Hello from Sunny Argentina

Hello Friends,

I’m writing to you today from sunny and warm Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Our NF Extreme Team is all here, healthy, and having a great time.   I think we are all a little sleep deprived at this point.  There is so much to do and see and not an abundance of time.  Yesterday, after flying all night, we arrived here at the hotel around 2:00 p.m. local time (we are two time changes east of the Eastern Time Zone).  Our flight out of Miami was delayed by about seven hours and the other half of the team flying from Atlanta beat us by several hours…not that there is anyone competitive enough on this trip to keep track of such things. We all went for a nice “leg stretcher” run in the 85 degree, 90 plus percent humidity at 4:00 p.m.,  before splitting up into smaller groups for various events in the evening.

Some quick introductions:
Dr. Jose Dominguez – a surgeon from Battlefield, Mo., who runs for his son Eric.  He is the informal head of the now infamous and international “Run for Eric” team.
Dr. Carl Price –Run for Eric Team; from Springfield, Mo., a plastic surgeon and a friend of Jose’s.
Kathy Price – Run for Eric Team; from Springfield, Mo., and by far, Carl’s better half; a pharmacist, motorcycle racer, and by all accounts awesome mom.
Dr. John Steinberg – Run for Eric Team from Springfield, Mo., a cardiothoracic surgeon.  Also a friend of Jose’s.  As you can see, we are in good hands medically on this trip.
Dr. Tim Billharz – Run for Eric Team; An OBGYN from Liberty, Mo., he is, like Jose, a human plumber, working in the same general region, but from a slightly different angle.
Coach George Haddad – Running for Gigi Kast. NF Endurance volunteer team coach, NASA Engineer, from Melbourne, Fla. – yup, a real live rocket scientist.
John McCarthy – Director Standard and Poors, from Holmdale, N.J.  John runs for his daughter and also serves on the Children Tumor Foundation’s Board of Directors.
George Franke – from the Holmdale, N.J. area and John’s father-in-law, and our team support person for the trip.
Chad Leathers – our 25-year-old mascot. Chad runs for his brother, Drew, and Chad is doing a wonderful job of documenting this excursion. Chad is presently from New York, N.Y., and he is a development officer for the Children’s Tumor Foundation.
Bill Hardy – from Harleysville, Pa.   Bill is the owner and president of Hardy Machine Company, two time Race Across America teammate, and part of the Ari’s Angels Team.
Bill Edmonds – from Erwinna, Pa.  Bill is the co-owner/president of B&G Manufacturing, two time Race Across America teammate and also part of the Ari’s Angel Team.
Steve Kendra – that’s me, from the bustling metropolis of Sellersville, Pa.  Running for my daughter Arianna.  I’m the director of the NF Endurance Team for the Children’s Tumor Foundation.
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Welcome to Miami

by:  Steve Kendra

Our flight to Buenos Aires has been delayed and we won’t be leaving until 1:00 in the morning Sunday.  I am sitting here with John McCarthy, Chad Leathers, and George Franke – George Haddad is on his way down from Melbourne, Fla.  As you probably know there was a large 8.8 magnitude earthquake this morning in Chile.  We don’t know if this is the cause of the latest delay or not at this point.  Buenos Aires is on the other side of the continent, but, the continent isn’t all that wide down there.

It’s humid here in Miami and has been raining.  Chad got here at 9:30 a.m. and has already been down to South Beach to check out the local flavor.  He met a beautiful blond in a tight black mini-skirt, whose name was Antonio.  We’ll have to keep an eye on him.

There’s no snow on the ground here in Miami – I almost forgot what that looked like.   We are all excited to get on our way to South America, talking about what we might see or expect, and how the waves might be on the Drake Passage.  I just got a text from Jose Dominguez who is waiting with the other half of our team in Atlanta.  He is already talking about our next trip. . . he wants to go to Kenya in the summer of 2012.  Stay tuned for more on that soon.

Weekend Pacesetter (Feb. 26-28, 2010)

END OF THE EARTH
Twelve members of NF Endurance “Extreme,”  including Director Steve Kendra, will leave for Antarctica on Saturday, Feb. 27, 2010. Check out this video from CBS News as the team prepares for the adventure of a lifetime; more complete itinerary details here.  Steve will be e-mailing updates for the blog as often as possible, but he only has access to a computer once every other day. Here is another great story in the news from Jill Forsythe from Lehigh Valley Running Scene about their journey. Here is a slideshow of pictures from previous Antarctica marathon events.

PARTY
“It’s the whole enchilada baby,” says Bob Skold about this weekend’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Mardi Gras Half Marathon in New Orleans.  “It will rock, rock, rock.” Skold will leave Colorado to join Team Captain Lesley Oslica and NFE New Orleans runners for the race.

MOTIVATE
Rachel Malone is training and fundraising for the ING Georgia Marathon, which is quickly becoming one of our largest team events in 2010. Recently Rachel’s story of overcoming a brain tumor was in the news. Click here for Running Against the Odds: Rachel Malone’s Story. And, check out Rachel’s blog here.