Running (good news)

A little fundraising for Harris/Walz

A week ago I announced a fundraiser: a friend and I are going to run a half-marathon in September, so 13.1 miles, and we hoped to raise $13,100 for the Harris campaign. This was also meant to encourage physical well-being and exercise and in particular to get me back into shape after injury.

A couple of things have happened since then.

Number one. We reached and surpassed the goal I set very quickly.

I just now looked for the first time at the email address I set up for people who wished to report their donations (timothysnyder13100@gmail.com), and at the comment section of that post. Hundreds of you made donations that total $29,470. (This is a minimum figure, since some of you told me that you donated but did not disclose an amount.)

This was wonderful to see. We more than doubled the initial goal in a week — and the race is still six weeks away!

I replied to a few of you, and wish I could reply to you all individually! But it was touching to read your kind words and sense the excitement that many of you feel about this candidate — and now this ticket.

Number two. Vice-President Kamala Harris has introduced Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.

I think that this was an excellent decision, on many grounds, and makes for an interesting and powerful ticket. In all the rush of information about Governor Walz, it might have escaped your attention that the man is a runner.

Less than three years ago he ran a 10k in 52:32 (8:28/mile pace). He ran a one-mile race in 6:33 six years ago, when he was 54, and the same distance in 6:17 nine years ago. At about the same time, so when he was 51, he ran a half-marathon in 1:47:24, which is 8:12 pace.

Governor Walz would never boast, I’m sure, but those are pretty good times! It’s fair to say that he could (at the time of those one-mile races) beat 99% of American males in a one-mile race. The half-marathon time is comfortably in the top 10% of men in his age group who compete at that distance (which is, of course, already quite a small percentage of the population).

So I have two announcements to make.

1. The half-marathon we are running in September is a hilly affair on trails through woods. Please do not expect a Walz-like pace. The person who runs a 1:47 on this particular half-marathon course might well win the thing. I will be coming in much slower than that. I am aiming to finish it and tell the tale! That’s all.

2. Kamala Harris’s running mate, though, needs not only to finish but to help her to win this election. In appreciation of the rapid doubling of our original goal, and in honor of Tim Walz’s nomination, I am going to raise the goal of this fundraiser to $39,300 as a stage two — 13.1 x 1000 and now x 3. So please imagine three half marathons, the two that we will do, and giving credit to Governor Walz for one of his as well.

Please chip in! (And, if you do, please post your receipt on timothysnyder13100@gmail.com or in the comments section of this post).

And please share with friends and runners. Thank you!

PS I also want to thank all of the non-US citizens who cannot donate but who shared words of support!