The End is Where We Begin (hopefully)

Isn’t that the name of a song or something? If it’s not, it should be. Anyway, we did it! Here’s the rundown…

First and foremost, thank you all for your support and well wishes. We raised over $2,000 for OYE scholarship recipients. This money will directly and positively impact the lives of these students.

Second, Mary Clay finished strong! She cut 9 minutes off of her time from last year. She’s defying conventional wisdom by getting older and faster.

Third, I got my best and worst time ever (thanks Justin) in this type of race.

Fourth, thank you to the 12 people who voted for me, well 11. I crossed the finish line a few minutes before Mary Clay, nothing like a little friendly competition among spouses. We push each other to be better than we could be without the other.

Finally, I hope that our blog and run have sparked an ongoing interest in OYE in you. Please let us know if you’d like to visit or volunteer! We’d love to hear from you.

Be well!

Matt

The Hay is in the Barn! (Well sort of)

Greetings from the Shenandoah Valley! It's two days until the race. I can't believe it's upon us already. One behalf of Mary Clay and all of the OYE scholarship recipients, "MUCHIAS GRACIAS!!"

The hay is in the barn, besides being used by farmers, is also phrase commonly used by endurance athletes meaning, no bit of training we do now will add to our current level of fitness. All of the hard work is behind us. It's time to celebrate the journey and put it into action during the race. That being said, the hay isn't yet in the barn on our fund raising efforts. There is still time to donate! To date we've raised $1575 for OYE and are 52% of the way to reaching our goal of $3,000. I hope you are able, if you haven't already done so to get us there.

Finally, it appears that I've been getting some votes myself! I'm only 17 votes behind MC now and will catch up soon when I vote for myself for the 4th time. We'll be sure to update you on Saturday's events! Thanks for reading...

Abrazos y Paz!!

Mateo and Mary Clay

2.5 Weeks to Go!

Hi Everyone!

Thank you to all of you who’ve read our blog, taken an interest in OYE, voted, and/or donated! To date, we’ve raised $1065 and are 35% of the way to reaching our goal of $3000. 20 of you think MC is going to finish first while 4 of you think I am. What’s up with that? I’m fast! You all are making me train even harder. Ask Mary Clay she’ll tell you what’s been going on. Anna and Reid say they are rooting for both of us, I couldn’t agree more.

All right, it’s 2.5 weeks to the marathon. This past Saturday MC and I ran 10 miles together, it was the first time we got a chance to do so. It was great spending the time on the back roads of the Shenandoah Valley together. I finally feel like I’m going to be able to finish this thing and accomplish my goal of running 13.1 miles in two hours. That being said, I’m not so sure we are going to hit our target of $3,000. I know we can do this together. Please help us raise the additional $2035 for OYE, so we can continue our mission of supporting at risk Honduran youth.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Matt and Mary Clay

PS. Vote for Matt!

Message from Matt and Mary Clay

Hello Everyone!

A few weeks ago, I was in the midst of training for the Shenandoah Mountain 100 Ultra Endurance Backcountry Mountain Bike Race. I must’ve just gotten back from a long ride and was feeling particularly proud of myself. It was then that I said something like this to Mary Clay, “You know what? I could totally run a ½ marathon no problem and maybe even do it faster than you.” You’ve got to understand that I’ve said stuff like this to MC over the years so I’m sure she’s gotten pretty sick of hearing it. This time her reply was like no other I’ve heard before, “Well why don’t you put your money where your mouth is and do it. Then we’ll see won’t we?”

As you probably already know, I’m not one to back down to a challenge, especially one made by my wife! So I did what any impulsive, fragile ego’ed man would do when I got to work the next morning. I signed up for the ½ marathon, downloaded a free ½ marathon training plan from the internet, and posted Mary Clay’s time from last year’s race (2:12:19) on my wall.

Well that was 5 weeks, 13 runs, 49 miles, and 6,257 calories ago. I’ve endured blazing heat, cold rain, dark nights, and the lonesome roads and trails of Staunton and Harrisonburg. I’m happy to report that I’m chipping away at MC’s 10:07/mi. pace but that was last year’s pace. Since then she participated in a women’s running group and busted a 4 mi. road race out in 36 minutes, that’s fast folks! What is she doing when she’s out there on her training runs anyway?! Speed work, hills repeats, intervals?? Am I challenging myself enough?

Then the other day, I received an email from one of my friends and fellow Organization of Youth Empowerment (OYE) colleague Ana Luisa I came to the realization that, “No we are not doing enough!” With that Mary Clay and I decided we would challenge ourselves even more by challenging YOU to help us reach our goal of raising $3000.

For the past two years Mary Clay and my students have been working closely with OYE, a small, grassroots organization based in El Progreso, Honduras that develops young people's self-esteem and leadership skills. OYE provides scholarships and capacity building programs to students who would not otherwise have the means to stay in school. Through OYE's programs, these youth gain the tools they need to become active leaders in their communities. OYE relies on individual contributions from friends like you to make their work possible. Learn more about OYE on their website www.oyehonduras.org.

We are running for OYE because we believe in the mission, the youth, and of the power that each one of us has to create positive change in this world. Todos somos OYE/We are all OYE!

Over the next few weeks we'll do our best to post to the blog and keep you updated on our progress. Thanks for reading and donating!

Abrazos y paz!
Matt and Mary Clay

OYE Video: We are the Change

About the Cause: OYE

Matt and Mary Clay are raising money for the Organization for Youth Empowerment (OYE), to benefit at-risk youth in Honduras. OYE is a small, grassroots organization that develops young people's self-esteem and leadership skills. OYE provides scholarships and capacity building programs to students who would not otherwise have the means to stay in school. Through OYE's programs, these youth gain the tools they need to become active leaders in their communities. OYE relies on individual contributions from friends like Matt and Mary Clay to make their work possible. Learn more about OYE on their website www.oyehonduras.org.

You can help Matt and Mary Clay reach their goal of raising $3000 for OYE by donating through the Chipin widget on the sidebar - it's fast and totally secure. You will be redirected to OYE's PayPal page where you can make a secure credit card donation directly to OYE. Thank you!