First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! It has been a week since I last wrote, but I'll try to do it more regularly over the next month. (I'm aiming at posting twice a week).

Well, I have officially crossed 3,600 mile mark for the year (1,213 running and 2,436 walking). I have also done over 7,000 miles in the last 23 months. In honor of Thanksgiving I am going to provide a list of 26.2 things I am thankful for.

Welcome to 24901Experiences. Now that life has finally slowed down a bit, I am getting around to launching my website and blog to chronicle my adventures on the way to completing my goal of walking/running around the world over 10 years (~8 years to go). While this goal in itself is worth documenting, it is another upcoming adventure that spurred the creation of this site. 

This past summer, I decided to sign up for the 2015 World Marathon Challenge. The challenge is truly a race around the world that involves running 7 marathons, on 7 continents, in 7 consecutive days. Yes, you read that correctly - 7 days or 168 hours from the time we begin our first marathon in Union Glacier, Antarctica. In all, there will be 12 participants competing in the first World Marathon Challenge. The participants are from all over the world, with myself being the lone representative from the US. From many discussions about the race over the last few months, I know there are a ton of questions that people have. I won't try to answer them all today, but will do so over the next 50+ days before departing for Antarctica. For now, I'll start with two:

Why are you doing the World Marathon Challenge?
This is the nice way of people asking, "Are you crazy?" I am not crazy, but this doesn't make answering the "why" any easier. There isn't a logical reason, other than to challenge myself both mentally and physically, to prove that an average person like me, can do something that most people believe is impossible. I don't view the challenge as impossible, I view it as something that I can tackle with preparation and mental will power, to keep pushing on despite the inevitable pain I am sure to encounter.

Are you raising money for anything?
I am in fact raising money to support The V Foundation for Cancer Research. Similar to the ambitious goal of completing the World Marathon Challenge, I have set an ambitious but achievable goal of raising $77,777 to support cancer research. The "Donate" page on this site contains more details about my goal, the foundation, and how you can support me by donating.

Before signing off on this first post, I want to thank everyone that has already shown me support in one way or another.  Please continue to reach out, as I can always use words of encouragement or running/walking buddies.