Crazy Sevens

Imagine running seven half marathons... on all seven continents... in seven consecutive days.

Well Denver Charity Miler, Karen "Casey" Cortese (second from the left above) is about to do just that. This Wednesday she will board a plane to Australia where she will begin an extraordinary undertaking known as the Triple Seven Quest.

The Quest begins with a half marathon in Melbourne, Australia on February 8th. Upon finishing that race, Casey will board a plane to a half marathon in Abu Dabi on the 9th... and then to one in Paris, France... and then to one in Tunis, Tunisia... and then to one in Long Island, New York... and then to one in Punta Arenas, Chile... and finally to one King George Island, Antarctica.

That's 91.7 miles on the ground and 39,464 miles in the air. She'll get to spend only one night sleeping in a hotel room. Up until this point, Casey has run only six half marathons in her life!

"When a friend told me about the Quest," says Casey, "my first thought was, 'Why would anyone do something like that?'  But when the only reason I could come up with for not participating was, 'because it will be really, really, really, REALLY hard,' I signed up."

Now that's the spirit!

But Casey wants to make the Quest about more than just running, and is using the Quest to raise money (over $8,500 so far!) for our awesome friends at Girls on The Run.

"When I thought about why I was doing this," says Casey, "I realized that it was about conquering fear. It's about overcoming the mental obstacles we all throw in our own way when trying something that seems out of our reach. And I realized that if my race in any way could help inspire young girls to realize their full potential, that it would be one of the best and most rewarding things about this entire journey."

Well, I'm not a young girl, but I'm incredibly inspired. And I'm sure that you'll all be inspired too. You can follow Casey on her adventure through her blog, crazygirlruns.com. If you'd like to send her some positive vibes, please send us an email here (with subject "Go Casey" if possible). And, of course, let's all do some CharityMiles for Girls on the Run in Casey's honor!

#EagleUp for Anna!

Anna Judd has spent the last few months running across the United States to raise awareness for veterans.

She has since run from the pier in Venice Beach through California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia. She then took a left and headed north through South Carolina. Now she's in Greensboro, North Carolina. In 30 days, she'll arrive in New York City!

If you've been following Anna's journey on social media, then I'm sure you have been inspired by her courage and grace-- not to mention her beautiful prose and photos.  So, starting tomorrow, Anna will guest-write a daily newsletter to share the rest of her journey with you more personally. Send her some love on Twitter @RunAnnaRun2014 and use the hahtag #EagleUpForAnna.

News from Charity Miles

Welcome to Team RWB to the Charity Miles family! Team RWB has been, by far, our most requested charity-- undoubtedly because our team is so supportive of veterans.

So, as many of you already know, Team RWB does amazing work to enrich the lives of America's veterans by connecting them to their community through physical and social activity.

Ever see a red and rowdy bunch carrying an American flag in a marathon? Yep- that's them! They're incredibly enthusiastic. And I'm sure they're going to amp up the Charity Miles Team Spirit even more!

One of our teammates, Anna Judd, is about to become the first person to run across the United States with Charity Miles! She leaves this Saturday morning from Venice Beach Pier in Los Angeles at 930 AM and will run 40 miles a day, six days a week until she arrives at the Freedom Tower in New York City in 100 days!

And Anna doesn't even consider herself an athlete. She is a 29 year-old painter, musician and self-proclaimed hippie from southern California. "My running," she says, "is my performance art." How cool is that?!

When Anna decided to run across the country, she wanted to do it for a cause, and found herself unexpectedly drawn to raise awareness for veterans. On her journey, she will be carrying 22 (fairly large) stones to symbolize the average of 22 veterans who commit suicide every day. Here's a beautiful video of Anna telling the story of why she's doing this:

So let's give Anna a hearty Charity Miles sendoff! Please tweet to @RunAnna2014 and wish her luck from Team @CharityMiles. Also, please follow her so that you can stay in touch with her on her journey. She'll be sending regular tweets, photos and videos from the road. She also likes to do live video casts through Hang With (a pretty sweet app), so please follow "AnnaRunsAmerica" there as well.

For those of you who may like to run a few miles with Anna, here is a link to her route. If you happen to live near it, please head out to wish her luck as she passes through. If you want to do that, please email inspiration@charitymiles.org, and we'll help set it up.

Likewise, for any of you who live in Los Angeles, please come out to Venice Beach Pier on Saturday morning by 930 AM to help us make a scene for Anna. You can also run with her if you want. We'll have some T-Shirts, etc. to give away. And it will be great to meet you!

Lifeway Foods is sponsoring Charity Miles

Super Typhoon Haiyan has devastated the Talcoban region of the Philippines, leaving 2.5 million people in need of emergency food assistance.

Many of you have asked what we can do to help. Which is why I am humbled to announce that our friends at Lifeway Foods have again stepped up to the challenge.

Originally, Lifeway had been planning to sponsor our #GivingTuesday campaign on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. (As many of you may remember, we are one of the founding partners of #GivingTuesday, a campaign started last year by Mashable, The UN Foundation and the 92nd Street Y to be the "official" start of the giving season.)

But in response to Super Typhoon Haiyan, Lifeway decided to start their #GivingTuesday today. As Lifeway’s CEO, Julie Smolyansky said, “When something like this happens, there’s no reason to wait for something official.”

Julie rocks. She’s a good friend, avid Charity Miler and part of the United Nations Foundation’s Gloabal Entrepreneur Council, tasked with using innovation to solve the greatest challenges of our time. We’re honored that she sees Charity Miles as an example of this idea. 

Moreover, this isn’t the first time that Julie and Lifeway have stepped up like this. Lifeway also answered the bell after the Boston Marathon bombings, both sponsoring Charity Miles generally and also donating an additional 25¢ per mile to the One Fund Boston.

Now they are going to do something similar, both sponsoring the app generally and providing a $20,000 matching incentive for the World Food Programme.

That’s right: from now through December 17^th, whenever you use Charity Miles (for any charity), Lifeway Foods will donate an additional 25¢ per mile (up to $20,000) to the World Food Programme, through Charity Miles. 

This is critically important. The World Food Programme is one of the top organizations leading the disaster relief in the Philippines. They have already mobilized 44 metric tons of high energy biscuits and rice to the region.

Also, given the immense damage to infrastructure and communications, WFP is working with the local government to boost logistics and emergency telecommunications capacity for the response. This is why we're honored to have WFP as one of our founding charity partners. And it's why we're so moved by Lifeway's support.

So, let’s get out there and help WFP! Thanks to Lifeway, every mile for WFP helps feed two people. #EveryMileMatters!

To make a direct donation to WFP, please click here.

50,000 Miles, $50,000 To Cure Parkinson's Disease!

The Michael J. Fox Foundation wants to redefine what's #Thinkable. So, from now through November 5th, they are challenging you to do 50,000 "Miles for a Cure". That's a lot of miles to do in one month. But I know we can rise to the occasion!

And to give you an extra incentive, Medtronic DBS Therapy is sweetening the deal by sponsoring the challenge at $1 per mile, up to $50,000. That's right: $1 per mile for Parkinson's research!

So whomever you were gonna run, walk or bike for this month, please throw in some extra Charity Miles for The Michael J. Fox Foundation. No matter how far you go or how you get there, you're getting us closer to a cure for Parkinson's.

Totally #Thinkable!

American Express is sponsoring Charity Miles

American Express is now sponsoring Charity Miles. This literally just happened OUT OF THE BLUE!

Their agency proposed the idea on Thursday 22nd afternoon, and by yesterday afternoon they confirmed it. AMAZING!

A few details about the campaign. It's for American Express' #PassionProject, which aims to help people like us use our passion to change the world. Perfect, right?!

So, with that in mind, we have a few requests:

1. Please make sure to use Charity Miles as frequently as possible over the next few weeks. Even if you're just going for a little walk. Remember: #EveryMileMatters!
2. Please get as many people as possible to use the app. We really want to make a big impression!
3. When you use the app, please be sure to thank American Express on Facebook and Twitter. We can't do this without their support!
4. It would also be great if you could send a few tweets thanking @AmericanExpress for supporting your @CharityMiles #PassionProject. And when you do, please include this link to their #PassionProject video: http://bit.ly/154xfRW

(Bonus points for sharing the link! They want it shared as much as possible. And we really want to blow this out of the water for them!! As always, we'll randomly select 10 people who tweet this to win a Charity Miles T-Shirt.)

This is a big opportunity for all of us. Thanks for making it happen!

P.S. Important note: American Express is sponsoring Charity Miles generally. However, we cannot associate their sponsorship for Wounded Warrior Project or Stand Up To Cancer. Not because American Express doesn't want to support them, but because those charities have their own sponsorships with MasterCard. So please don't tweet anything to American Express about those two charities. Please just thank them for supporting Charity Miles generally. THANKS!