Thursday, January 25, 2007


Jesse Takes the Long Way Home

Last week, Jesse Zweig began a planned run to raise money for the Children’s Hospital of Orange County. The 18 year old from Lake Forest hoped to double his impressive 100 mile run of last May where he raised over $6000 for the hospital.
Photo OC Register
He began last Thursday, planning to run through several cities in Orange County along the same course he covered in May in under 24 hours. This time he would take two laps in an effort to raise $20, 000 for CHOC. You can read the OC Register article here.
I can’t help but be in awe of these kinds of goals. When I was a high school cross country runner I thought 8 miles was a really long run. It’s only as I’ve matured that distance seems a more intriguing goal. Apparently Jesse was inspired by Dean Karnazes, and that isn’t surprising. Many of Dean’s long solo runs have also included a goal of raising money for charity. I couldn’t confirm it, but one website did say that Dean joined Jesse for part of his 200 mile attempt.
Although Jesse was forced to quit after 124 miles, I would say his event was a huge success. Jesse did a lot of things right, and he still managed to raise quite a bit of money for CHOC. (The numbers are unconfirmed, but it seems certain that he raised at least $10,000) I applaud him for being smart enough to have a good support crew, and to give that crew the power to make the decision as to whether he should continue to run or not. As it turned out, they decided he should not continue due to sore blistered feet and low temperatures. You can read another article about his finish here.
Great job Jesse! I for one can't wait to hear about your next fundraising adventure.

2 comments:

  1. My name is Robert Key and I am a runner from Houston, Texas. I saw your blog listed when I was looking through the RBF directory and very much enjoyed reading some of your entries. I have a web site at http://www.faithfulsoles.com that is inspirational stories for walkers, runners and athletes of all ages and abilities, and from what I can tell in your blog, this type of information is something you will appreciate. A new feature I have recently added to the site is a categorized and searchable Running Blog Database where members of my site can find a blog of interest to them based on other walkers, runners or athletes of similar abilities, goals and interests. To my knowledge it is the only one of its kind specifically for walkers and runners on the internet. I would appreciate it if you would take a moment to put a link to your blog in our Running Blog Database. Just click on "Link your running blog" under "Free Features" from the home page. If you want to learn more about my running background, just click on "Meet Robert" from the main menu , or to learn more about my involvement in the running community, click on "Faithful Soles in the news" in the left column under "Weekly Features". I also have a blog that I just started at http://faithfulsoles.blogspot.com, but most of my running information is on my web site. Also, if there is anyone else in your blogger network that you think would be interested in listing their blog, please feel free to pass this information along to them. Thanks and continued good luck in your training

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  2. Hey, nice to see you back to blog world since like AR50 last year? How did Death valley go for you? You have wondeful options this year, I am looking forward your reports and stories!

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