DannyClimber.com

Tired after 42km trainer. Lost 3 kg. Gear on floor.

The following is the content for a website I set up at http://www.justgiving.com/dannyclimber.  I am running an Ultra-marathon stage event that consists of 6 marathons over 7 days, and this website gives people the opportunity to donate to the Earthwatch Institute, an organization that researches all sorts of environmental problems.

Thoughts about the Race
So against better judgment, the advice of loved ones and friends, and any semblance or rationality, I have signed up to run 250km (155.34 miles) through the Gobi Desert over seven days this June.  You can read more about the event here (http://www.4deserts.com/gobimarch/), but basically, it is just as crazy as it sounds.  Oh, by the way, we also have to carry all the supplies and food we’ll need for the week.  The only thing the organizers will provide is water and a spot in a tent.  The race is taking place from June 14th- 21st, and I’ll be blogging during the race here:
http://www.4deserts.com/blogs/comptetior_blog_new.php?pid=NDIz&blog=10

In actuality, I will likely walk or crawl as much as I run, but I am determined to finish.  The training has been too grueling to not at least come away with a finisher’s medal…and that is all we will get.  In fact, my initial purpose for taking part in the Gobi March was to impress my friends, but as it turns out, most of the people I talk to about this just give me a “Do whatever you want to man…” expression, so I’ve decided to come up with something more philosophical.

This kind of event is truly inspiring because it pushes the human body and mind to its limit, which is so much greater than anything you would think possible!  The average present day human existence doesn’t usually test the full human potential, which doesn’t just mean physical ability, but also creativity, adaptability, love, and charity too! (HINT, HINT)

About the Charity
The industrial revolution, the information revolution, the future is the GREEN revolution.  When choosing a charity, I was looking for one that was established, had international reach, and had a record of success in several areas.  Earthwatch’s research projects have had positive impacts in fields ranging from Ecosystem Services , Climate Change, Oceans, and Cultural Heritage.

Specifically relevant to the desert race and something that I learned during three semesters studying Environmental geology, is one particular result of climate change called DESERTIFICATION.  So, if you don’t want to be running your own personal Gobi March is about 100 years, give some $$$$ to the people that are researching to fix the problem!!

I don’t think a high fund raising goal is necessary, because everyone can just give 10 dollars, it is so easy!!

About Me
23 w/m/6′/175/hzleys/brnhr

I am an Aerospace Engineering student at the University of Tennessee, but this year, I have taken out loan to study Mandarin in China.  When I return to the States after this last grand hoorah (the Gobi), I will still have one year until graduation, making me a 6 year undergrad. :)  When I do eventually graduate, I hope to become a pilot in the US Air Force

So please sponsor me now!

It is 1630, Saturday afternoon, and I’m sitting in my 7′X8′ room, NATO Camp KAIA, Kabul, trying to decide whether I have anything worth adding to the site.  All I can think of at the moment is that six days from now, I’ll be seeing Danny and his mother in Beijing.  I am excited about the visit more than I care to say.  It’s been eight months since Danny left Tennessee for his adventure in China, and it seems to me that he’s had one after another, with a few more fothcoming before his return sometime in June.  It is soon six months away from home for me, and I’m afraid my experiences during that time do not compare, and are not likely to.  My flight to Dubai is Thursday, and then on to Beijing for our reunion.

My first impression of Ha’erbin was the outside temperature gauge on the front of my train car during the eight hour ride northward.  I didn’t watch it consistently and so just got interspersed data from the linear trend downward, -1, -4, -7,-14, -16 deg. celcius.  I feel like a wuss after having watched the news of the extremely cold weather in the states right now, but this was still the coldest place I had ever been.  The city is known around the world for its famous ice and snow festivals during January and February as well as the worlds largest Manchurian Tiger Park.  I was lucky enough to see both of these awesome attractions during my two night, one day trip.  Since I traveled during the day both ways, I knew that I needed to squeeze as much into the full day as possible, but I won’t get ahead of myself.

Read more »

I’m not sure what has spurred me to take this leap.  It may have been all of the environmental classes that I’ve taken over the past couple of years,  it could have been randomly stumbling upon chooseveg.com and watching their slaughterhouse videos, or it could be an intesified desire to save the world after having watched the entire first season of 24 and Jack Bauer consecutively.

Whatever the case, I have decided to become a vegetarian over the next 30 days to see if I can do it and to see what it’s like.  For a long time, I have considered a vegie lifestyle. Despite coming from a background that makes fun of hippies, it always seemed to me that vegetarians were pretty well informed or at least passionate about good things like the evironment.  I don’t want to stereotype poeple however because there are many reasons why people choose vegetarianism.  People I’ve spoken to cite animal cruelty, resource economy, health, meat is gross looking and even “I don’t really have a reason. I just wanted to try it.”  Vegetarians also have various levels of eating habits, usually related to the choice of eating fish, eggs, dairy, or food that has been cooked with meat .  A common thread that I have noted with several of my successful vegetarian friends is that eventually they grow to severely dislike meat and to even find it discusting.  When I was a freshman in high school, a friend told me his reason for swithing over.  He said that every time he saw a strip of steak, he imagined a slice of his own forearm muscle on the plate.

For this month, I will pull strength from all of these reasons because I will need to.  I really like to eat meat, but I just decided that my affinity for meat could be put on hold in the interest of what might be a higher cause.  The reason that makes the most sense for me is natural resourse management argument.  For example, it might take 1000 pounds of grain to feed a pig over it’s lifespan, which would then produce only 10 pounds of pork meat.  If everyone simple ate the grain, there would be that much food for everyone in the world.  In one of my environmental classes I learned a statistic.  The way the world eats now, we can produce enough food for 1.5 times the world population.  If you ask why there is hunger, the answer is distibution problems.  If everyone in the world ate the way Americans eat, there would only be enough food for 0.7 of the world.  Lastly, if everyone ate the way people ate in India (many vegetarians) we could feed the world 3 times over.

I expect this journey to be quite difficult, as I have chosen to not eat any meat, eggs, milk, butter, or foods made with animals of any kind as far as I can help.  Being here in China will make it more difficult because I won’t always know the ingredients in the food.  Many times, the Chinese use small strips of meat as a condiment, and don’t even consider it as meat even if you ask!

Many people, namely my mother, have told me over the years that if you don’t eat meat, you won’t get enough protein and nutrients.  Well, I have known vegetarians that are very unhealthy, eating only potato chips and french fries, and I have also known and read about many incredibly healthy vegetarians.  I have heard that the complex proteins found in animals is very difficult for digestion, and many fish in today’s polluted waterways contain dangerous levels of mercury and other toxins.  All this to say, I have never had any nutritional deficiency that I’m aware of, and won’t worry about it until I do.  I will make an effort to eat tofu and beans, which are in high supply around here.

Another benefit of this project will be that I will be forced to cook for myself a little more because my standard habit of snack eating almost always contains eggs or meat.  I’ll keep you posted of my improvements in that area because I’m pretty much starting from scratch.  Meredith has promised to help

Dec. 18th, 2008 was a Thursday.   I woke up early but Jennifer was starting to get a bad cold. She slept almost all morning.  I went to breakfast.  The breakfast room was next to the pool area and workout room.   They had a pretty good breakfast bar with 4 or 5 stir-fry dishes,  eggs cooked anyway you choose, cereal,  fresh fruit and salad bar, porridge w/ pickled vegies, assorted bread and rolls to toast and pastries.  There was also cold juice , milk, coffee and tea.  They eat a lot at breakfast.  Danny and Meredith came about 1:30 and we walked to the subway.  It was the first time I had been on a subway, so I was confused and had no idea which direction I was going.  There is no decorum; you just keep moving and stay close to the people you are with, because the locals just cut in line, and its a cultural thing.  Our destination was the Lama Temple.  We stopped at a street vendor for an egg crepe type folded burrito thing that tasted really good.  The temple had many different kinds of Buddhas, and the architecture was ornate and beautiful.  It was very smokey too because of the inscense.  I was most impressed with the size of the sandalwood tree Buddha, 18m tall and carved from a single piece of sandalwood.  The sandalwood smelled nice.

We went to the Silk Market next.  It was overwhelming.  Danny and Meredith were in the process of warning Jen and I about the onslaught of high pressure vendors from the time we walked in.  I thought I knew what I wanted to look for before I entered, but I was not focused enough.  They don’t take no for an answer or even, “No, thank you.”  They don’t even accept “No, I don’t want that”.  “How much is it?” is what they want to hear, and then the haggling begins. If you hesitate to look at any one thing, they have you.  They will follow you if you show weakness.  I bought a traditional Chinese jacket (beautiful green silk and sequin) shortly after we got there.  Meredith helped me haggle. Danny is a very good haggler.  Danny has a way of antagonizing the vendors before its all over because he can argue for ever, whereas, Jennifer gets her price and everyone is laughing. I just would get tired of the game and give in.  That drove the kids wild.

We then went to a restaurant  and had lots of spicy, hot food.  Dan took us to Olympic Park next.  It was so cold our hands and feet were frozen by the time we walked from the subway to the “Bird’s Nest”.  It is an amazing structure and a lot bigger than it appears in pictures.