Founder of Cybercasemanager Lends Fund Raising Support for NACoA
Written on December 7, 2007
Hi, this is Stefan Densmore, founder of Cybercasemanager Incorporated.
Some of you may remember that I sent out a fund raising request last year on behalf of the National Association of Children of Alcoholics (NACoA). They are an organization which identifies and creates materials for educators and counselors to viably help children who have received the unlucky draw of living with a parent or parents suffering from alcohol or drug dependency. The chaos in these households, due to the lack of dependability or outright emotional and physical abuse, is more pronounced during the
holiday season, as you might expect. Children living in households where substance abuse exists are 4 times more likely to suffer physical abuse than their peers, and 4 times more likely to develop mental illness as adults. What is staggering is that we’re talking about 1 in 4 American children under the age of 18.
You may know that I’ve worked in the field of mental health and chemical addictions treatment for nearly eleven years, and that improving the delivery system of community resources to individuals in need has been part of my personal mission for some time, including the launch of cybercasemanager.com several years ago. You may also know that in the past three years I have been active in my local running community, having completed 7 full marathons, 2 sprint triathlons, several 10k’s, and more than a dozen 5k’s. What you may not know is that, crazy or not, I’ve been sober (continuously) all three of those years! And still am!
I am very fortunate to be able to represent NACoA as one of their runners in January ‘08. I’ll be running a 5k on Friday the 11th, a half-marathon on Saturday the 12th, and then a full marathon on Sunday the 13th, raising awareness for NACoA during the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend. I’d like to raise a little money for them too, and I hope you’ll help by giving whatever you can. You can donate or make a pledge contingent on my athletic performance in any one or more of the races. I would much rather you just flat out donate, but I am open to challenges.
Contributing to NACoA is tax deductible and the money does a lot of good. The most efficient way to donate is at http://www.firstgiving.com/stefandensmore Alternatively, you can write a check payable to NACoA, and contact me to make arrangements for pickup. Any amount you can provide is a blessing.
If you have any questions about my involvement with NACoA, marathon running, sobriety, goofiness, or anything else, you can reach me at stefan dot densmore at gmail dot com, or by calling my cell phone at (513) 379-8992. Thank you for your consideration of this worthy cause, and God Bless!
Stefan Christian Densmore
Filed in: Fund Raising.
3.
Hi, this is Stefan again! Here’s my race reports for the three races I ran over the weekend. These were sent out to supporters in separate emails, I’ve put them order of the races…
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One down, two to go.
Arrived in Disney last night, flight was bumpy out of Cincinnati with the rain. Though the forecast was for rain here in Orlando, so far it has been sunny skies, very pleasant weather.
Disney’s “Family Safari 5k†started at 7 this morning, I picked up my race packet at around 5:45 a.m. This race was geared toward families and very laid back. No timing chips, no race results posted — and they reminded the crowd of runners several times about this, which I think helped people who have that competitive itch to remember that the day wasn’t about running over little kids. Didn’t stop me though. Just kidding.
The first pace corral was labeled “under 7 minute paceâ€, the next was “7 to 9 minute paceâ€; this was the one I joined in. While waiting in the corral I talked with a woman in her 60s who was doing all three races over the weekend like me. Everyone was very friendly, which is somewhat typical, but what was most significant was the number of people who looked like “professional runners†running at the same pace side-by-side with their family members who obviously weren’t professional runners. Very laid back, very cool. Who says Disney ain’t pro family?
Didn’t get a good look at how many people were really participating until the first turn around of the race — all I can say is wow, there were literally thousands. It was awesome seeing all the families running together — Lots of mother-daughter or mother-son pairs running; usually if the dad was running it looked like the whole family was too, lots of kids — ages probably 7 and up.
The race route started and finished in a section of the Animal Kingdom parking lot, but the rest of the race was entirely inside the theme park, basically an out and back flat course. Excellent volunteer support, they thanked me for thanking them, which I always appreciate
I had an average pace of about 7:10 per mile, finishing in about 22 minutes. It was a relaxed run, felt good, and I think I was able to chase down most of the little kids that past me early on, which was important to me, but I definitely ended up running faster than what I’ll be doing in the half and the full marathon. None of the donors challenged me to keep to a particular pace — which I’m very thankful for — and its too late for you to do so now… though you can still give money.
I think I’m going to shoot for coming in under 2 hours for the half marathon, and under 4 for the full marathon. That’s basically a nine minute mile pace, which should be easy to do tomorrow, the tough part will be Sunday. Weather should be cool which will be helpful. Those of you who know how to pray correctly, please pray for me — especially that I maintain a spirit of helpfulness and encouragement to others during the race. Always feels better being that guy than the one who runs over little kids
Almost forgot — The Disney resort hotel room where I’m staying has a recycling bin, first time I’ve seen one here — made me very pleased. I also have to give a shout out to the JFT group I’ve been training with over the past year or so — I was asked today if I was a “professional†athlete because I “look soooo goodâ€.
That’s all for now, I’ll send out another report tomorrow night. Got to go to bed.
Stefan
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Two down, one to go.
Last year I wore my full marathon timing chip during the half marathon, and the half marathon timing chip during the full marathon (What do they expect when they say last buses leave at 4 a.m.?) — this resulted in having no official times posted. Thankfully this time I got everything set up correctly the night before. Here’s my cumulative times from start to finish this morning:
5k 10k 15k Finish
24:47 49:46 1:15:27 1:47:17
So I came in under 2 hours which was the goal. Tomorrow will be harder though.
I feel good this evening, but the last 4 miles of the race today were difficult for me. It was very humid in Orlando today — and its been several months since I’ve trained in that kind of weather, being a Northerner and all. Mid 70s almost from the start of the race, with the humidity it felt much warmer than that. Clothes were already soaked by the time I reached the Magic Kingdom.
Most of the race is on the highway between Epcot and Magic Kingdom. Started in the first wave, corral A, on the highway just outside the Epcot. The run through Magic Kingdom is awesome, but you’re only there for about a mile and a half, then it’s back to Epcot along the highway again, and only about a mile and a half running around inside Epcot. When you’re actually in the theme parks its very uplifting, far better than any other marathon I’ve been in, all the characters cheering you on, and all the floats — Disney makes the best distractions by far; Pirates of the Caribbean were pretty cool, but Alice chasing after a rabbit was a favorite of mine today. The route takes you right through the Disney castle as well.
They do have great music along the highway provided by local highschool bands and some professional DJs. “Ain’t no mountain high enough†and “simply be love†were personal high points for me provided by the DJs during those last four tough miles. Beautiful skyline running toward finish at Epcot as the sun was coming up. Great Gospel singers stationed at the last mile and 1/2 or so.
Was able to finish strong, but again, kind of concerned about tomorrow. Forecast is for chillier temperatures (mid 60s at start). Hope so. It rained this evening after dark, but other than that weather has been unexpectedly clear. Keep the prayers coming. I’ll send out a more detailed cumulative race report tomorrow.
Stefan
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Hi Everyone!
Sorry this race report is a day late — it was my last night in Disney and I ended-up not starting on it until the middle of the night. The whole weekend turned out really awesome. Thank you to all my excellent supporters, donors as well as non-donors, for all your encouragement. As I’ve said before, I am very fortunate to be able to represent NACoA as one of their runners, this organization does a lot of good, and I’m proud to play a role in supporting their efforts.
O.k., now about the final 26.2 mile race. First off, let me say that I should not have been able to finish under four hours, there had to have been divine intervention. I really had struggled during the last bit of the 13.1 mile race on Saturday, so moving forward I had real doubts about my ability to run double the distance and keep it under 4 hours — not to mention the dynamic of having less than 24 hours to recover, how difficult it is to train during the holiday season, and an inability to get to bed early the night before.
After laying in bed awake until after midnight, I got up at 3:15 a.m. and ate left over steak fries for breakfast. My mouth was dry from fear, but I forced those steak fries down till I thought I was going to puke — but thinking the carbs would do me good. I left to meet the other runners in my group at 3:45 a.m., praying dutifully during my walk alone along the lake resort to the conference center. The ground was wet from rain the night before, and a cool breeze calmed my nerves a bit about the possible race conditions. I got on the last bus around 4 a.m. to head to the race start area.
The starting area had upwards of 18,000 people. Large screens played music videos (mostly hip-hop, but some vintage 80’s Van Halen too!) spliced in with live feed of random people in the crowd getting their 5 seconds of fame. One of the women on my team had the same time goal as I did, so we discussed strategies as we were waiting for the race to start. I didn’t really decide on a strategy, it just occurred to me to run as relaxed as I could for as long as I could. The race started at 6 a.m.
The full marathon course winds its way through all the Disney parks, so you get to see a lot more than in the half-marathon. It starts at Epcot, heads to the Magic Kingdom, then to the Animal Kingdom, through Hollywood Studios (formerly called MGM studios), then back to Epcot for the finish. Some of the course is “back lots†that usually only the Disney staff get to see, where things like stage or float construction occurs. It looked pretty trippy back there, like an airfield of magical odds and ends the size of small planes.
We ran for several miles along hidden staff-only roads in the Animal Kingdom, where there were small signs posted literally very 20 yards that had a joke printed on them, or a funny factoid, helping to distract you from what you’re doing. Crowd support in the parks is awesome, too, and there were so many Disney staff and volunteers posted where normal visitors aren’t allowed, to cheer us on. This support was much better than for the half-marathon yesterday.
Like the half-marathon, the hardest part of the course was running on the highways between the parks. The highway overpasses are the only hills that need to be climbed along the course, but there are a bunch and they are boring, save for the local high school cheerleaders (complete with pompoms) which was brilliant.
I averaged an 8:30 (minute per mile) pace through mile 20, which as I said, had to have been divine intervention. I realized it was going to be a good day as I passed the half way mark, not feeling as tired as I did yesterday. Between mile 20 and 24, it started to feel tough, and I ended up doing the Galloway (run-walk) method for miles 23-25, averaging just over a 10 minute mile pace for these two miles. I then ran the last mile fast feeling really strong, passing a ton of people. Official time has me finishing in 3 hours and 50 minutes. This wasn’t my fastest marathon (which is 3 hours 16 minutes), but it got the job done in under four hours — and I’m pretty proud of it for being back-to-back with the half marathon the day before.
5 mile 10 mile Half 20 mile Finish
42.41 1:24:59 1:51:36 2:51:25 3:50:36
The finisher’s medal is really cool as this was the 15th anniversary of the Disney full marathon. I have a lot of medals from the other races I’ve run, but this one is definitely the coolest. Everyone received a medal for each race they finished this weekend, and the registered “Goofy†runners (who ran the half and the full), received an additional medal — so I have four medals to show off to anyone interested. I believe I have a lot of good pictures too, and will send out a link as soon as they are available.
For those of you that would still like to donate, or who have pledged but haven’t paid yet, you can still write a check or use the donation website through February. Thanks again to everyone for your support. If any of you are interested in doing a future 5k, half-marathon, or full marathon in Disney, I’d be happy to give you more details about it. It really is an awesome experience.
Stefan
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