Armed Forces Run
I hope you’re all enjoying a beautiful New Year in Ohio with the fresh snow and easy to count temperatures (AKA – it’s cold and snowy and not a lot of fun to run in.) We’re all getting lots of miles in on the dreadmills and trainers, and that’s the only option for some of us. Tread on.
We’re all getting lots of miles in on the dreadmills and trainers, and that’s the only option for some of us. Tread on. We can use those mills and miles for a higher calling here in the next few weeks, as we have the unique opportunity to show our support for our Service Men and Women overseas with our feet.
An HFP Racing alumni and Ohio resident (when he’s not deployed) is the Race Director for a brand new race, and HFP Racing has been asked to help sponsor it. The 1st Annual Armed Forces 5K and 10K Run at a US Military Installation in SouthWest Asia (security concerns prohibit disclosing the exact location) will be held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day (18 January in milspeak). Suffice it to say that they are NOT getting snow and single digit temperatures, and they want to race! HFP Racing provided the artwork for the race (see the picture/flyer below), the T-shirts, and some other support material. Open ONLY to military personnel on the base and a few of their support staff, it’s a chance for the deployed guys and gals to get out and forget PT for a while and just enjoy running a friendly race with their buddies. That difference is something that we all take for granted, as running is a sport and enjoyable to us; where it’s a required part of daily life for them. That difference is critical. We have the chance here to help make this as much fun for them as possible – so we’re going to try and make it feel like a hometown race.
Shannon and I volunteered to jump a plane to the race site to announce for race day, but that request was quietly and quickly pushed aside. Hey – for me it’s a chance to get out of the cold AND be part of those uniforms again. I’ll go- but they passed on that idea…something about a “power to weight ratio” with me on the flight over being way too expensive. So we’re going to do the next best thing: we’re going to them “virtually”.
What I ask of you is below, feel free to do as little or as much as you like. In the overall scheme of things this isn’t much on our part, and this certainly doesn’t go very far in saying “thanks” for all they do for us; but it is a little something, and we hope it counts for a little.
We’ve drawn up flyers (see below) to place in our local gyms, treadmill spots, training rooms, running clubs, and more – so that we can participate with them. It’s roughly 6700 miles from Shelby, Ohio (our RDs hometown) to the race site in SW Asia, so we’re trying to “Connect” with them in treadmill miles from Ohio. Just jump on the HFP Racing Facebook or Twitter and pledge to run your “connecting miles” between now and 18 January. With any luck and a little sweat we can connect with them even if we can’t be there. I’ll take the first 20 miles…and I start tonight. In Findlay, a few of the “running spots” (Gym by Jamie, LifeStyles for Ladies, and others) have already put up signs by the treadmills and are tracking the mileage on the mills, putting it ALL towards connecting the Armed Forces Run to Ohio.
HFP Racing will produce the intro, instructions, pre-race meeting, and all the details into an audio recording that they can simply “plug-n-play” at race time. That’ll get them started. We need your help with the rest. We’d like to ask those that wish to jump out and record an audio greeting for the racers. Make it personal – and make it quick. We’ll pull them all together and put them in a file for broadcast on race day during and post race.
They are also on a shoestring budget, so there are no medals for any of the finishers…yet. Maybe it means something to them, maybe it doesn’t, but I would gladly send one or two of mine over so they get “something”. ** Update – all we had to do was ask. Shannon and Jen went to the Prize Trailer and dug out 300 medals from various races in 2009 – so EVERY PARTICIPANT will get a medal at this year’s Armed Forces Run! How good will that picture look with an HFP Racing medal around the neck of every Sailor, Airman, Soldier, and Marine? I can’t wait to see it!
So get out there and start running your connecting miles – we need 6700 miles to connect Ohio to SW Asia as quickly as we can get them. Then when you’ve caught your breath, drop a .wav greeting to the racers at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (PLEASE get them to us early so we can compile and get back to them for race day) . They tell me that they hope we recognize their love, loyalty, and honor as they serve us – and this is our chance to let them know we recognize it, and we appreciate it!
Can’t wait to hear from you – for their race day!
Rich
