Marathons for Manna Worldwide

At Sunday's The Woodlands Running Club general membership meeting, half marathon state chaser Patrick Morein noted that I had been doing a few more marathons recently.

I explained that I had and there was a reason for doing so, and now is as good of time as ever to reveal the reason for trying to run more than a few marathons!

I'm going to attempt to run all - or a majority of - Texas' 16 road marathons during the 2008-2009 marathon cycle to raise money for Manna Worldwide - a ministry that the church in which I attend is affiliated with. (In fact, our Pastor and a team of about 9-10 left on Sunday for a missions trip to Kenya and Tanzania.)

Basically, this ministry goes in and builds feeding centers to feed children - and to spread the Gospel. As a nation, despite all of our real and perceived problems, we're pretty blessed. I can't imagine what it is like to go for any length of time without eating.

I don't know what the fundraising structure will be (dollars per marathon, etc.), but we'll work those details soon. What I will ask of those of you (or to share with people that you may know) is to run one of these 16 marathons with me - i.e. at my pace (not just travel with me)!

Some of you have the resources to be able to travel with me to more of the remote marathons (El Paso, Hidalgo, Alpine and Lamesa), and if you can that would be greatly appreciated.

Here is the schedule that I'm aware of:

Saturday, October 18 - Marathon 2 Marathon, Alpine
Sunday, October 26 - Miracle Match Marathon, Waco
November 11 ('07) - Fort Worth Marathon, Fort Worth
Sunday, November 16 - Rock 'n' Roll Marathon, San Antonio
Sunday, December 7 - Fiesta Marathon, Hidalgo
Sunday, December 14 - White Rock Marathon, Dallas
Thursday, January 1 - Texas Marathon, Kingwood
Sunday, January 18 - Chevron Houston Marathon, Houston
Saturday, February 14 - Surfside Marathon, Surfside Beach
Sunday, February 15 - AT&T Austin Marathon, Austin
Saturday, February 28 - Cowtown Marathon, Fort Worth
March 2 ('07) - El Paso Marathon, El Paso
March 16 ('07) - Seabrook Lucky Trails Marathon, Seabrook
March 29 ('07) - Great H.O.G.G. Race, Lamesa
Sunday, April 5 - Big-D Texas Marathon, Dallas
Saturday, April 11 - Davy Crockett Bear Chase, Groveton

My biggest concerns are the costs associated with getting to Hidalgo, El Paso and Lamesa -- and running Surfside and Austin on back-to-back days. (I may need some serious help in Austin!)

I sent an e-mail to Steve and Paula Boone about people running Texas marathons in a particular marathon season and I didn't hear anything back from them; however, I did touch base with The Woodlands' Lou Wilson, who made a shot at running them all a couple of years ago.

"Between 10/04 and 4/05, I ran 9 marathons in Texas," he said. "From 10/05 to 4/06, with the addition of Waco, I ran 10 marathons in the state and got two jackets from Roger Soler for doubling the TMC."

"That gave me 28 marathons in Texas. All 36 since then have been out-of-state."

For the record, Lou will reach, I think, career marathon no. 100 at the Chevron Houston Marathon is what I think his wife, Nora, told me the other day.

With this effort, I plan on deferring my plan to complete my first 100-miler at Rocky Raccoon until 2010. (Maybe there'll be a few of you who will be ready to run it with me. Right?)

I'm going to give this my best shot. I hope that you'll join me at one of the stops on the journey.