Silly Marine?
OWB alerted me to this a while ago, but I didn’t keep track.
My name is Jamie Summerlin and I’m a 39-year-old former Marine from West Virginia.
On March 26, 2012, I will start a 100-day cross country run as a fundraiser to support my fellow military members through the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) and other Veteran’s organizations. It’s going to take 30-40 miles a day to complete the run, starting in Coos County, Oregon, where my wife is from, and finishing on July 4, 2012 in Annapolis MD, a total of just over 3300 miles.
Everyone I have talked to has said I am slightly insane, but they support me 100%. My wife is behind me completely as well, which makes this all the more possible.
OWB and her crowd helped him move through her patch in Charleston and now I have to get organized to, at least, cheer him on.
Looks like overnight stops are planned for Gassaway, Jane Lew, and Morgantown. if I can find him I WILL have pictures.
Minor update: I’m aiming for Jane Lew this Saturday.
Category: Geezer Alert!, Marine Corps, Military issues
I don’t know why he calls himself a former Marine. I mean, once a Marine always a Marine right?
I did consider that… Having dealt with Murtha, and being a sailor, I can’t claim to understand the details.
His cause is just.
Daily totals, absolutely amazing:
http://www.runforwwp.com/map_daily.php
Just spent a couple of hours with Jamie and Tiffany. Well, me and a few friends. 😉
He is planning a slight delay before leaving Jane Lew – seems he has committed to a 5K run (at Burnsville?) before departing for Morgantown!
Also, anyone in the Morgantown area, those plans are firming up and should be posted tomorrow, or shortly after.
Bought a T-shirt, too! They and hats will be linked at the website shortly in case anyone else wants one. And met a man whose business partner have pledged a dollar for every mile that Jamie runs, down to the 1/10th mile so wants an accurate accounting! Nice pledge indeed.
Got the impression that the guy making the shirts is donating them? At least he had me give my T-shirt money directly to Tiffany and took none of it or from the others ordered tonight. Dunno – will check on that one further. That may well have been a one-time good deal?
Morning all.
Getting ready to step off again shortly for today’s run, and wanted to throw a couple things out real quick.
On the former Marine thing, I’ve had people mention it…very few, but it’s been mentioned. I’ll not argue semantics with people. The web developers took initial drafts and worded them as you see them. I know the whole once a Marine Always a Marine thing, but I wasn’t offended, and haven’t lost an ounce of sleep over it. My wife, a “former Marine” herself (you see what I did there?) and I have way too many things to deal with on this trip than to fight with our web folks to get little things changed when in the grand scheme of things, it means very little compared to what we are tackling every day.
The schedule is as follows.
Thursday: Gassaway to Burnsville, my hometown, crossing the 3000 mile mark on my way in
Friday: Burnsville to Jane Lew
Saturday: return to Burnsville for Wounded Warrior 5k at 9, leave at 11, drive back to Jane Lew for marathon to Clarksburg, stopping at VA hospital on way through
Sunday: clarksburg to Morgantown, welcome ceremony at Memorial park on waterfront by waterfront jeep at 4pm
Hope to meet you again OWB! I believe we figured out who are…let us know next time.
The shirts and hats are being made in the USA and, and all proceeds get thrown into the pot for the final donations to WWP, Operation Welcome Home, and VetConnection, the organizations we are raising money for. The donation of a dollar per mile is phenomenal, and shows that people believe in what I’m doing, because this is all for the true heroes. I’m just a regular guy, trying to do something for people I consider way more extraordinary than myself.
Semper Fi!
Jamie
Jamie:
Well done, fella. Any chance of getting a mailing address for folks who might want to donate via mail?
Jamie: disregard – poked around and found the address to donate on the site ( http://www.runforwwp.com/support_donate.php ).
Thanks, Jamie! What you are doing is terrific and we are very proud of you.
There will probably be some of the posters here in Morgantown. And a few of our friends here and there as you finish your tour.
Oh, and think “Air Force.” Yep, that was me. And thank Tif for putting up with my story-telling. Just my way of telling her how proud I am of her, too. But, I did bend her ear a bit. (No snide comments, Zero!)
Okay, one or two marathons a YEAR was more than enough for me, yet you’re running the equivalent of one and change EVERY DAY?
Hey, nobody ever accused Marines of being overly bright, but damn, good on ya, Jamie. Watch that heat coming in the next couple of days–that’s gonna SUCK running in 90-plus heat.
Semper Fi!
We kind of got distracted what with power outages, high temps and general discontent, but JAMIE FINISHED HIS RUN!!! On schedule. THEN he added an extra 100 miles in under 24 hours, taking him into his 16th state and to the Atlantic Ocean for the big finish.
He should by now be back in his own home, resting just a bit before updating everything.