Mark Allison - Legends of OM

Small World Phenomenon

July 14, 2011

Our Pygmy OM

July 19, 2011

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You know, it’s possible to achieve an awful lot in 75 days if you put your mind to it.
Just ask Mark Allison.
Think about it for just a moment, if you will. Consider all that you’ve done since May 1, almost three months ago, coming up to11 weeks, 75 days.
During that period, Mark has travelled well over 2,000 miles, passed through eight States, looked out over the Pacific Ocean and the Mojave Desert, seen Las Vegas and The Mississippi River.
He has crossed California and Nevada, Arizona and Utah, Colorado, Kansas and Missouri. He is, right now, somewhere deep in Illinois.
Lest we forget, he has done it all under his own steam. In other words, on foot.
Mark has put himself to the ultimate test – running each day, all day, the distances incomprehensible, the achievement awe-inspiring.
Earlier this week, the athletic Englishman celebrated his 40^th birthday, marking the occasion in trademark fashion: on the road, pounding the narrowest of shoulders alongside Route 36.
His day’s mileage total? 40, of course!
During his 75 days, Mark has taken his fundraising total to almost $70,000 – $70,000 that will be put to the best of use at St Benedict’s Hospice and The Children’s Foundation, the good causes chosen to benefit from this, a true super-human effort.
Here in Saunderstown, we’ve followed Mark’s progress throughout and are still at a loss to understand the phenomenon that is this remarkable man.
Running is not a strong point in our studio, it’s fair to say. Indeed, we’d struggle to manage two miles, let alone two thousand (and at this point, we’d like to be a bit more exact about Mark’s total mileage, but he keeps moving, you understand).
That said, there’s more to life than running and, in the 75 days since Mark departed Huntington Beach, his first mile of 3100 still ahead of him, we’ve been engaged in something of a marathon of our own.
Right at the top of this blog, we asked you to consider everything you’ve done since May 1.
Well, we asked ourselves the same question and were surprised at just how much we’d managed to squeeze in.

During that time, for example, we’ve sent 160 OMs to the MTV Movie Awards in Los Angeles, made a beautiful bespoke OM for Tim Burton

and another for President Obama no less.

The latter responded earlier this month on Presidential notepaper, assuring us that our OM had made it to The White House. Not bad for 75 days, right?

But wait, there’s more – so much more. You see, we’ve also created a special OM for Alice Pyne and sent it to her in England,

and we’ve dispatched OMs to Spain to trek El Camino de Santiago and raise funds for The Pygmy Land Project.

We’ve sent OMs in their numbers to Pennsylvania as graduation gifts,

and individually to homes across the United States and beyond, touching lives, making connections, wherever they’ve gone.

During that time, we’ve welcomed new OMs into our lives and welcomed new friends as well, as all our hard work online – here on our blog, on our website, on our Facebook page – has paid off, helping us make more connections that we’d ever thought possible. There’s still more – our electronic newsletter, OMmail, for instance – but we’re sure you get the idea.
Looking back, we’ve realised that the last 75 days have been good days for us here in Saunderstown.
There have been some hard days, just like Mark has encountered; challenging days like Mark has overcome; rewarding days, like Mark has enjoyed. It is the rewarding ones that stick in our minds.
Now, this morning, on day 76, we’d like to wish Mark well for the remainder of his journey, his final 100 days, one heck of a home stretch, the last 1000 miles or so to New York City.
Here in Saunderstown, our journey, our path, will continue, past Mark’s 100 days, past August 8.
But no matter how long it lasts and how far it takes us, we’ll never fail to take inspiration from a man who has shown us just what it is possible to achieve in 75 days if you put your mind to it.