Lakeway/Lake Travis Rotary /Shelterbox

Way to go Team we did it. The race is finished but not the mission. Our original goal was to raise enough money to house 10 people after a disaster with Shelterbox kits. We currently have pledges to house 30 people with Shelterbox's kits. So why isn't the mission finished? I think no I know that we have more in us!

I hate to keep moving the finishing line further away but when you signed up for the Marathon des Sables you knew it was going to be longer than imagined. Yet I was so very surprised and humbled by a  generous $1500.00 donation from the Lakeway/Lake Travis Rotary Foundation. I thought we have more in us so I would like to see us get 40 people maybe 50 people sheltered from our efforts. Note we will never meet the people that will benefit from our effort.  The lesson of Karma is strong. Please note just during the short period we were running the MDS Shelterbox deployed to Fiji, Western China, Uganda, and Mexico. Shelter box gives to those who have nothing but the clothes on their back. One day their live is good the next they have nothing. It is very humbling when a 6 year old boy gives up his ice cream money to our cause. Thanks Brogan! Also a sincere thanks to all to those who have given not only money but more so spiritually. I am humbled by it all.

Send a symbolic $1.00 dollar to Lakeway/Lake Travis Rotary Foundation
Lakeway/Lake Travis Rotary Club ~
P.O. Box 341841
Lakeway, TX 78734.

Memo Shelterbox

Stage 3 Marathon des sables Part 1

I had just left checkpoint 2 only stopping long enough to fill up my water bottle and change socks. The last leg had been a bad one for my feet as in out of nowhere 5 blisters have popped up. I blamed it on myself for doing  a bad sock change. The blisters are mainly between the toes and just bothersome. The heat has crept up steadily and is now north of 120 degrees fortunately there is no wind. I would hate to have had some wind cooling me down and miss out on the hottest temperatures of the whole MDS. The ipod is playing in my ears and provides a good distraction to the stunning heat. I start off the leg jogging then walking using a run walk startegy with a ratio of 80% walk and 20% run. That quickly becomes a 99% to 1% run / walk survival mode. On this section there is a lot of support vehicle activity going on with the Doc Trotters medics staying very busy. There are places along the route that a vehicle can get to and with this heat a lot of people are getting zapped. I go through a little grove and pop out the other side to find a Brit standing off to the side looking confused and holding his flare. I quickly jog over to him and inquire what is up? He replies,"I can't get my flare into my pack." I say"No worries I thought you were going to shot the thing. Let me help you" Relived that this guy is not about to pop his flare. I push it down into an outside pocket it is tight but after a struggle it goes in. I pat him on the back and say "Good luck mate" off I go. There is only about 5 miles left in the stage and despite the heat I am going along well. Life throws stuff at you never when it is expected but usually on a Tuesday afternoon out of the blue. I am feeling grand despite my feet's new blister friends. I am thinking just be patient and finish this leg keep enjoying the day. I need a drink so time to hydrate so this heat doesn't take me. I reach back and grab nothing my water bottle is gone.

Victory Party

Please come join us for our final 5 mile walk. We will be starting at the Lakeway Inn at 6pm and returning at approximately 7:30. After the walk, we will be overtaking the balcony area at Josie’s Bar, at the Lakeway Inn, to enjoy good friends, toast Tim, and submit our donations. Whether you walked or not, this will be the event you don’t want to miss if you want to show your support for Tim and his causes.


We will meet in the upper parking lot on the left as you come into the Lakeway Inn.

If you are not able to walk, please join us for the Party!

We will also have a shorter (2 mile) route set up for those who would like to walk less. These will be strategic walkers than can go to Josie’s Bar ahead of the crowd to save spots.

The Rotary Foundation has agreed to match our donations up to $1500. Please help us help them reach their pledge.

If you can't attend, please send your donations by mail to:
Lakeway/Lake Travis Rotary Club ~
P.O. Box 341841
Lakeway, TX 78734.

Checks payable to: Lakeway/Lake Travis Rotary Foundation ~ memo: Shelter Box USA

Thanks,

Robert Leonard

Last desert message from Tim

Greetings from the desert final camp woke up this morning at 545 the berbers came by with coffee and croissants we then mossied over to start line sang happy birthday and as we departed they blared ac/dc highway to hell.you can watch the finish on webcam tomorrow morning I should finish between 5 to 8am your time.love to melinda I picked up a pretty rock and carried it with me for her that is love.out here you cannot give away gold krugerands if people have to carry.thanks to erich schlegel and theira I looked at my sleeve today and thought how lucky I was.croc score 4.we cannot wait to take on the highest dunes in north Africa tomorrow.it will be a test and we will kill it.feet are ok wrapped and ready to go love to all send emails to regular address now


Love to my queen and kids I think I might have lost some weight on this one and plan on keeping it off.only a half k tomorrow todays marathon I just cruised and ran just a few flats.the long day second half we worked hard through the night we passed a couple of hundred people and no one passed me and magnus.we were on fire through solid 15 to 20 miles of talcum powder non stop dunes it was dune after dune after dune thanks again for the support



Love to all
 
Also note that distances mentioned in previous post are actually km not miles. ~ Robert

Stage 5

Tim finished today’s 42.2 km stage in position 787 with a time of just under 9 hours. So far he has run/walked/crawled 229 km. 21 km to go! Should be a piece of cake.

It looks like e-mail communication has been closed so you will have to send him telepathic messages through his secret agent weiner dog Margarita. This is a free service she provides but not guaranteed.

Don't forget to join us tomorrow at the Lakeway Inn at 6pm for the final walk. If you cant walk, come to the Victory Celebration at 7:30 at the Lakeway Inn Bar. Bring you checkbook and giving spirit.

Thanks,

Robert

Day 4

Day 4 consisted of 2 back to back marathons for a total of 54 miles. Competitors had 2 full days to complete this stage but not Tim, he ran all night and finished in just under 22 hours at around 7 this morning. This gave him the luxury of lounging around all day licking his wounds. Below is his latest message.

i felt your hands lifting the pack when i needed it last night. liz get some rest for you must be tired from pushing me up so many dunes. the second 26 miles was just endless dunes. an emptier pack just means you can carry more water so no less weight. resting all day! finished at 7 am after 22 hour push. the dunes are like talcum powder croc scale 9. love to all and thanks for the emails they give us all inspiration. love you melinda tim, elissa and friends thought about all of you last night more than once.#




cheers and love tim.

going slow tomorrow.

Day 3

Tim ended today's 40 km (25 mile) leg of the race in position 835 with a time of 9 hours 17 minutes. Tomorrow's leg is 54 miles and should prove to be extremely challenging. Below is his latest correspondence:

~"tomorrow no email 54 mile stage. body great feet hurt. songs today melinda you are my queen, lady n red, bnl mil dollars, freebird c of 78, no glasses again sorry, lubbock girl did miles for you, thanks for the emails the do keep us going, i felt a lot of power out there today, do not worry about stage times tomorrow i plan on holeing up midday, liz yes pop is with me in fact i brought some of his ashes along for the ride. tomorrow is your day and i will do my best today everyone had a hard go. did a short interview on the dunes yesterday mentioned shelter box and rotary, 2 kiwis 1 aussie 1 canada 2 us in my tent all great guys. you can not give away krugerands to anyone to carry the terrian is rough. the good part is hell only comes between 12 and 4. the desert is beautiful. well keep the emails coming they are the highlight of our day. tomorrow the race begins and i should move up as i am strong and max heart rate only 143 for a few seconds, love to melinda, e, t and freinds. cheers~"

Stage 2 ~ Report from correspondent Tim Osburn

love u melinda, another great day. thanks for the emails the help a bunch fyi email letter count limited, thanks melinda read my sleeve check on everything mentioned, heat was amazing but i am doing great with it hbpm max was 149 on 700 meter climb to day. steve d thanks for the performance coaching tips, fire in the gut shirt rocks, first two checkpoints fantastic then a long black rock flat from 2 to 3 i saw a lot of peoprle suffering but no worries the heat is no problem for me. my training paid off. So many great athletes here it makes ur heart break when someone flares out. dont have glasses on thus the spelling errors. today i walked across the desert with jesus it was nice he lives in florence italy. nearly pulled my flare last night in tent because i was laughing so hard at one of the aussies mick jokes. we all had tears in my eyes. mick pulled out today love to all feeling way to darn good/ i feel the support so much. love to all

Message from the Desert

Last night no email as a sand storm was blowin during email hours.


Melinda I love you and the kids. The event started this morning witrh a lot of fan fare and such more details to come. I finsihed todays stage in 5 hours and some 50 minutes with a 27lb pack to start but each day it will get lighter. The country side is beautiful to say the least. The weather was magnificent I do not know how hot but it was hot. This is expected naturally. Everyone in our tent which is number 130 has made it through and amazingly at this time there has been only 3 abandons which is great. I am looking forward to tomorrows stage but will go slower. I can not tell you enough on fabulous this experience is.  With that being said I can tell you I felt the power of the whole group back home and that is a solid fact. Love you and no worries I will most assuredly live Croc score 5. Out of words per email limited and alot of people waiting in line 2 talk to love ones. Cheers

Day 1

After studying the official race web site, I am able to conclude that the following race results may or may not be accurate due to my lack of fluency in the French language.


As far as I can tell, today’s stage was 29 km (17.4 miles).

Tim started in position 719 at 9:10am.

He went through check point 1 at 11:28am in position 666.

Checkpoint 2 at 1:29pm in position 830.

Checkpoint 3 at 2:56pm in position 803.

Total race time of 5 hours and 46 minutes.

Way to go Tim!

Right now, he should be sleeping like a baby on a camel hair carpet in the sand.

We will be walking another 5 miles tomorrow starting at 5pm at the Emmaus Church. Please join us if you can. Today we had 14 loyal walkers that I know of. Please keep it up and thanks for participating. It meens a lot to Tim and his causes.

Support for Tim and his Causes

Please join us in supporting Tim Osburn as he competes in the ultimate test of tests, the Marathon Des Sables, in Morocco. He will be running/walking/crawling for 7 days and 150 miles across the Saharan Desert, not only to test himself, but to raise awareness for two very worthy causes, Shelter Box USA and Rotary International.


http://www.shelterboxusa.org/
http://www.rotary.org/

To show our support, we will be walking on the days that Tim is walking and donating to his causes based on our mileage. The idea is for each person to walk 5 miles per day and donate at least $1.00 per mile that he/she walks. If you can’t walk, donate. If you can’t donate, walk. If you can’t do either, help spread the word.

The race begins this Sunday (April 4th) and ends next Saturday (April 10th). We are planning on meeting at pre determined places in the Lakeway area in the evenings so that we can all walk together. If you can not make it, no problem, this is not a regimented event, you can walk on your own. The goal is to make a commitment, test yourself as Tim is, and support these causes in the process. Tim will be averaging 21.428571 miles per day, we can do 5.

On the final day, Saturday, April 10th, as Tim finishes the race, we will end our last 5 miles with a nice and sweaty but relaxing party at Carlos 'n Charlie's. There we will relish in our accomplishment, enjoy good friends, and open our hearts and wallets to these worthy causes. If you are a donation only supporter, please join us for the fun.

I also encourage you to involve your kids in this event. This is something that they all can do, physically and monetarily, that will give them a good taste of commitment and charity.

Please reply to the e-mail below if you are willing to take on this “monumental” challenge. I’ll put you on the list for locations/updates.

Robert@moderndb.com

Thanks,
Robert Leonard