I recently joined an organization down here in Austin called Racing for the Trail. They’re a non-profit set up to help fund another non-profit that I’m involved with, the Town Lake Trail Foundation. Basically, we are trying to raise money to fund the upkeep and development of the 10 mile running trail that circles Lake Austin, right in the heart of downtown. This includes trail extensions, erosion control, bathroom and water fountain construction, and other projects that help make the trail nicer and more accessible to everyone.

The idea behind RFTT is that local Austin racers, such as myself, are asking people to sponsor us a certain dollar amount for every mile that we race during the course of the racing year. You can pledge any amount that you choose, and even put a cap on it in case I turn into a racing fool. Full disclosure: I’ve already done about 20 race miles so far this year, and will probably do on the order of 110 more before the end of the season.

Now, like many racers, I’m sending this out to my local friends, family members, and businesses. However, just for grins, I thought that I’d at least post it out here. Please don’t feel like you need to give anything, or that you should just because I’m asking. Take a look at the organizations and, if you want to, come on down to Austin and take a run along the trail! If you feel that this is something that you’d like to support (in a probably-tax-deductible manner), I’d appreciate it if you’d use this form:

http://www.racingforthetrail.org/donor.asp?which=joinForm

Choose “Stanford, Richard” from the racer list at the top, and fill out the remainder of the information accordingly. I very much appreciate any support that you care to give. This trail is a part of what makes Austin such a great place to run, and I try to support it however I can both financially and with my time; I hope that some of you will choose to join with me to help them out.

By the way: my next race is a 10K on October 3rd. You can see my full upcoming schedule on the main page sidebar, just underneath the calendar.

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