Pancake Breakfast to Benefit the Red Arrows

Please join us on Sunday, June 7th from 8am to noon for a pancake breakfast fundraiser to benefit the local 32nd Brigade Red Arrow National Guard soldiers. The event is being held in the Fort Atkinson Municipal Building Gym. The menu includes pancakes, sausage, applesauce, milk, orange juice, and coffee. Prices are $5.50 for adults, $3.50 for children ages 3 to 10, and children 2 & under are Free.

All proceeds from the breakfast will go to the Family Readiness Groups (FRGs) of the 32nd Brigade. The FRGs use these funds to send care packages to the soldiers and for support and bonding events for the soldiers’ families.

Additionally, the Hot Rod Power Tour is passing through downtown Fort Atkinson the morning of June 7th on their way from Madison to Racine. We are anticipating that many of the tour participants will be stopping for breakfast. We are also hoping that the gathering of muscle cars will be another great reason for local people to come to our event.

Thank you so much to these area businesses for contributing to the breakfast: Badger Bank, Berres Brothers Coffee of Watertown, The Blackhawk Bar & Grill, Jones Dairy Farm, Kwik Trip of Fort Atkinson, McCain Foods, Opp Inc. Print Shop, Pick N Save of Fort Atkinson, and Vos Sentry Foods.

Thanks to all the wonderful volunteers that have agreed to help us with this event too!

You may download a flyer here. Feel free to pass it along & post it wherever you think appropriate. We hope that we will see you there!

We did it!!!

The Finish Line
Kelly finishing
Abby finishing
Kelly & Abby wearing the bracelets honoring Casey.
That's right, Abby & I finished the Madison Half Marathon! 13.1 miles -what an accomplishment for two non-runners ;) We couldn't have done it without all the support from people like you, so thank you!

On race day, the traffic was backed all the way up the ramps and down the beltline so we were just getting there when the starting horn blared. We did well for the first half of the race and stayed together. We even had a beer around the 8 mile mark! Why? Well there were some very enthusiastic spectators there handing out small glasses of beer similar to those being handed out with water & gatorade at the water stations. These people were just so excited & really wanted somebody to take the beer. We figured it was the least we could do since they got up bright & early to cheer us on ;) Besides, if you remember, we are not "real" runners so we can have fun & run.

Around mile 11 we were no longer having fun. It was getting pretty hard to start running after each water station. (We walked while drinking - another lesson learned - running while drinking from an open cup does NOT work). The worst part was probably between mile 12 and 12.5, we were cramping up and slowing down. But then we could see the finish line so after one more brief walk we headed for it. Of course they would put a hill just prior to the last stretch - evil route planner people - and then the downhill side had mounds of grass growing through the cracks in the pavement...why had this not been removed? Did these people not consider the fact that maybe some of us runners would barely be able to lift our feet off the ground at this point!?!?

The homestretch was exhilarating! We gathered an extra burst of energy and crossed the finish line. Official chip times were about 2 hours & 34 minutes. Not too bad for our first time out there and considering at least 15 minutes of time waiting in line for porta-potties. The lesson...find a tree or bush. Needless to say after finishing, we were relieved to be done running but not at all feeling up for Bratfest. And then the pain set in...I sit here, two days later, typing with a bag of frozen veggies on my ankle (and it's not even the originally injured ankle). Yet another lesson learned - tape everything!

We also had some generous donations come in this week. The first was from Michele B. - thanks so much for your support! And then Tom & Kate S. sponsored TWO miles!! They took Mile #19 to commemorate their May 19th anniversary date and Mile #22, which Tom declares from his personal experience, is the last "hard" mile when running a marathon. If you would like to sponsor a mile please let us know - we still have 19 left that need sponsors ;)

Thank you all for your support both monetarily and morally!!

Please take time to remember today...

Yes, Abby & I did run the Madison Half Marathon yesterday as planned & we promise to post pictures & details tomorrow, but today we'd like to focus on Memorial Day. This is an often overlooked & understated holiday that has gotten very little recognition by people of our generation. I myself am guilty of thinking of this as a big event for the VFW's and WW II/Vietnam Vets but that it has little to do with me.

This year Memorial Day is much more personal to me. As I sat through the ceremony in Edgerton, I cried. I cried because of the guilt I felt for not having more consideration of this holiday in previous years, I cried for the mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, brothers & sisters who had lost their loved ones in the service of our great country. And I cried for those currently protecting our freedoms, including my younger brother, Casey, and all the families who are missing their soldiers today.

Please take a moment from your day to remember all the brave soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms. And say thanks to the veterans you may meet throughout your day. Finally, please say a prayer for all the soldiers currently protecting us and their families for the sacrifices they are making for people like ourselves...people they don't even know!

God Bless America & God Bless our Service Members Past, Present & Future!!!

Papa Murphy's Fundraiser - Great Value!!!

We are currently selling Papa Murphy's Peel-a-Deal Cards to help us reach our goal of $3,200 (one dollar for each of the Red Arrow soldiers deployed in February) These cards are just $5.00 each. You will save $22.50-$27.50 depending on what pizzas you choose to order. They are good at any Papa Murphy's & they never expire!!!

We can mail them to you if necessary at no extra cost. Send us an e-mail if you are interested to running4redarrows@yahoo.com or mail a check to:

Running 4 Red Arrows
PO Box 432
Edgerton, WI 53534

There is no limit to the number of cards you can purchase so buy lots :) Seriously, they would make great year-end gifts for teachers & bus drivers, and how about in birthday cards for those hard-to-buy-for-people, who doesn't like pizza?!?! And remember they don't expire.

If you think you can sell a number of them to your friends/co-workers please let us know and we can send you out as many as you like and you can send the funds back to us once the cards have been sold.

Special thanks to Ryan at Papa Murphy's in Fort Atkinson who also made a generous donation to our cause and hooked us up with this phenomenal fundraiser.

Thank you all again for your support!

Runners we need your help!

Good news! I am recovering & was able to run 3 miles today. Not a significant distance but just being able to run without a terrible amount of pain is a success.

As promised in the last entry, we have a way for other runners to help us in reaching our goal. You will see a pledge sheet for the Madison Half-Marathon above. If you are planning to run in this event and would be willing to collect pledges to support Running 4 Red Arrows, please print off a pledge sheet. Then just solicit sponsors for your run & collect the pledges. Mail the form & money to us by June 19th and we will take care of mailing out thank you notes to all your donors. Are you running another event? We can make a custom pledge sheet just for you and your event.

Are you not a runner but would like to help? Print off a pledge sheet and write in Kelly Crandall or Abby Freeman in the Athlete section and your info. in the Supporter section. Take the pledge sheet to work, school, meetings, etc. and gather sponsors on our behalf.

Any sponsorship you/we can get would be so helpful in reaching our goal. As you may have heard, the Red Arrows have now arrived in Kuwait and will soon be on their way to Iraq. Within the next month they will be established at their base and the Family Readiness Groups will be ready to start shipping out care packages so let's get those donations coming in!!!

Ouch!

Hi everyone! If you have been logging in to check our training logs you will see that I have no new mileage :( I tried to run the Monday after the Crazylegs & my ankle was shot! I'm guessing it was from weaving in & out of people during the race...those aren't movements I practiced during my training runs but obviously I will have to do some conditioning now that I know the hazards of race day. I haven't been able to run all week & have seen a podiatrist who has recommended lighter training & some physical therapy. I do plan to try a short run today to test out my recovering limb.

Abby, on the other hand (or should I say foot), has been logging some serious miles since her return from visiting Casey in Texas. Regardless, she is still nervous about the upcoming half-marathon and so am I - please continue to wish us luck!

We would like to thank Lisa N. for her generous donation to the Running 4 Red Arrows cause - she, along with all the others who have already donated, are the reason we have been able to achieve $758.20 in funds so far. Donations have dwindled over the past few weeks so if you have been waiting to send yours in we'd love to get that thermometer bumping up again. Perhaps you could take up a collection at work to sponsor a mile or organize a bake sale to benefit our cause, get creative - anything you can do to help will be SO appreciated by the soldiers & their families. We had hoped to get halfway to our goal by the half-marathon...that means we need to more than double our current amount. We would need $841.80 by May 24th!! That is also Memorial Day Weekend - so what a tribute to our fallen soldiers if we could achieve that.

Runners - we have a fundraising opportunity for you - details will be posted by the end of this week so keep checking back or sign-up for our feed and the latest info will be sent right to your e-mail. Thanks everyone!