Newspaper article

Last week I had an interview with a reporter from the Lufkin Daily New about Journey of Hope. I was hoping that I could get some extra support and publicity from the resulting story and so far it's done just that. The folks at the newspaper were great and put my article on the front page, which was great. Because of it, I've had a lot of people send in checks or write to me just to express their support, which I truly appreciate. Anyways, the article can be viewed here:
http://www.lufkindailynews.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/05/19/PUSH_America.html
I hope everyone enjoys it.

Closing in...

Hey guys, right now I'm about three weeks away from catching my plane to San Francisco and right now everything's happening about a hundred miles an hour. Both my fundraising and fitness goals are within reach but there's still a lot of work left to be done before I leave Lufkin. Right now I'm trying to squeeze an entire three month summer into a month before I have to leave, which means I'm working, training, fundraising, and catching up on all the sleep I missed out on during the school year. It's been hectic but I'm always happy when I'm busy so things have been good.
Right now the toughest part has been taking care of all the administrative stuff that has to be done. Part of that includes paperwork like turning in medical releases and whatnot and part of it involves making lots and lots of phone calls. Phone calls to the airline about shipping my bike, phone calls to friends about fundraising, phone calls to relatives about getting addresses, the list goes on. Luckily, my mom has been a huge source of help and support throughout all this. If it were up to me, I'd just hop on a bike and go, so having her around has been instrumental to me actually getting to the starting line. Hopefully I can take it from there.
Training has been going well. I've been swimming, running, and biking to stay in shape for the start of the Journey. I also try and work out with my old high school soccer team whenever possible but I've been working a lot so I haven't really had much of an opportunity. I went and lifted weights with them last Tuesday and between the workout and the heat I was just about ready to give out. It's so much more humid in Lufkin than Fort Worth that it definitely takes some getting used to.
Journey of Hope has given me something to work towards again though. In high school, every lap I ran and every weight I lifted was done with the sole purpose of bringing me one step closer to beating The Woodlands and Conroe and College Park. After soccer ended, I still did my best to stay in shape, but it's a lot harder to push yourself to the absolute limit when your only goals are staying fit and winning intramural games. I've always thrived off a challenge and Journey of Hope has given me something well worth working towards.
I guess that’s just what I have to keep telling myself. Sometimes things get difficult, during training or when all I went to do is relax and enjoy my summer but I have to make calls and send letters instead. But I suppose at the end of the day, the best thing I can do is be constantly reminded of what I'm doing this for. Thanks for reading; hopefully I'll be able to update again soon.