A wet run and an inspiring meeting!

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:)

Enjoying the warmth…and not being sick

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!

Infinity and minute details

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

Keep on keepin on…and thoughts about male bonding

I made it in for a run to work today (about 9 miles) through a beautiful crisp and sunny morning. It took me about half the run to loosen up sore muscles from Tues, but I felt great for the last few!

I got in to picking up bits of litter along the river and tossing them in the bins…got me thinking about how Dan and I would compete as to who picked up more pieces of trash on hikes. We would make little competitions out just about everything – you would think being 3 years older I would dominate in all, but I definitely didnt. One-on-one soccer, basketball, baseball..you name it. My favorite game was “male bonding” that we would play in the front yard or normally in the living room. Basically we would try to get from one couch to the other without being tackled by the other person. This one my size did give me a definite advantage, but Dan fought hard! (actually really fighting is one thing we did virtually never) I do wish we could have had a rematch after I moved back from Australia. I know he would have kicked my ass in his buff and burly full-size version…I always told him I had it coming…

Long run and good times

Oh yeah, saying G'day to my man Obama and sporting my Active Minds Tshirt!!

So, yesterday I finally got in a long run. Not exactly as long as would be ideal, but a little over 15 miles in about 2:15. From Georgetown to the zoo to the White House, to the monument, to the capital, back to the monument, over the bridge and through the woods to Old Town I went!

That just made me think of an idea Dan shared with me last year about how cool it would be if we all had a theme song/tune like Peter and the Wolf…dom dom de dom dom dom da dom dom dom de dom dom dom…that played whenever we enter a scene. I love the way his mind worked!

A couple quick memories stirred up having lunch at Wright’s Dairy Rite in Staunton after putting up awnings there on Sunday with Mom Dad and Sam Whitten. (also it was great hanging out with Sam, it really made awning work fun like it was with Dan and back to previous points – Dan’s pals are simply the coolest kids in the world!) The immediate one is of how Dan and I would always put on Chuck Berry’s song “My Ding-a-Ling”…Dan would often punch it in so it would play like 10 times in a row to everyone in the restaraunt’s delight (esp Mom.) I of course had to put it on out of tradition on Sunday. I also put on the song “Wild Thing” that got me thinking about how Daniel got the Wild Thing haircut, flat top with lightningesque zigzags down the side, like in the movie Major League when he was about 7 during his baseball season – it looked awesome! He was a trendsetter and certainly didn’t mind standing out in a crowd!

Exciting news is that are almost at $3,000 in our fundraising – THANKS EVERYONE!!! AND Active Minds ended up in 4th place in the Pepsi contest and will receive $50k! Great stuff. Also, Mom has helped us put together official team racer/cheersquad Tshirts for the race! Ordering them today I hope! Thanks Momma!

Mush!

Indi and I got out on a run today at the BEAUTIFUL and snowy Pandapas Pond (about 10 min drive from Bburg.) I brought along Brice/Jay’s dog Tanner, who boldy helped flatten a path for Indi and I to follow. It was only about 3-4 miles, but it was great to get out and be pulled along! No wonder dogs aren’t allowed in marathons.

MUSH!!

A couple of nice (but cold) days in Blacksburg didn’t yield much in the realm of training, but it was some great hanging out with pals. Thanks be to Brice for having us to stay and supplying us with a hot tub! Great to spend some more QT with Scott and Katie as well as Philly D, and Brice (of course). This brings me back to points in my earlier blog…its always so nice to chill with Dan’s best friends – my surrogate siblings! Dan could really pic ‘em. Love you all!! It’s no surprise how nicely Gareth slots right in with these friends as I have no doubt that he and Dan would have gotten along ridiculously well.

ONE DAY LEFT TO VOTE FOR ACTIVE MINDS TO WIN $50K – PLEASE VOTE!

Above the neck? No worries mate!

I woke up feeling like I’m coming down with a bit of a head cold, but after seeing that the sun was actually out this morning I was keen to run in to Georgetown anyhow.

I did a quick query online to see what the experts say about running with a cold - the word is, if its above the neck then you’re good to go. So I went!

Great run. About 9 miles in about 1:10. I think it actually helped to kick the cold.

No time to write more – best be going to class!