WE ARE OFFICIAL

Just a quick note to let everyone know that Know No Boundaries is now officially recognized by the IRS as a 501 (c)(3) non profit foundation.

After a year an a half of hard work, prayers & God's help, we are finally official.

Stay tuned for updates on how the foundation begins to grow & what events we will have to raise funds.

God Bless You & in life, "Know No Boundaries"

Ken Saveth
Managing Director

50 Miles for 50 Years

Sorry for the delay, but I have been out of the country; in Egypt. 50 years brings up images of some person who is half a century old & limited in their physical & mental abilities. As I constantly mention, most all boundaries are self set so by default, we limit our abilities in practically every way, financial, mental, emotional & physical. For my 50th birthday, I wanted to run 50 miles. It was well planned out & many friends participated in various capacities. K1 (aka Trail Zombie) & I had planned to start from his house near Turkey Mountain at 7 PM on July 10th, head down 71st Street across the Arkansas River to Riverside Drive. We would then head south & then @ 91st & Riverside, turn east & run out to Northeastern State University. Unfortunately it was still plenty warm & in the 90's. Kathy, Roman, Russel, Bobby & Marvin met us @ 96th & Riverside while Lenice started out with us from the start & Craig joined in @ 71st Street.

Heading east along the Creek Turnpike Trail, we began to spread out a bit. K1 & I was constantly aware of our pace. K1's wonderful wife Dana was our crew & was sure to keep us hydrated & fed.

As the sun went down, the temperature dropped a bit but not as much as I had hoped. It stayed really warm (actually hot) for most of the night. Although Dana had us well taken care of, passing the restaurant signs brought on pangs of hunger.. K1 was constantly on the telephone as friends were checking on us most of the night to see where we were & to join in when they could.

The shirts that I had made for my birthday run were great as the logos really stood out. Many thanks to Julie Rock @ Rock Custom Wear.

While K1 & I were still on our outward journey, Craig & Marvin were already on their way back with about 5-6 miles left for them to have completed as full marathon.

By midnight, Dana about had it & headed home after running a few friends back to their cars. She did think of us though as she left ice chests for us to find on our way back. At this point, they were like pots of gold.

Now a sane person would have long said that "they couldn't do this", but I am here to say to you that with proper preparation, anyone can do this. You CAN erase those mental & physically boundaries that you may have set years ago.

As the sun rose, we got to 71st & Riverside where the construction is & low & behold, there was "a boundary". And seeing as we "know no boundaries", we opted to check out the new trail.

Just before we made it here though, we were hit with two shocking signs -

I can promise you that we had NO INTENTION of turning around & if we went any slower, we would be going backwards!

At 31st & Riverside, Dana brought us a frozen cappuccino. It tasted heavenly but after about 5 minutes, I realized it was a mistake. I had not trained with it.

We finished up at 10 AM Saturday morning with smiles on our faces and only a single blister.

At the end of it all, I can say THANK YOU to K1, Dana & all of my friends who made my 50th birthday run unforgetable.

And as I always say, Know No Boundaries.

Barkley Book Fair - Night Race

Well the 4th Annual Barkley Book Fair Race is behind me. It was my first Barkley Book Fair race & will be the first of many more. I believe it is taken from the Barkley 100 Mile Endurance Run.

Brian is here doing his pre-race stretches on the generator.

The race started @ 9:30 PM (in the dark) at Turkey Mountain on the trails. So what boundaries are we breaking out of here? Well, night time trail running can be a bit daunting as there are rocks, roots, limbs, climbing, sliding & other exciting things all of which you cannot see until you are there. It is sort of like faith in GOD; you have got to step out in faith without that solid knowledge or sight of what will be there only that things will be okay. Night time trail running is like that, You have got to trust your instincts & be able to react quickly.

The motley crew gathered for our instructions from our race director K1 - Trail Zombie (that's him in the middle).

We were given our instructions & our map. Along the trail, we were to find (12) books the titles of which we soon found were very appropriate. We were to tear pages from the books corresponding to the last (2) numbers of our race number.

For me it was #36.

After this, we were pointed in the right direction sent off into the darkness.

Desiree is here finding her way in the dark (Duh! Were all in the dark all night!) We were soon running along the tracks heading North. I was all ears to be sure that I did not see any train lights coming.

We soon came across our first book (good thing for those darn paper plates giving us directions heading off into the bush - no wonder I was itching all the next day.)

We were soon back on the paved trail but not for long. We were back on the trails. We seemed to be gaining elevation. Up, up, up (& up more) we went. Good thing we could not see what was ahead of us.

We seemed to wander for hours (not really, it seemed like it though) when we came to an old wooden ladder. Once again, it was Up We Go only to find ourselves on top of a rock. From here, it was a rope to the next level. Oh, did I mention that I have a fear of heights? We had the option of going back down & taking the long way around but I felt that it was a good time to face my fears. I mean, what is the worst that could happen - I could slip & fall & break things. Fortunately the fear boundary was broken & up I went (sorry, no pictures here as I was holding on with both hands for dear life & the camera was stashed away).

We continued on trail taking turns leading & running when we could & stopped when we needed to to check our map as Russell is here.

TZ had promised us a surprise near the end but we had no idea what to expect. The map showed a partial loop but it was not until we had passed the same pile of broken glass for the THIRD TIME that we knew we were running in circles. Not only that, but the Book #13 was odd since we were only suppose to have 12 books.

And finally, we had gathered all of the book pages.

Way to go K1. Can't wait until next year.

K2