This year’s team did an outstanding job representing DAYO in the 2008 Need for Speed Relay. Both the athletic and philanthropic efforts exceeded my expectations once again. I would like to thank DAYO for sponsoring this effort.

http://relay.avonfoundation.org/site/PageServer?pagename=relay_beneficiary

CHARITY: The true reason for the race was an effort to raise money for the Avon foundation (fundraising beneficiaries attached). The 2008 Need for Speed Relay raised over $700,000 towards the battle against domestic violence. Doing their part, the 10 person team DAYO raised $1725.00.

EVENT: The Need for Speed Relay is a 9 leg, 53 mile event from Bear Mountain state park to New Rochelle. It covers rough terrain as well as road courses and significant elevation changes. The shortest leg of the event is 2.9 miles in length while the longest is 9.3 miles.

In the 2007 event, the inaugural effort for DAYO, our team finished 107^th out of 118 teams (I had erroneously read the results last year and assumed we finished higher). This year team DAYO finished 76^th out of 102 teams (Yes, I am sure!).  The event itself was grueling. Tough enough on its own, the 2008 event was run on a day with high humidity and a heat index of over 100 degrees. Team DAYO, while finishing 76^th, did not complete all 9 legs of the event (Only 22 teams out of the 102 finished all 9 legs). By the time our runners got to the checkpoint after leg 7, the race was called due to the high number of heat related injuries. I saw myself several collapsed runners being tended to by EMS along the route. We did finish to leg 7 and were prepared to finish the race but the officials had called the race at that point and would not allow runners to continue. At leg 7 only 86 of the original 102 teams reached that checkpoint.

While finishing 76^th overall, DAYO’s shining moment was finishing leg 6 in 27^th by Kathy Calo, an experienced competitive runner who described this year’s race as “the toughest race I have ever run” when she came across the finish line of her leg, looking completely spent.  Team DAYO also had an inspiring moment in leg 4 finishing 29^th by William Marquis, a 16 year old runner who had just been cleared by doctors to run the race a few days prior after being hospitalized by a viral infection. William is the son of Donald Marquis, also a team DAYO runner. To put things in perspective of the competitive nature of the race, our leg one runner Marc Pasco (who dedicated his run to his brother who is serving with our armed forces in Iraq), finished 93^rd. Marc is an experienced runner who ran the Philadelphia Marathon last year and is training for this year’s New York Marathon.

All in all when the day was done, every member of team DAYO was once again very –(over)

happy to have participated in the event. Everyone could be proud of their efforts on race (day and as a team raised more funds for charity than I expected we would in these tough economic times. Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity with your support!

Daniel May