We've Got You Covered!

 

Team Shirt (Front)

 Team Shirt (Back)

Finding Your Way!

It's almost time!  Can you feel the excitement?  The anticipation?  The fear?  Ok....maybe not so much the last one (with any luck), but hopefully you ARE starting to get excited about our "Feet For Freedom" event which is now just over a week away.  If this is your first race (or even if you are a seasoned race veteran), you may have some final questions, so read through this next section and we'll try and "find" those answers for you.

What Do I Do Now?
1.  Find the Expo
Most "bigger" races have an Expo that happens the day before or the day of an event.  In our case, the Expo is being held at Eastview Christian Church (1500 N. Airport Road in Normal) beginning at 4 PM on Friday, September 28th.  At the Expo, you pick up your bib (no...not THAT sort of bib...a racing bib are those numbers that you pin on the front of your shirt that identifies you as a race participant) and goodie bag.  YES!  You get stuff (or goodies) for running these races.  You'll get pamphlets and flyers for upcoming races and sample products and other neat stuff...plus you'll also get your official race t-shirt.  But you'll get a way cooler shirt when you....

2.  Find "Team Compass"
Starting at 5 PM on Friday night, we will be in the Eastview Christian Church parking lot to distribute our "Team Compass" t-shirts.  We'll try and get a sign or poster or banner of some sort made that says "Team Compass", so make sure and look for us and we'll get you outfitted with your wicked cool "Team Compass" shirt.


3.  Find the Start Line
All races will start at Eastview Christian Church.

• The 5k will be at 6 PM on Friday, September 28th.
• The half-marathon and 10K will be held on Saturday, September 29th.  The half-marathon will start at 7 AM and the 10K will start at 7:30 AM.
• The 5K will be run entirely on the Eastview campus.  The half-marathon and 10K will be run over city streets and Constitution Trail.  
• The Saturday races will be "out and back" races.   They will start on Raab Road, in front of Eastview Christian Church, turn south down Airport Road, turn into Tipton Park, loop through the park and out out the Constitution Trail until each race hits the halfway distance at which point the runners will turnaround and then return to Airport Road before finishing at Eastview Christian Church.

4.  Find the Finish Line
This one probably goes without saying, but we thought we'd throw it in there anyway for someone like Tony Davenport who might start running and just not stop.  If you picture Forrest Gump from the movie when he just kept running, well that's kind of like how Tony is.  You almost need to put a big "STOP" sign in front of him.  (We kid...Tony's awesome....we love Tony bunches...and he's a good sport for being our target.)

5.  Find Someone and "Be Their Barnabas"
This is kind of new to us, but when we read about it, it sounds really cool and it totally makes sense!  It's intended more for those who are doing the 5K on Friday and not running on Saturday, but who might want to come out and "help" those runners on Saturday doing the 10K and half-marathon.  We'll steal the description from the race director's Facebook page:

Many have asked: What are Barnabas Runners? Answer: Our Barnabas runners are there to help you finish. I remember the first time I 'Hit the Wall' in a race. It was mile 22 in the Nashville Marathon and all I could do was barely put 1 foot in front of another... it was a 17 minute mile. All I wanted was to quit. I finally started jogging (kind of) and fell in step with another runner. We just plodded along together, without a word, for about a half mile. Then I turned to her and said "I wouldn't still be running if you weren't here." To which she responded,"I would still be walking if it weren't for you!" All it took was the least little encouragement for each of us to go on. Our Barnabas Runners are there to help you finish. Give them a hand signal or something to let them know you could use a little help or company or just to have them run with you. We want to help you finish! Barnabas was known as The Great Encourager, and that's what we want to do.  If this appeals to you and you would like to volunteer as a Barnabas Runner on Sat the 29th, just go to the event page, sign up to volunteer, and in the comments box put Barnabas Runner. We also need traffic flaggers. Enjoy your day!

So if you're interested sign-up  and be a "Barnabas Runner".  Or heck, just come out and cheer on those that are doing the 10K and half-marathon.  Just another chance for "Team Compass" to be heard and make a difference!

6. Find More Contributors
Yes...there is still time to get more people to donate to our "Feet For Freedom" campaign.  So continue to get those pledges and/or collect that money!  If you have already collected some money, Pastor Chris says that you can bring it to Compass, put "Feet For Freedom" on the envelope, and drop it in the offering bucket.

So have we left any questions unanswered?  If we have, then you can email us, and we'll get an answer back to you as quick as we can!

Good luck with the rest of your training!  Until next time....

Today Is The Day!

Have you registered for your event(s) yet?  NO?!?!?  What's wrong with you?!?!?  Ok...wow...that was a little harsh...please accept my apologies.  It's a Friday before a long weekend and we've got four short weeks to go before the event and it's a very special "blue moon" weekend and....well, you get the picture.

In all seriousness, if you haven't registered yet for one of the events (5K, 10K, and/or half-marathon) already, then it's highly recommended that you do it TODAY!  The cost of registration goes up by $5 starting tomorrow.  So unless you are a self-made, independent business owner and philanthropist gazillionaire like Tony Davenport then please get out there and save yourself the extra $5 and GET REGISTERED!

And if you don't mind parting with that extra $5, then go ahead and register today anyway and give that money directly to A21 through our fundraising page.  You won't believe how much better you'll feel if you do.

And on a side note, it's highly doubtful that Tony Davenport IS an actual gazillionaire, but making fun of him that way has caused us to realize how much he resembles another gazillionaire philanthropist...namely Tony Stark aka "Iron Man" as brought to life by Robert Downey Jr in a series of insanely good comic book movies.  Coincidence?  We think not....

Count Me In!

Are you wanting to get in and join us but you haven't been able to sign-up at Compass?  Stay calm.  Don't worry.  This post is for you.

We've put together a quick little form that you can fill out and let us know that you want to join us in what we're doing.  So please take a minute and complete this form and give us all your information.  And oh yes....WELCOME TO THE TEAM!

And if you've already signed up on one of the sheets at Compass, you can still feel free to fill this form out too.  It's ok....we're good with that.  And don't worry....we won't expect you to run more than once...unless you really want to.

What's Next?

So hopefully, you've now completed a couple of weeks of your training program.  And believe it or not, the hardest part is already behind you.  It's true.  Many people who finish the full program say at the end that the first couple of days were the toughest days of all.  They say that the effort to just get out there and get going is more challenging than running the full 3.1 miles that you'll run during the race at the end of the program.  So now that you're out there and doing this thing, let's take a look at a couple of the other parts of the "Feet to Freedom" journey.

1.  Tell Them
Now we need you to actually go register for the race.  You can either use the link over in the right hand navigation towards the bottom or this one.  It's recommended that you go do that soon because the cost for registration goes up on September 1st.  The cost varies depending on which race you decide to participate in; namely the 5K, the 10K, or the half-marathon.  This is simply to get you entered into the race so you can run and get a super-cool race bib and partcipant t-shirt.  Don't worry...this kind of bib is totally awesome and doesn't have food stains or anything on it.

2.  Tell Others
This is the second (and officially not related to the race) step to registration.  This is where you go to Crowdrise and begin to spread the word that you are raising money to support A21 through Compass.  Crowdrise is the site that we're using that specializes in advertising fund raisers for ministries and charitable organizations.  They are wicked cool people and totally secure.  You can do use the site in one of two ways; you can give people the address to Compass's own fund raising page; that's here.  Folks can give directly to A21 and you don't have to mess with it any further.

Or you use your email address or Facebook account and create a personalized account on the site; that's by using the "Login" in the upper left corner here.   They claim it takes 8 seconds to register; however, I timed it and its more like 6.9 seconds, but I have a wicked fast computer.  Once your account is created, you can go to the "Feet for Freedom" page (that's the one above) and there's a big black button that says "Join The Team" and then you can join our fund-raising team.  The only difference is that you'll get a personalized page that you can send your friends/family/co-workes/enemies to to have them support your efforts and you'll get to see a total of exactly how much you've raised.

Whichever way you choose, the money goes to A21 and we're helping a great cause!

3.  Tell Us
This is the simplest one.  There's a sheet at the "Welcome Center" on Saturday at Compass.  Please fill out all your info...name...email address...shirt size...and which event you're running.  This will allow us to e-mail bomb you with updates and encouragement...ok...we won't actually do that, but we will send you an email or two from time to time.  It will also allow us to get our totally awesome "Team Compass" running shirts ordered.  They will be the awesome moisture wicking kind that are all the rage at bigger races.  The designs and colors on those have yet to be finalized.  But we'll post images of those when they are done.

So that's it...as simple at 1...2...3...  Well, and 4 if you count the "get training" step.

Keep up the great work!

Now What?

So if you've gotten to this point, you're probably ready to take the next step.  And your natural question would probably be...what exactly IS that next step?  Both literally and figuratively, the next step IS to take a step....or more specifically to take a bunch of steps.  It's time to start training!

If you haven't yet, grab a copy of our training plan.  What we've done with this plan is to take the somewhat well-known "Couch To 5K" program and modify it slightly so that if you complete the entire program, then you'll be ready to complete the 5K on September 28th.

All it takes is a time investment of 35 minutes a day for three days a week over eight weeks.  And that's it.

So lace up those shoes and get going!  Let's do this thing!

Welcome!

Hello! Aloha! Greetings! Salutations! Konichiwa!

Thanks for stopping by the Team Compass - Feet For Freedom website! What is that exactly? Well, I'm glad you asked...

Compass is partnering with the A21 Campaign to raise money to fight human trafficking by lacing up our shoes and running! On September 28 & 29 you have the opportunity to run a 5k, 10k or half marathon to help rescue, educate and house young women across the globe who have been trapped in sexual slavery against their will.

When confronted with the horrific statistics surrounding human trafficking, it is easy to agree on the fact that "someone should do something." The A21 Campaign was born when the decision was made to raise our hand, and be that "someone." It was a decision of ordinary people who decided to take responsibility regarding the issue of human trafficking. At Compass we are ordinary people just like them who want to make a difference in our world, and we will give our feet for the freedom of girls who are in desperate need.

Please bookmark this site and check back frequently as we'll have excited news and updates in the coming days and weeks!

Now get those shoes on and GET TRAINING!