Early Morning Rust
After having started the first day a little later than typical with the send off, we had much too little time to sleep at the hotel. Although we actually did sleep about 5 hours, instead of feeling rested at all, it felt more like that half-dead feeling that typically accompanies an all-nighter. Even the free waffles and juice didn’t do much to wake me up. It took a good hour before I was able to finish my sentences with more than a slur or grunt.

We packed up the vans and headed out for our next leg of the relay to Lawrence, KS. On the way to the road, we stopped to fill up our gas tanks. While waiting for the fill up, the guys and I took our chance to stretch the stiffness out of our legs. Frankly, even the 20 minutes I spent stretching didn’t do much good. As soon as they finished paying for the gas, we headed off to the starting point.

It’s Business Time
Nathan began the day off for us again. To help with time and in consideration of the heat, we decided to cut the number of miles ran at one time down to 4 miles. This was implemented with the idea that less miles at once would equate to faster splits, making the overall time it took to complete the day faster. Even with the splits shortened, the day felt pretty regular…until our first unexpected visitor came by.

Right after Matt gave the baton off to Adam, the guys in the other van popped out to show me the newest honorary member to the team, Lamon (Lay-Mon). A bad twist on my middle name La’Mon, Lamon the turtle became the team’s mascot for the 5 or so minutes we wouldn’t let him go. Just like any other member on the team, Lamon had his own super power, and his power was the ability to right himself when turned onto his shell! Realizing that we had to let Lamon get back to frolicking in the fields, the team packed back into the vans and let the turtle go.

A True Cross Country Experience
My first time to run didn’t come until the afternoon. Running at this time of day was nothing new to me; I’ve done it many times before. But back in Wichita, we don’t have these things called hills. The area near Lawrence certainly does. Actually, it has a lot of them. And when you add in the other horrible elements of the run, you get an equation sort of like this: Hills + heat + humidity = hard running. My leg of the run did end in success though, as I handed the baton off to Nathan so he could face the elements of nature as well.

Media Management
Nearing Lawrence, KS, the traffic picked up sharply, making the run too dangerous to continue. We decided to drive into Lawrence instead. Once there, the whole team got out to run. The commoners weren’t really sure what to do with us, as one man came outside his house angry that a few of us stepped on his very unkempt grass. If anything, we were doing him a favor. The reason we were in Lawrence was that we had scheduled interviews with the Lawrence Journal World and MTV. Both interviews were done in South Park (not the one with Kyle and Kenny, but an actual park). Here we introduced ourselves with the reporters, and I introduced myself to the cameras.

You can see an excellent article about us by Alex Parker on the Lawrence Journal World website here. We’ll keep you updated on the MTV video and article when it comes up.

A Friendly Welcome
Over the years, Matthew’s parents have met some pretty cool people. We stayed with some of their friends for a comfy and very inviting night. The couple were even nice enough to cook the team pasta and salad. For dessert, they handed over to us half gallons of ice cream and hot fudge topping that was FRESHLY MADE just for us. The welcoming atmosphere brought the “best” out of all of us, and the euphoria of food and fun lasted late into the night. Even with the lights out, the entire team was fully awake and quick to pull out the cameras for some wacky stills (that will NEVER be released). By the way, we met another cool animal at the house we boarded at for the night, and if you want to read up on this particular beast of the night, check out Chris Parker’s blog at www.catchitkansas.com.

Thanks for taking your time to read up on the team’s progress and remember to get the word out about us. Tell your friends and family to check both websites for updates and news about the team. But reading up on how the team is doing is not the only thing we would like you to do. Donations are always accepted. The more we can raise, the more people we can help save. And that’s really what this relay is about; not us the runners, but the families in Darfur that need our support to survive. Please donate today.

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The Beginning of a Wondrous Adventure
Yesterday was our first day on the road and one of the days I have most anticipated for the last half year.  We began with a wonderful Send-Off event from Kansas and ran the first 2 miles together.  From there, Nathan Alexander took over the first 4 miles of his leg while the rest of us stayed back to wait for the vans to catch up.  We had our first injury during that time; Aaron Gurley had an unfortunate collision with a drop-down TV screen in the car.  Not only will he have fond memories and many pictures from which he can remember this trip, but he will also have a permanent scar on the top of his head.

While we were loading the final things into the vans, Nathan was getting lost.  For about 30 minutes, we drove around east Wichita in search of Nathan.  We drove east along the route, we drove north along a different route, and we even drove the opposite direction towards California.  When all hope seemed lost (actually, we were laughing hysterically in the two cars about how we could lose somebody within 4 miles), Nathan called Jacob Heil’s mom who promptly relayed the message: “He’s at Cate’s house.”  Cate is a fellow cross country runner and, apparently, the only house Nathan can find.  We picked him up and Jacob took over for his 6 and we were finally on the open road.

On the Road
After leaving Wichita, we began what could possibly be the hottest part of our trip.  Jacob’s normally Spartan-esque nature quickly faded as the temperature rose above 90 degrees and the humidity was almost drenching.  Jacob fought through the heat and finished his 6 miles strong.  After him, Aaron Gurley began his 6 mile leg.  Unbeknown to him, we would soon lead him down a dead-end road and have to do some prompt recalculating to fix that misstep.

After barely avoiding the impending the end of the line way too early, Aarong handed off the baton to Kiet Tran.  Kiet ran his 6 and handed off to me and, even though I wasn’t running in the heat of the day, I can guarantee you that those 6 miles (roughly 45 minutes of running) were some of the most miserable minutes of my life.

The heat sapped my energy within minutes, the constant rolling hills of the area made my legs ache every uphill, and the humidity made me feel like I should’ve been breathing in water.  After what felt like an eternity, I passed the baton off to Adam Heil and promptly fell back into the car.  The next 30 minutes or so no longer exist in my memory.

I couldn’t be happier.

Lunch
We ate Subway for a late 2 p.m. lunch.  The general sandwich of choice was the Spicy Italian.  When you throw on some lettuce and Ranch dressing, you practically have a salad and a sub together!  After our short intermission, we took back to the roads for the most scenic part of our trip thus far: The Flint Hills.

In The Flints
Kiet had the great fortune to run through the amazingly beautiful Flint Hills.  The rolling hills were amazing and, even though the road we took wasn’t our original course, it turned out to be better than anything we could ask for.  Within minutes, we had pulled out our cameras and started snapping pictures and running the videos.  Even Kiet couldn’t resist the idea of running for a bit with a video camera.

Another interesting, but sometimes problematic, part of our Flint Hills’ stay was the free-roaming cows.  Sometimes, they would see us coming and begin running next to us in stride.  Other times, they would simply walk in front of the vehicles or runner and stop there to stare at us.  Needless to say, we eventually out stared them and they moved off the road.  Personally, I’ve never enjoyed a 3 mile run more.

Another Day Older, Another Day Of Leg Drains
We got to our hotel in Emporia, KS (an hour drive from Gridley, KS–our finishing point) around 11:30 pm.  There wasn’t much to say about that night as most of us quickly fell asleep, but the rooms were terribly warm, smelled like smoke (it was smoke-free?), and didn’t even have decent wireless internet!  The next morning came way too early, and again, we were off!

Visit us again tomorrow to see an entry by Adrian Love about Day 2 of our adventures with plenty of more fun pictures!  Day 2 was definitely crazier than Day 1.

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After a wonderful Send-Off event from East High School, we are off and on the road.  Finally, our 7 months of planning is paying off!  It’s amazing to think just how many people it has taken to pull this off: dozens of individual donors, thousands of dollars, at least 10 all-nighters, and a ton of motivation!

I would like to give a big thanks to Senator Donald Betts Jr., City Councilwoman Lavonta Williams, Interim Superintendent of Schools for USD259 Martin Libhart, and East Principal Ken Thiessen.  However, there’s some more important people I need to thank: the hundred or so people that came out to support us and the dozens that showed up an hour and a half early to give us a hand setting up.  I just can’t thank you all enough!

We are currently heading up the Butler County Line and Aaron Gurley is a little over halfway finished with his 6 mile leg.  I asked him if he had any words he wanted to say from the side of the car and, in his eternal wisdom, he said, “Word.”

It’s hot, but we knew what we were getting ourselves into.  Keep us in your thoughts and remember to tell all your friends!

In twelve hours my companions and I will begin our 1,300 mile journey halfway across the country.

In less than half a day, we will take our first steps toward Washington D.C. to raise awareness of genocide still occurring today and to raise funds for those poor souls caught in the midst of these atrocities.

Some may say, “Hey, what are you going to do? You’re only 19 years old! What can you possibly hope to achieve?” Well, myself along with my companions are about to show them what we can do. With over $20,000 of donations already received and all the media attention we’ve already been exposed to, we’ve shown people what we will do.

We know we have to take the initiative to change what’s happening in the world. I believe with every part of my being that one person can change the world in a drastic way. When one person speaks up, another will stand alongside and speak up, too. And then another and another until everyone starts to shout. And then we’ll yell. And then we’ll scream. And we’ll scream until we scream so loud that they’ll have no choice but to listen.

Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this endeavor thus far! Please spread the word about this relay to everyone you know and together we’ll change the world!

The past few months have been a wild ride as the Never Ignore, Never Forget relay has changed from a concept to a reality. Within the next two months, the eight of us on the relay team will push ourselves in training to reach our max capacity by June 2 and many of us will frequently spend nights sleepless pushing through the final bits of planning and fundraising.

Today marks the first day of our online presence. Many thanks to Julie VanMater for making the amazing layout of the website, our logo, and conceptualizing everything so well.