Dear Beautiful friends!
Tue. Nov. 1st I will join my very good friend Jason Lester
who will begin a 306 mile run across Death Valley in an
effort to raise funds for Operation Blessing's Clean Water program. This
is a cause that I am passionate about and I know that many of you are
as well. I am sure that you have heard the facts before: Every 20
seconds a child dies either of thirst or a water-borne disease. One
billion people on this planet lack access to safe, clean water. The
devastation is staggering. The cost in human lives, each life so unique
and precious, is unfathomable. The tragedy and wrongness of it cannot
fail to stir the hearts of those who seek justice, love mercy and
earnestly desire to be a part in making this world a better place for
future generations.
In 2008 I was the first person to run the 306 miles that Jason will follow the same foot steps! How wonderful for me to be the lead crew chief and help Jason accomplish the same dream I dreamed about!
Many of you know that I run for a purpose and that purpose is for orphaned children!
Many of you made very kind donations while I was running 50 miles in all 50 states, Running Hope Through America..a great deal of the funds raised have gone to continue feeding children all over the World, building a school in Ethiopia and India.
Jasons 306 miles will help raise money for Operation Blessing's Clean Water program but the best news of all is the money raised will complete a water treatment plant at our mission in India!
Can you imagine drinking dark brown water full of who knows what?
The next time you take a drink of water think about how fortunate you are, how blessed we are.
Over the past several months Jason and our team have been very focused on
raising awareness and funding for Operation Blessing's Clean Water
program. Won't your join us!!!!
Official Website: www.H2OPE2011.com
Did you know...
* More than 1 billion people worldwide do not have access to safe water. Three
times that number lack access to proper sanitation.
* 3.575 million people die each year because of water-related disease
* The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives than any war through guns
* People living in slums pay 5 to 10 times more per liter of water than wealthy people
* An American taking a 5 minute shower uses more water than a typical person in a developing country use in a whole day
* Diarrhea remains the 2nd leading cause of death among children under five
globally. Nearly 1 in 5 deaths is due to diarrhea. It kills more young
children than aids, malaria and measles combined.
* Every 20 seconds a child dies from a water related disease
* About 80% of sewage in developing countries is discharge untreated
* Less than 1% of the world's fresh water is readily accessible for direct human use
* Average American uses 100 gallons of water per day
* Average African uses 12 gallons per day
* More than half of the all wells delivered by aid fail and fewer than 7% are well maintained
* Only 62% of the world's population has access to improved sanitation -
defined as a sanitation facility that ensures hygienic separation of
human excreta from human contact.
* In just one day, more than 200 million hours of women's time is consumed
for the most basic of human needs - collecting water for domestic use.
This lost productivity is greater than the combined number of hours
worked in a week by employees at Wal*Mart, United Parcel Service,
McDonald's, IBM, Target, and Kroger
* Children in poor environments often carry 1,000 parasitic worms in their bodies at any time.
* In the developing world, 24,000 children under the age of five die every
day from preventable causes like diarrhea contracted from unclean water.
21 comments:
Rumors in the ultrarunning world are that the whole crew abandoned Jason in Death Valley more than 200 miles into his run, and he had to finish mostly on his own!!!!!
That seems unconscionable that you'd do that as a crew chief...
Care to give your side of the story?
I was on the crew and spent well over 100 miles on the road pacing the runner in addition to crewing. I was there for e very moment. I will not go into details, but it was a unanimous decision by all 6 people on the crew to no longer support the runner due to a lack of integrity across many fronts of this project. We all remain committed to the clean water cause and the work by Sister Mary Beth and Operation Blessing.
The crew, which included Sister Mary Beth, has a sterling reputation if you care to take careful examination.
For the record, the runner was not left on the side of the road to his own devices. We told him our intention and the logistics we were going to follow to leave the course. He made his own independent decision to continue. At that time I personally helped him secure every provision he might want or need to safely continue.
Jim, I was a part of the crew and I can tell you that it was a very difficult decision to leave at 200 miles. I am sure you realize that for an ENTIRE crew to leave, what happened (and what was uncovered) was something very, very bad. It became clear that in order to protect the integrity of the cause and the integrity of our charity partners, the best thing we as a crew could do was to leave. We all knew that at some point the truth and the details that we had discovered about the runner would come out and we needed to make it clear that we were unaware beforehand and not in agreement with what he had done.
For me personally, it was the hardest decision I have ever had to make in my entire life. I truly believe that it was the right decision but it was (and still is) extremely painful and disappointing.
Lisa was an AMAZING crew leader--every step of the way. Even when all of the disturbing details of the runner's lack of integrity had come out, Lisa held the crew together and kept us moving forward while we all processed what we had discovered and debated within ourselves what we should do. It was Lisa's selfless leadership that gave each crew member the safety and freedom to make their own decision.
The runner is a very charismatic person and we all fully expected that he would try to spin this ordeal in a self-glorifying way. I would ask that you take a step back and realize that for an ENTIRE crew to leave, the atrocities discovered which would lead to such a decision would have to be terrible and unconscionable.
Why not go into details? If what the runner did was so bad, why make a half-hearted stand against it by speaking out but not go into any details? Don't you have a moral obligation to speak up if what the runner did was so "unconscionable"?
As a group, we have chosen to take the high road. It is not productive to continue to hash out details in forums such as these. It is our hope that are infield action speaks as loudly as is necessary for each individual to carefully consider for themselves.
Our choice is to direct our positive energies to the missions of Sister Mary Beth and her order as well as that of Operation Blessing.
Anonymous- why anonymous? Some seem to want to "anonymously" stir the pot on this issue for what greater purpose? We all made our decisions. As for myself, I stand by that decision and remain committed to the cause. It is my hope that everyone, including the runner, grow from this experience and choose to move forward in a positive manner to the benefit of the people who so desperately need our help.
I don't care what the "details" were about the runner's "lack of integrity". I have crewed lots of people before and I have been crewed before, even on a running expedition longer than 306 miles in another country and I know that people don't just volunteer to crew, thinking they'll ultimately leave before the mission is complete. So if they crew felt it was time to leave, well, then it was time to leave and the runner will have to understand why and make things right. JT
my speaking out comes anonymous. to be honest i am not surprised that this run came to a sad ending. i myself have worked on projects with the same runner that have come to some sort of ending. my background is doing over 75 ironmans all over the world. my words to the crew, chin up, you are not the first and you will not be the last that this has happened to with this runner.
He committed "atrocities"? ... what was he eating puppies or something?
Lisa spoke soo highly of him before ... what happened???????
http://lisasmithbatchen.blogspot.com/2011/03/breaking-ground-interview-with.html
It's simple, he was not honest. Sometimes one gets taken by such and wind up heartbroken when the truth comes out.
Still waiting for an honest and up front answer about why you pulled your support from Jason. How did he finish that final 100 miles?
As I mentioned before. It is not productive to the cause to keep trying to hash out details in this type of forum. There is too much important work to be done for those in need.
I am comfortable with any individual or the running community in general making their own decision based on my original statement. People can ask Jason what happened from his perspective and then formulate their own individual opinion.
As far as how he finished the last 100 miles, you will have to ask him about that. As stated above, I helped him provision everything that he wanted into another vehicle with a driver and he made his own independent decision to continue forward at that time.
-Signed not anonymously-
Dave Carder
My name is George Velasco-I was on the crew for 135 miles- I will tell you straight- Jason Lester was a very needy person.I paced him some on the first night and did not want to pace any more after that. I am a slow crippled ultrarunner and kept up with him just fine.There were no headwinds the first 100 miles.He was slow-how about the 8 hour nap he took at Shoshone. Every few miles he had to stop. Does Nike know about all his 20 shoe changes, or that he wore Crocks and cut Hookas with the toes cut off.? When he came running up in the cut open Hookas and pointed to a spot on his socks and announced he had a blister on his toe,,,,we looked and it was a spot of urine. He had no blisters,,,this man had no business out there....and you really think a nun would just leave him out there....and i have crewed people like Lisa Smith Batchen, Sister Mary Beth Lloyd,Monica Schultz and Marshall Ulrich in far worse conditions than what was out there.
This man had a dream crew.These people would never abandon anyone out there. They withdraw because he was hard to deal with .....When I was first asked to be on the crew I refused because I did not get a GOOD FEEL FOR THE MAN,, later I came to help a stranger and for the cause and gave up 3 days, then no more.People look at the people who crewed him....these were not just any Joe Blows in the ultra or Badwater community.
Just a quick add: The crew made the decision to withdraw strictly based on issues of integrity.
Many thanks to George for coming out on his own and lending his experience to the great mix of people on the crew. Always great to see George. Everybody loves George!
JLester can hide his head in the sand but truth rules
Being on previous projects and events with JL it is no surprise to the Triathlete world of athletes that the crew walked away Why the crew walked away is something of a mystery If you speak to JL it was Lisa who turned everyone against him The crew just up and turned against him and left him on the side of the road with nothing but the shoes on his back
JL has burned and screwed over the field of triathletes so he turned to ultra running
When you burn and screw people over you basically lie cheat steal from people
Nike is JL sponsor, but for how long? They don't have his back like he says they do.
JL told me in person that Nike came knocking down his door to get him on board as a sponsored athlete. I promise you first hand that this is so far from the truth Nike did no such thing JL had a friend contact one of the CEO of Nike she got him in the door.
George great feedback Thank you for enlightening us this certainly is not even close to what JL has told
Today on JL face book page he is promoting and selling the Nike shoe perhaps he should be selling
hoka shoes
Sorry JL when you play with fire you will get burned Truth rules
Hi everyone...I have read the comments made to this blog several times..
I do have to ask why people can't leave there name or who they are?
I am in the process of getting my own story together..from the moment I told Amanda about the 306 until the last moment. I am happy to say that I made notes in a journal all along, saved all the emails, text messages, photos and recordings that were made with and without Jason in them..
My own personal reason for leaving death valley is not the same as the other crew members...each made there own choice for themselves..
I will share my own story and my own experience..
Sister Marybeth was the first to decide to leave, she is happy for you to email her on facebook if you would like to speak to her directly. If you have questions you would like to ask me directly please email me via facebook.
Jason was not left alone in death valley out in the center of the road...I had nothing to do with any other crew member making a choice for themself.
As a team we still stand united in our personal choice..
To be honest I did not know 4 of the crew members until right before the run..Sister Marybeth, Dave and myself know each other and our friend George showed up...which was a blessing.
Kay, Amanda, Catherine, Gwelle, Sisterbeth, Dave, George and myself all had nothing but the best of intentions from the moment we said we would be part of this run for clean water.
Please take the time to ask each of them if you must there own personal feelings about why...I will let you know mine very soon.
I stand tall in the face of adversity..I know who I am, what I stand for and I have nothing to defend myself about...I do at this time feel as many times as I have been asked on and off line my thoughts mean a great deal..and so do the thoughts of the other crew members and Jason himself.
Have a happy day..
Lisa
Sounds like he did just fine with out you and completed his run and raised money for the cause.
The crew becoming the story is unfortunate.
Time to move on.
I have known Jason in the past, I no longer consider him a friend. I have watched from afar some of his accomplishments. It does not surprise me that it came down to this. The guy is all smoke and mirrors. He is completely NOT CHRISTIAN. He is a very mean person. I find validation that this has all finally started to come out. The only question I pose for further thought--he continues to extend out the date that he will build his "epic" center for children, I cannot help but wonder if all the money he receives in good-hearted donations isn't going straight to his own pocket. I hate to see people investing in him, his book, any of it--this guy is a total sham.
I heard about the crew abandoment, and now seems to have turned into "bash the runner". You should be ashamed.
1 - JL thinking there was a blister and it turned out to be urine - wow. just so you are aware, hallucinations are very common in ultra running.
2- I too have seen Jason in his moments of frustration, exhaustion and desire for perfection. Yes he has demons he is fighting, and has been fighting since early childhood after losing his parents and then his arm. Don't we all have demons we fight some sort or fashion? Is the crew truly perfect at all times, never having done something to feel embarrased, or ashamed about later?
3 - Anonymous - The youth center JL raises $ for - there IS a site identified, and there IS work, negotiations and progress being made. Just because you haven't seen or heard an update, doesn't mean nothing is happening. But it is not my place to share the progress. All will come out in time.
4 - George, why is speed an issue? running 135 miles in the heat, who cares how slow he goes or if he needed a nap? What is the point in pointing this out? Was this meant to be without sleep or breaks? You sound bitter (perhaps jealous?) - why the need to discuss shoe changes. You state yourself you didn't want to do this from the beginning, so why did you? A forum to showcase your resentment? Sorry Dave, no not everyone loves George. At least not based on his entry (I don't know him personally).
I've known Jason for a long time. Yes he has demons he fights, just as we all do. I have never ever known him to "burn & screw people over" as anonymous suggests. What I have known, is him to be compassionate and caring individual, trying to make this a better place for others. Is he perfect, no. Am I perfect, no. Are you perfect, no.
My hope is the crew (who seem to want to be the story) get over it and move forward.
Signed
Anonymous (you guys are a bash'ing bunch!)
Lisa,
This last blog comment was forwarded to me last night, I feel compelled to respond.
I worked at Nike until the end of December and was privy to the saga behind the "Jason Lester project."
Don't listen to anything people who write as anonymous have to say, it may very well be Jason Lester himself.
When we spoke to Sister Marybeth Lloyd to get her view on what happened out in death valley it became clear what information was true and what was not true. Jason's account of what happened never matched anything that was said from each of the crew members. The first member of the crew that we spoke to was Jason's girlfriend Kay who worked on the project long before any of you. Kay gave the same account and details as Sister Marybeth did, as did the rest of you we spoke with.
Are people going to say that Kay is not telling the truth?
We all know the truth behind what happened in death valley.
An athlete who competed in Jason Lester triple Ironman is pressing charges against Jason, another is starting an investigation into the ESPY award Jason won. It was Kay, Jason's girlfriend that shared information with several people that Jason cheated people and manipulated the system in order to win the ESPY award.
As stated above in the other blog posts, truth wins.
Aric
Portland
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