Annemarie Deal's Gallery
Crew member Leigh Corbin's blog has great photos too.
Even without the checks that have been mailed in to Sister Marybeth directly, we're up to almost $400,000.00 for AIDS Orphans! So close to the goal of $500,000.00.... The fundraising site, www.active.com/donate/lisas810 will be Open and Ready For Business throughout the entire 810, so you can still donate throughout the summer.
We'll keep everyone updated and alert you to the airdate of the Today Show piece as soon as we get word. In the meantime, here's Part II of the radio piece on Lisa's 810 from Endurance Planet and a video that Leigh put together:
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7 comments:
love it all, Lisa!
Mel
So nice chatting with you at the SPW pool before the race, Lisa.
I couldn't believe you ran from Vegas the day before; you sounded so fresh and alert the next morning, it's as if you just went for a walk in the park.
I want you to know that seeing you with Sister along the course inspired me to sing "The Sound of Music" and "What Do You Do About A Problem Like Maria?" :)
We had a blast!
Thanks for all you do and happy trails,
Connie Karras
I am not as familiar with this as I would like to be and you seem to be Wonder Woman, congrats to you and all your team.
I would like to hear from the crew as to how it went from their point of view. How you seemed to last from Vegas and during the actual race. What is it like to be on a crew like this and what they do from moment to moment.
Any insight they can offer and of course from Lisa, would be a huge gift to me at least. Thank you.
Lisa,
How it warmed my heart to see the beautiful comment you left at my blog yesterday. :)
I know how busy you are and you still took the time to share your kindness.
Thank you.
Most sincerely,
Connie Karras
well....I will send the blog post to my crew to see if they will all put there thoughts and we can post to a blog..good idea:)
Thanks to all
Lisa
Those are interestimg questions and I will do my best to shed some light on what it was like out there. You would think that it would be very boring but it is not, far from it. There is so much to do when crewing a runner in extreme environment.
In all honesty my favorite thing is being out on the road with Lisa, we live very far away and this is often the only opportunity to spend time together that we have. When you are not on the road you would be in one of the vans. There are two vans because of possibility of mechanical failure and one van would be with Lisa at all times while the other van could be far up the road and the crew in that van resting or going for supplies. We called them the Lisa van and the crew van.
When you are in Lisa van you could be driving, sitting in back of van 'kitchen' or sitting in passenger seat. The person in kitchen works very hard, this is probably the most difficult/important task of all. The person in driver seat would be the one to handoff items from kitchen person to Lisa on the road. Often times this person would run up to Lisa and than walk with her passed the van while handing off items to Lisa and/or pacer.
The Las Vegas to Badwater route was incredible, we were on a road that was all but deserted and in the middle of some very beautiful country. We passed through a few very small towns, each one very distinctive in it's own way.
I recall one evening when I was out with Lisa we were heading into a pass with a slight tail wind, as we approached the pass the winds increased to gale force {sustained 45 - 50 mph with gust to 70 mph}. We literally could not walk as we were being blown down the road by these powerful winds. As the road curved and winds became sideways we were being blown off the road. It was amazing to see scorpions being blown by us going 30 mph down the road.
Hope this helps illustrate a bit about what it was like out there.
Scott
What was it like to crew? Surprising, exhausting, rewarding, fun, educational and sometimes surreal. Watching Lisa in action is inspiring and educational. To see her work through the challenges with such relative ease is remarkable. She sure made it look easy, even when it was obvious that it wasn't (gusts of wind, heat rash, stomach troubles, sleep deprivation etc). We all took turns in various roles and bascially took turns predicting her needs (and then hopefully meeting them!), monitoring her condition and sleeping when possible. At any given time, there were two drivers, one person in the "kitchen" (the back of van #1)making her next drink, ice bandana, making a sandwich or getting salt pills. The driver of this van kept a record of what she ate, drank and took each mile or two and how she was feeling. One or two people would run these things to her every mile or two, depending on her needs (less at night for example because it was "cooler" - ha)The others were in rest mode which meant a cat nap every mile or so and maybe a longer nap from time to time or maybe driving ahead for ice and other supplies. We all took turns running with her as well. Sometimes we'd drive right along side her on the deserted road, blasting some music to help her forget it was the middle of the night and her body wanted to sleep. When we slept in a hotel, it was no longer than 4 hours at a time and it was back to where we left off hours before. If I remember correctly (and sleep deprivation does nothing for my memory!), the first 130 miles seemed like a walk in the park for Lisa. The last 20 into badwater were tougher but she is such a champ and the morning after phase one, you never would have guessed she just completed 150 miles! Amazing. Two days of rest and the official race began. Before the start, she said she just wanted to finish because this was just part of a bigger plan. When that race started though, you could see it in her eyes - she was racing! She's such a competitor. After another 90 miles or so, stomach troubles set in as they so often do under these conditions but she persisted. I was with her on this last night into Lone Pine and honestly, it's hard to see your friend suffer like this. It was so hard for me to pretend like I wasn't concerned but I did my best to be half as tough as Lisa was that night and not let it show(I should mention this was my first extreme event experience and first crew experience!). At about 4 am, we went back to the hotel and she rested for a mere hour and a half (and she was upset that she slept this long!) and then, well, I believe everyone is familar with the last split and the buckle. Simply amazing.
Annemarie
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