Tin Cup Challenge Marathon - July 18th, Driggs, ID

My Marathon goals:

Last resort goal = 3:30:00
Most realistic goal = 3:15:00
Best case "begin my Olympic training" goal = 3:00:00

Actual finishing time: 3:14:45

I ran 23 miles with my buddy Chris until I began to fade a bit and he moved on ahead crossing the line in first place a couple minutes before me. Second place earned me this golf tournament-style check worth $195 "Charity Bucks" to go towards the charity(ies) of my choice. The top three men and women in each race were awarded these checks

Every small town should organize an event like this. It works! And here's how:

Most small towns have fairly close knit communities whose residents are, for the most part, genuinely concerned for the health and welfare of their area. Alot of times, there's not enough funding available to keep some of the community programs running let alone allow new programs to pop up. Funding special interest, non-profit organizations that take care of hospitals, schools, development, refuse and recycling, trails and pathways, animal shelters...etc., can be very difficult. Many of these programs cannot be funded by the government because the pool of taxpayers paying in is so small and oftentimes, the area being serviced in a rural area is quite large so the costs are increased even more.

Solution?

Organize a community non-profit group to put on a running event in the center of town on a Saturday morning. Contact all the local non-profit groups and create a list of all the groups that would like to be able to receive donations. (C'mon, who would turn that down?) Contact all the local businesses (or individuals) who would like to act as sponsors of the event and who will donate money up front to be pooled into a "Matching Fund". On the entry forms, people can sign up for whatever event they would like: 5k fun run/walk, or competitive 5k, 10k, half-marathon, or even a full marathon if possible. The key is, something for everybody. Each person's entry fee goes toward the cost of putting on the race. They have the ability to also choose a non-profit group from the list to donate additional money to. Any money donated by the people signing up for an event is then matched by the "Matching Fund". And all the participating non-profits are required to provide the event with a certain number of hours of volunteer work to help advertise, organize, and run the event (such as course set-up, traffic control, aid stations, start/finish control). Perfect, right? Then each participating non-profit has a tent set up during the event so people can learn more about the organization, if they'd like. Perfect, right?

Everybody wins. And I'll have to wait until the final numbers from today's event are tallied, but judging by the masses of people that turned out, I'm sure it exceeded most everyone's expectations. I know it did mine.