You did it! 109 donors and over $11,000 donated to the SJU CC/T&F Teams. Thank you to everyone who donated and helped spread the word. Your continued support is greatly appreciated.
More importantly, Joe and I will be competing in all ten events of the decathlon. Our agents are negotiating the terms and competition dates. There has been some squabbling over when this will take place. Joe wants it done last week and I was hoping to train a little longer. My run streak is great, but having to pole vault is another challenge that I am excited to attempt. I had my first practice with John Pollack, our vault coach, last week and have not experienced that level of muscle soreness for quite some time. John may need a raise after trying to teach the two of us to vault.
Our tentative plan is to complete Day One in a couple weeks. We will do the Day One events: 100m dash, long jump, shot put, high jump, and 400m run all in one day. Depending on our hamstrings, we reserve the option to add in some rest days before we hit Day Two. The second day’s events will be the 110m hurdles (hurdle height is also being negotiated), discus, the Damlo Family Pole Vault (every member of the family donated to ensure pole vault was on the event list), javelin, and the 1500m run. Because you all made this happen, I will make sure to provide some updates and video highlights along the way.
Thanks again to everyone who donated, shared information on the challenge, and most importantly, those of you who follow the team. It is wonderful to have your support.
Jeremy
PS: A special thank-you to a couple of my former Minnesota-Morris athletes and some of my Hamline Piper teammates for donating this Go Johnnies Challenge ensuring that I do the full decathlon. I’ve now got some tough choices on which uniform to don for competition.