So I'm famous...

Here's a picture of 2 of my kids supporting me at mile 15 in Las Vegas.  It was great to see some familiar faces mid race!

Just wanted to let you guys know that I'm pretty much a celebrity now...  Okay maybe not, but I did have an interview with THE VEGAN POLICE.  The idea that someone is interested in my story is somewhat profound to me.  I am flattered to say the least!  So if you are interested...  http://theveganpolice.com/main/?p=1238  is the link to the interview.
Also, I am in the planning stages of my next run and I will update everyone once I have found a race that will work with all the schedules in our house.  I initially had intended on running one marathon and checking it off of my "bucket list"... but it was such as awesome experience that I think I may be in the early stages of an addiction.
We are always collecting donations for Farm Sanctuary, even between races so if you would like to donate you can send a check directly to me:

Cory Kalanick
2697 Sun Dr
Hanford, CA
93230

And once I get the next run set up we will open up the account for credit card donations again.

Thank you everyone for your ongoing support!
Speaking of support we ended up with $1040.00!  We received a check in the mail the day that we were preparing the donation for Farm Sanctuary.

I'M A FREAKING MARATHONER!!!

Whew!  I made it!  I did it!  It was awesome!  It was fun!  It was a little bit painful... it was a little bit hard...  I'm still paying for it a little bit.
But, running for a purpose and running because people were counting on me got me through those last 3 miles.  It was pretty much smooth sailing the first 23 miles (did I just say 23 miles???!!!  That's a really long ways!) I experienced some pretty debilitating hamstring/calf/quad cramping and was concerned that with just 3 miles left to go my body may not allow me to continue but, I wasn't willing to give up.  I couldn't imagine having to let all of you know that I couldn't finish so I did some intermittent stretching and kept going.  As General Patton once said, "Never let the body tell the mind what to do."  It became an issue of mind over matter and it worked.  I crossed the finish line in 4 hours 6 minutes and 15 seconds.
I can't say it enough but, the support from all my friends, family and people I have never even met but cared enough to send in donations and words of encouragement made finishing possible.

Now for the big announcement of total funds raised!!!!.....

$998.95


Oh, wait!  I just got word that we got a last minute VERY GENEROUS donation from my wife of $1.05!  WooHoo!

$1000.00!


We did it!  We reached our goal of $1000.00!

Thank you all once again!  This would ABSOLUTELY not have been possible without all of you!

26.2 or BUST!!!!!!

Here is a picture of my super cool MARATHON Shirt!

LAS VEGAS here we come!

I have my Newtons all packed up, my Garmin watch all charged, my Vega protein is ready to go and my Marathon shirt in my bag. I wanted to SHOUT out a HUGE THANK YOU to all of the amazing support we have received. It has all come down to this you guys have done your part now its my turn to do my part and show you how much your support has meant to me! It looks like we came in just over our goal of raising $1000 for Farm Sanctuary so THANK YOU!!!! Keep an eye on Facebook and Twitter for my times. I will have the Start and Finish time as well as updates throughout the marathon! I want to give a very special thanks to my wife KATE, she has done the hardest work of all!! I had the easy part running listening to music, she had to take care of two babies (under two) help the older kids with homework, cook dinner, put on "woody" Toy Story again get milk(soy of course) get a snack NO not that snack the other snack, you get the idea.  She sacrificed the most. She deserves all the credit for getting this fundraiser off the ground.

I LOVE YOU BEAUTIFUL!

Forks Over Knives...

I don't even know where to begin!  It has been such an AMAZING week!  Let's start with our AWESOME supporters... the list just keeps growing and growing.  The support is just unbelievable!  NEWTON RUNNING!!!  HELLO AWESOME SUPPORTER!!!  If you know me at all you know how much I love my Newton Running shoes.  They are freaking incredible!  I shaved over 30 seconds off of my per mile pace and I have literally no pain anywhere since switching to the Newtons.  I contacted them to find out if they would be willing to support the cause by gifting me with a discount towards a new pair of shoes for the marathon (my pair are getting a little worn out with all this training) and they totally hooked me up!  Discount?  Try a 100% off discount!  They decided to sponsor me with a Social Awareness sponsorship!  Ya heard me... I'm sponsored!!!!  I still can't believe it.  To say that I have been pleasantly surprised by the kind and giving people I have encountered during this journey is a COMPLETE understatement.

VEGA also came through with a bunch of great nutritional drinks, energy bars, smoothie mixes etc.  I love VEGA and not just because they are vegan.  Their product is second to none in terms of nutrition, giving my body the fuel it needs for running and helping my body to recover quickly so I can go out and train again.  So THANK YOU VEGA and NEWTON!!!

Also, let me give a quick shout out to the girls from the Fresno Adventure Boot Camp!  Thank you for coming together to donate and support The Vegan Firefighter and Farm Sanctuary!

You probably noticed the handsome guy in the picture above... that's me as you all know :). And that guy standing next to me is Rip Esselstyn, the author of the book ENGINE 2 DIET.  My wife and I went to an advance screening of a new documentary coming out called Forks Over Knives and Rip was the host.  For those of you who don't know, Rip Esselstyn is a fellow vegan firefighter who was able to get the guys on his crew to go vegan for their health.  From there he wrote the Engine 2 Diet and is also featured in the Forks Over Knives Documentary.  He was a tremendously nice guy who took the time to autograph my copy of his book and pose for a picture to put here on the blog.  Check out his book if you get a chance.  There are some great recipes in there!   

And for those of you who haven't heard of Forks Over Knives yet it is a wonderful documentary about healing yourself with food.  The nutrition/disease connection is startling and this film does a very good job of showing how so many of the diseases we have come to accept as part of life DO NOT have to be with proper nutrition.  This could be a life changing/life saving documentary for some of you out there suffering with diabetes, heart disease, hyper tension, obesity... the list goes on.  Just watch it!

Ok I will quite with the vegan activist health angle and wrap this up... The Vegan Firefighter has been mentioned on a few websites so I thought for those of you that are interested I would pass on the links...

www.thisdishisvegetarian.com/2010/11/1070marathoners-go-distance-for-animals.html

www.examiner.com/animal-rights-in-national/marathon-runners-sprint-for-farm-animals

www.farmsanctuary.org/mediacenter/2010/pr_marathoners.html

Thank you again everybody for everything!

Training, training and more training!

Wow!  We have had sooo much going on with the fundraiser for Farm Sanctuary!

Here I am training... Check out the SUPER COOL shirt!  See, I told you I was running my butt off!  It's going really great though!  Getting my mileage up there and getting really excited about the run in December!

Thank you so much to all of you that have donated and supported myself and Farm Sanctuary.  It has been just amazing and overwhelming!  We are almost half way to our goal of $1000!!!  We still have a month left and we have a couple more events happening that should help us get a little closer to that dollar amount.  I have some really great friends down at the Fire Dept. Headquarters, Christy and Debbie who are showing their support by matching a percentage of all the donations that come from headquarters!  Thank you ladies!  Also, I am putting on a dinner for a women's "Boot Camp" fitness group to raise a few more bucks that should be pretty successful.

In other NATIONAL news... Farm Sanctuary is doing a press release in the next week or two highlighting The Vegan Firefighter and our fundraiser!  As soon as I get word I will post the release here.  Farm Sanctuary is also going to attempt to get some local attention from our news stations here in the Central Valley!  And, a website www.FreeFromHarm.org is doing a piece on athletes that are raising funds and awareness for Farm Sanctuary and a picture of yours truly will be posted on their site!  As soon as that article is up I will post a link so you all can check it out!!!  Thank you again for all of the support and if you know anyone who may be interested in supporting our cause please spread the word!

Woohoo! World VegFest 2010!

Hello Everybody!

Here's the first picture of the ACTUAL shirt I will be wearing for my training and the marathon (with all of your names added on the back of course)!  I wore it to the World VegFest in San Francisco this weekend.  I had a great time answering questions about The Vegan Firefighter and Farm Sanctuary (their logo is on the back)  :).
This is me with Robert Cheeke, he is the most well known VEGAN bodybuilder in the business, a SUPER nice guy and he also works for VEGA.  Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE VEGA.  It is an awesome vegan nutritional supplement.  They have protein powders, energy bars... anything you need to aide in training or to just supplement your day to day intake they have it.  Robert TOTALLY hooked me up with lots of VEGA goodies to keep me strong during my training and for my race.  If the idea of a vegan bodybuilder is intriguing you should check out his book Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness.

My wife and I also listened to a couple of great speakers at the VegFest and sampled some really great products and food.  We spent some time bumming around San Francisco, we stayed at a really great hotel (okay my brother's house...but it's a REALLY nice house).  We found an amazing sandwich shop, IKE'S, they have a list of a 100+ sandwiches for carnivores, herbivores and those pretentious damn vegans so everyone is happy!  We also took our youngest daughter Wynn for her very first ice cream at this fantastic little shop called Maggie Mudd that serves dairy free sundaes!

Okay enough about me and my weekend let me take a quick second to THANK THANK THANK all of you who have donated so far!  Our first week of collecting donations went well. If you haven't donated yet check out the sidebar for a link to donate using your credit card through GIVEFORWARD.  It's a great service that is helping us reach our goal of raising a $1000 for Farm Sanctuary.  You can also just mail me a check and don't forget to email me to let me know that you have donated so I can send you one of our SUPER COOL "I supported..." shirts.

Thank you again to all of our supporters, friends and followers!

Give Forward!

Hello Everybody!

We have received lots of questions in regards of how to donate, YAY!  So here are your options for giving:

1. Mail us a check!
    Make it out to: Cory Kalanick
    Our Address: 2697 Sun Drive Hanford, CA 93230

2.  Visit: http://www.giveforward.org/the-vegan-firefighter
     You can choose the amount you want to donate and pay with your credit card!

We appreciate ANY amount!  If you can give $25 we will hook you up with the shirt shown above letting everyone know that you are an awesome person that supported The Vegan Firefighter and Farm Sanctuary!

Please email us at veganfirefighter@sbcglobal.net to let us know that either a check is on the way or that you visited http://www.giveforward.org/the-vegan-firefighter and donated to the cause.  Please include your address in your email so that we can send out your SUPER COOL shirt!

Thank you everyone for your support!
Again if you have any questions please email us at veganfirefighter@sbcglobal.net