We are proud to present the winners of our 2011 Running Grants. Each winner received $500 to help in accomplishing their goals.
1. Jeffrey Eggleston
Jeffrey Eggleston is an Arizona resident living and training in Flagstaff. Jeff competed in the 2010 Rock and Roll Arizona Marathon and finished 6th overall, 1st American, in a time of 2:14:32. Outside of his many running accomplishments, Jeffrey Eggleston volunteers his time to bring positive exposure to the sport and to promote Arizona’s running community. Please visit his blog at http://jeffreyeggleston.com/ to get to know this remarkable athlete!
Following is a note from Jeff. We are so proud to support him. Jeff is a true star in the running community!
selected as a 2011 Arizona Distance Running Grant recipient. I was
very enthused to learn of my selection prior to departing for the IAAF
World Championship Marathon last August. Over the past five months,
this grant has been a great source of assistance for my endeavors in
distance running– both as an emerging athlete and as a strong
advocate for the sport. Specifically, the grant enabled me to receive
routine therapies (chiropractic, active release and physical therapy)
while recovering from an injury this winter, which subsequently
sidelined me from running in the Olympic Marathon Trials. As difficult
a time as it was, I was very grateful to have had resources to assist
me in getting healthy and back into training. I’m happy to report that
I am now 100% healthy again. More recently, I was also able to use a
portion of my grant to fund travel to an event in Texas, where I spoke
to young middle school and high school students in the community about
the healthy benefits of distance running and lifelong healthy
activities. It is an extremely important part of my mission to help
bring positive exposure to our sport, and encourage more participation
at every level.
2. Paul Robinson
Paul Robinson is a competitive runner in Flagstaff, Arizona. He finished 9th in the 2010 Rock and Roll Arizona Half marathon with a time of 1:09:02 and ran our Southwest Spine and Sports 15K in 48:03 finishing 7th. Paul is in school for his Doctorate in physical therapy and is an active member in his church which has allowed him to volunteer at many local shelters and organizations. We are excited to help Paul get to his next goal of qualifying for the USA Olympic Marathon Trials.
*Follow-up from Paul Robinson*
Dear John,
First let me begin by again stating my thanks to you and the Bandido’s for putting on an awesome event and taking it upon yourselves to help develop American distance running. I am extremely grateful for the running grant you recently awarded me, and I just wanted to update you on how I used the grant. As I stated in my essay my goal was to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials, which I knew would be difficult having never run a marathon before, but nevertheless I decided to give it a try. After a summer of high mileage I debuted in the Columbus Marathon running 2:20:30 and finishing in 2nd place! Only 90 seconds away from qualifying and in fact may have been a little too aggressive as though 17 miles I was on 2:17 pace. Crazy to think I split the half at 1:09:03 only 1 second slower than what I debuted in the half marathon in PHX earlier in the year. The grant you awarded allowed my travel to this event and in turn allowed me to win $1500… which will allow me to continue to fund myself traveling and racing across the country. This meant a lot to me because, again as I stated in my essay your grant money was a great gift that would allow me to invest in myself …and I was very happy to see such a large return on the investment in just a few short months! This year I hope to begin entering USA Championship events and continue the success Arizona distance runners have enjoyed.
Thanks again,
Paul Robinson
We are proud of you Paul! Thank you for the update and we wish you continued success in your efforts!
3. John Prather- Saguaro High School Boys and Girls Cross Country and Track and Field Head Coach
Coach Prather is a 1976 graduate of Saguaro High School. He competed at Arizona State University as a steeplechaser and continued to compete throughout the USA and Europe after college.
Six years ago, he moved to Saguaro High School, excited by the challenge of returning his alma mater to prominence in cross country. Saguaro had been without a successful boys team since the late-1990s and without a successful girls team since the late-1980s. In his six years at Saguaro, the boys have won two city championships, one section championship, and last year placed fourth in the state championship (Division III), while the girls have won four city championships, five section championships, and have been five times in the top four at state (twice runners-up).
Coach Prather used the grant to allow each and every member of his cross country team to travel to California to compete. We are thankful for coaches like John Prather who promote running to youth! Go Saguaro!
Saguaro High School’s cross country team takes a yearly trip to compete in California. This trip is not cheap, and despite our fundraising efforts, athletes are still expected to pay a share of the costs. As we are not an affluent school, this often presents a problem for some. Many of our kids come from single-parent/single-income families and some even have unemployed parents. Thanks to this grant, we were able to take every member of the team on this trip—an important team-building opportunity for us and an exciting competitive opportunity for our athletes.
4. Go The Distance- Non-profit running club
September 2011 marked the third season for Go The Distance (GTD). GTD is a Youth Boys and Girls non-profit distance running club. GTD currently has three coaches that volunteer their time to promoting the sport. Go The Distance is led by Coach Dave Van Sickle, who is also the Head Coach for Cross Country and Distance running at Xavier College Preparatory. Volunteer Assistant Coaches are Jocelyn Gaffney and Susan Molloy. All coaches spend at least 2 hours/5 days a week training the team, which also requires running with the group making sure that everyone can participate no matter what their fitness level is. Their goal is to improve each individual’s fitness level. Coach Van Sickle realized that the Phoenix community is lacking a distance running program for Youth boys and girls. Most clubs are sprinter orientated, with very few, if any, concentrating on distance running. Go The Distance is geared to prepare Youth boys and girls for high school distance running. During the Cross Country season the team trains for 3K, 4K, and the 5K, with some road racing. During the Track and Field season, the club trains for the 400, 800, 1500, and 3000. In 2009 they were State and Regional Champions and 5th at the National level. For 2010, they took the USATF Youth State and Regional Championship, and placed 10th in the National Competition. The team has also held the Midget and Youth 4X800 State records. At the Arizona USATF meets, the GTD athletes only compete in the distance events. Some place in these events, while others are running to achieve a personal best, even if it is a few seconds.
Our grant will help this club by sponsoring a youth boy or girl to travel to competition outside the Phoenix area, and to purchase Gatorade/water for the Track or Cross Country seasons. The money will also help with entry fees to meets. We are also appreciative of the volunteers from GTD that helped out at the 2011 Southwest Spine and Sports 15K!
*Update from Go The Distance*
Hi John,We really appreciated the grant that Go The Distance received. We were able to use it to purchase a new shade canopy that was used for our Cross Country Meets, and we will continue to use it for the upcoming track season. Since we practice from 5:30-7:00 pm, the last part of our practice is after the sun goes down. Part of the grant was used to purchase additional safety lights and batteries. It is mandatory that everyone who runs with the group, has a blinking light attached to themselves. And, as volunteer coaches, we are obligated to purchase a USATF membership and do a background check at our expense, so the grant helped offset that cost. We were also able to keep our webpage current so that we can attract youth girls and boys to join us at http://www.gothedistanceaz.org .We will use the remainder of the grant for track season, which goes through July. We will need to purchase water and Gatorade throughout the season for the athletes, and some of the larger meets have expensive entry fees. We typically get some kids that might need help with purchasing running flats.Thank you again for awarding a grant to Go The Distance, we are really thankful.Jocelyn GaffneyAssistant CoachGo The DistanceThanks for the update Jocelyn! We are so happy to see how well you made use of the Distance Running Grant!