She is running in the City to Surf in Sydney…one of, if not the biggest races in the world! It is coming up on August 8…good luck guys!!
From left to right: Georgie, Becky (RUNNER), M, T & D
An absolutely gorgeous day, great times by all, the most incredible support crew, fun post-race celebrations and cracking (thanks to a late surge of VERY generous donations) $4,000 raised for Active Minds – yesterday was a FABULOUS DAY!!
Official times (G & R are half marathon):
me – 3:35:02 (OH YEAH!), time at half 1:34 (oops, a bit too fast!)
Gareth – 1:52:28 (GO GARETH!!)
Ryan – 2:04:31 (GO RYAN!!)
Current fundraising amount – $4,004!!
We couldn’t be happier with these results!
Here is an assortment of raceday pics:
The Team prerace (predawn...almost) - Nice haircuts boys!
We LOVE our shirts - thanks Momma!
Lining up
Me at Mile 14.
Gareth sprinting to the finish!
Ryan high-fiving on his way to the finish line!
Cheerleaders! (Jen and Mandy)
Cheersquad!
Me doing my best to finish strong!
FINISHED!!
Post race support (Dad and Shane)
...walking it off.
The team - medals and all!
The full TEAM DAN support crew!
For a little more detail about my run…I came out feeling really good and confident about trying for a 3:10 finishing pace (7:15/mile) and kept that up until a little after halfway (half marathon time was 1:33:57). It was a HUGE push to see Mandy and Jen at mile 14 – you guys are the best! From there on my legs started locking up a little bit and as “the hurt” steadily increased my pace decreased till all I could do was keep running. I definitely felt the extra strength of Dan and everyone’s support that helped me get on through! My time was in the range that I had hoped for, and was a real triumph in holding up for half at my ultimate goal pace and to still finish running. I figured “go big or go home” for Dan and though I ended up going out a little too big, I have no regrets!
A special thanks to supportive messages from the Fraziers and LaBontes (see comments on “What it’s all about” page) sharing what they have gone through with the loss of loved one’s to suicide. Suzy asked that I run 16 steps in memory of her son Zachary, which I was very honored to do. Bibb and Dolly Frazier very generously donated $10/mile ($262!!)- thank you Bibb for your huge generosity as well as all you are doing to bring awareness and action to help prevent suicide and aid suffering college students in Rockingham County (and beyond)! The Frazier family’s loss of their son Austin, a junior at JMU, in October 2009 has many parallels to our loss of Daniel. It means a lot to have been able to connect with these other “survivors” that have lost family members to depression and means a lot to have them part of this marathon effort.
Once again, the real triumph here is all the AMAZING support for the work of Active Minds and brining more awareness to depression and other mental health issues! Over $4,000 in donations from over 145 people (and 2 dogs) – 4 times our original goal and still going! This is a true testament of love for Dan and the importance of this cause. All I can say is WOW – THANK YOU ALL SO SO MUCH!
What it's all about. Love you brother.
3:34…ish…cut off almost 15 minutes from last times, so very happy!
Photos, more info and pics to come VERY SOON!!!
The Staunton News Leader ran a really nice and thoughtful article about our effort today! Check it out!!
I haven’t seen an actual copy of the paper yet, but had sent in these other photos that I hoped would be included:
one of the last pics taken together 09/08
Dan in Joshua Tree NP
I thought about sending in this one too…
wedding 12/05
Me cooling down...on a walkalator...
For those of you in Staunton, VA – check the newspaper tomorrow morning (Friday, March 19) for an article about our fundraiser, Dan and Active Minds…They even went so far as to interview folks from Bridgewater about starting an Active Minds chapter there, and also did a phone interview with Alison from Active Minds – I am excited to see what they write!
Thanks to mom’s friend Charles, we also got word out to the Daily News Record (Harrisonburg), who may run a story tomorrow or Saturday AND The Augusta Free Press has put the story online. CHECK IT OUT HERE. Thanks Charles…and mom!! I can’t believe we have press!
Official support crew on Saturday thus far: Mandy, Mom, Dad, T (Aunt Terry), Shane (cousin representing the Moomaw contingent:), Jen (Ryan’s wife), probably Jackson (their dog), maybe Gareth’s friend (don’t know his name) and possible staff from Active Minds. So there are still extra T-shirts to be worn – if you are planning to come out let us know!!
In case I don’t have a chance to blog tomorrow…THANKS AGAIN to everyone for their INCREDIBLE generosity and support! We are now almost at $3200! It really is a big team effort and you are all a part of it, so thank thank thank you. It looks like it is going to be beautiful on Saturday…just as long as it doesn’t get too warm too quick it should be ideal!
This evening was perhaps the most fun of all my training runs…why is that? Because Mandy and Indi joined me!! (Lizzie did join us for a warm-up but opted to sit the run out this time:)
Haha - the family after the Marine Corps Marathon in October '08
We ran down to the river to Jones Point Park (one of Indi’s favorite places), enjoying the turn back to spring weather and a beautiful sunset. Now that is what I call a perfect ‘tapering’ run! Love you Mandy, I couldn’t do it without you!!
Following the run I feasted on my current addiction of sweet potatoes…fyi, they are apparently a wonder food for marathon running. Some advise eating them 3 meals a day on the week leading up to the marathon…I can’t quite get myself to have them for breakfast, but am holding strong with daily sweet potatoes for lunch and dinner!
Other exciting news is that the News Leader (Staunton paper) called me today for an interview about running the marathon for Dan and supporting Active Minds – so stay posted over the next few days for an article!! It should be good, the reporter was really nice and we talked for about a half hour.
To follow up thoughts about meeting Alison and inspiration of Active Minds, I wanted to mention how much healing power she saw (and I am experiencing) through ‘doing something about it.’ Losing Dan was by far the hardest thing I have ever had to deal with and I know that it is probably the same for a lot of you reading this. Getting past feelings of regret of wishing I could have and would have done something different has been the hardest part of this journey, but I feel really fortunate to have had great help from family, friends and a bit of counseling to bring me past that.
So much of the healing I have experienced over the past year and a bit has been from trying to take some positives out of the situation and share that with people. By creating danielsheffer.com with my mom and putting together a photobook for family of Dan’s photos (that we have now printed over 30 copies for others) it has been really rewarding to share elements of Daniel’s incredible life and his talents that spread the inspiration that he still gives us each and every day.
Running this marathon has taken this healing to another level. All of the amazing generosity, kindness and support that has been given to our effort means so much to the three of us running (me especially:), my family and all of those at Active Minds. I hope that all of you who have contributed and sent so much love and support towards the cause feel a part of this healing, because you are certainly part of it! Thank you all.
On Dan’s facebook profile he listed his religious views as “do good things.” While his spiritual and religious views were certainly a lot more than this, it sums things up nicely I think. Dan and I were both so fortunate to grow up with such loving and devoted parents that exposed us to all the right things through church and scouts to really make us value service and giving to others. While college and busy life has gotten in the way of this element of my life recently, I plan on this being a step towards keeping this healing going.
It is amazing the multiplying effects of this fundraiser has been – first the fact Ryan and Gareth joined me in the effort, then the fact that the money will be doubled in honor of Alison’s brother, the donations and campaigning of friends and family around the world on the behalf of the cause.
TO TOP IT ALL THIS OFF is the exciting news that, also in honor of Dan, my sister (in law) Becca (aka ‘Reebs’) will be running the Sydney “City to Surf” 14k race in August (the largest running event in the world! +70,000 people!!) to raise money for the aussie organization beyondblue that also seeks to raise awareness about depression. Go Reebs!
Oh yeah…and as for training, got out for a nice 4-5 mile run this morning down along the Potomac and north on the Mount Vernon trail – amazing how much flooding there is! I had to run back with my camera (and Indi) to the end of King St to take some pics…nice visuals for my thesis work on planning for sea level rise:)
Five more sleeps…
I got out for my last long run before the race today. A glorious 11 miles (5+ miles each way) or so on the Mount Vernon Trail along Potomac River marshlands south of Alexandria…mostly in the pouring rain. Fortunately it was quite warm, as some sections of the run didn’t give an option but to run through hundreds of feet of the trail was covered in a few inches of water! It really was a nice run and I was further reassured about race prep in doing two 3-mile time trials using the mile markers…the first at 21:30 or so and the second at 20:20…so that was encouraging! I thought about fun memories playing in the rain with Daniel…especially after I think it was Hurricane Fran when we got big early spring floods in like ’96, where we got out our boogie boards to slide down the hill behind our house into the lake formed at the bottom. Of course Dan always made these sort of things look better than I did, but we both had a lot of fun. Rain didn’t hold us back!
Exciting news was that on Friday I was able to visit the main office of Active Minds in DC! I met the very inspiring founder and executive director, Alison Malmon Mahowald (see pic below) and the rest of there very lovely staff. They are all very excited about our fundraiser and how successful it has been and thankful to all you generous people! They informed me that all of the funds raised will be matched by a generous program set up over the next few months in honor of Alison’s brother Brian Malmon, who passed away 10 years ago March 24 and inspired the creation of Active Minds. This couldn’t be more fitting in that Brian (read more here) sounds very much like our beloved Dan – an incredible wit and sense of humor, a true entertainer, a dedicated friend and a creative talent. He too was 22 when he passed away. It seems that Alison’s loss was similar to mine (and ours) in many ways, this makes this marathon effort very special to her, especially as it will take place so close to the 10th anniversary of Brian’s death. She also mentioned that it was the first independent fundraiser that they have had like this – let there be many more I say!
It was a great visit, we sat around chatting for about an hour. It was great to get to know them, learn more about all that they do and hope to do! They were also nice enough to help campaign for our fundraiser on their Facebook page and Twitter – so check it out!
Wow. I am truly amazed at how this has grown into such a great success, especially to be such a meaningful one for Active Minds and its inspiring founder Alison. I am so thankful to Gareth and Ryan for making it happen, as well as everyone for your rallying support! We are so excited to have so many people behind us! And to add the Active Minds staff to our support crew is just awesome!
PS. As you may have noticed…yes, I shaved my head. After a lagging training week with strep throat I had to cut (shave) some extra time off my race somehow:)
After a couple of short runs around Old Town over the last couple of days I was able to get out for my first substantial run post-strep this evening!
It was probably about 7 miles heading south on the Mount Vernon Trail along the Potomac. Not so sunny any more, but nice and warm…so so nice to be able to run in only shorts and tshirt! I got in a little speed workout with the measured milemarkers – I did two 2-mile time trials, the first at 13:50, second at 13:25. So that has me still on track for the race, which is goood! A little over a week to go. Yikes!
Over the past few days I have been a bit held up by being unwell. First looking after Mandy getting over strep throat and sinus infection, then getting myself over strep throat! I should be up for another run later today (with permission/pushing of both my Dr and my mom!), and in the meantime I wanted to share some professional insight of a friend of my mom’s on Daniel’s photography.
We all know Dan took awesome photos that were incredibly thoughtful and awe-inspiring. Aside from what he shared on Facebook, few people have seen most of his work. For this reason, Mandy and I (mostly M) put together a photobook of Dan’s “portfolio” pics of landscapes and other more artistic works as a Christmas present for close family members. It was really tough to narrow down, but we ended up with over 80 photos that we think give a good summary of his pics. While there were certainly mixed emotions in the process, looking at photos that we had never had a chance to see before ourselves and without the chance for explanation…as well as further illuminating the incredible vision and potential of our beloved bro that he was unable to fully share with the world…but overall it was a very inspiring task that is the very least that his photos deserve.
Dan's photobook cover
So anyway, my mom shared this with some friends of hers from Wintergreen, including Ben Blankenburg, a professional photographer who had done a lot of work with Wintergreen over the years and had been able to meet Dan briefly a few times. After spending a good bit of time studying the book, and really without ever talking to Dan about his photography before, he shared this insight:
“From the images in the book it appeared that Daniel easily found the beauty of minute details as apparent in his macro work, but also liked to work with infinity in his landscapes. Most people tend to see the ‘literal’ in between macro and infinity. Dan was looking a bit further to find the interesting parts of life that are often overlooked and it made his photographs strong.”
I think that this analysis goes much further than Dan’s photos to also speak to his view of life. Dan was incredibly perceptive and creative – in ways that very few of us are. This not only made his photographs strong, but also his personality and relationships.
He also added that, “The few ‘self portraits’ I viewed varied from the theme of his other photographs and definitely had a more literal feel.” Dan was always very “face value” – real and honest (sometimes painfully so:)…perhaps others can help analyze that one.
So, thank you Ben for sharing this and reminding us of how special and incredible our bro/son/cuz/pal etc was.
Ben went so far as to offer advice should we want to pursue publishing a book of Dan’s photos. Now that is flattering. I can see Dan blushing and getting all modest, saying “yeah whatever guys…” You continue to make us proud and inspire us bro, and yes you are that good! Even living through pain like none of us can even imagine you were able to see beauty in the world like no other.
A photo sampling:
Yeah, wow. We are working on getting more of his photos posted on danielsheffer.com, as well as through Flickr so that you can see more. Also, if you are interested in buying a photobook, we are getting more printed so you can shoot me an email for more details. tjsheffer@gmail.com
