The Basics

From June 19 - June 30, I will be traveling throughout Europe on what basically is the best business trip ever. I'll be doing the publicity for The Blue Planet Run, an around-the-world run from June 1 - September 4 to raise awareness and funds for clean drinking water. A team of twenty runners will run around the world, 24x7, for 10 miles a shot.

The unprecedented, 15,200-mile Run will circumnavigate the Earth’s Northern Hemisphere and, according to the Run route revealed today, travel through 16 countries including Ireland, England, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Poland, Belarus, Russia, Mongolia, China, Japan, Canada and the U.S. Cities and towns along the Run route will host local events to raise awareness and inspire action among their citizens.

I will be traveling with the runners from Prague to Moscow, including the great cities of Vienna, Krakow and Poland, and even the country of Belaruse, which Leonardo has informed me is the "most authoritarian government in the world."

As a side note, in Belaruse we'll have an armed security caravan traveling with us, at the cost of $16,000 per person, each day, for three days. I question whether this is really necessary. I think that if I were kidnapped, my abductors would soon tire of my incessant whining and questioning and would pay to *return* me to the run, but I guess we are trying to avoid that situation all together.

Along the run I'll be handling all of the publicity needs, including arranging interviews with foreign press and the twenty runners. I've met most of them already, and they seem like very accomplished people. You know the kind. These people accomplish more before 9am than I do most of the week, so I'm looking forward to quizzing them and determining a way to break out of my lazy stupor.

Over the next week I'll be blogging about my preparations, and I'm sure that these posts will be positively riveting. Please leave comments and questions for me. I'll be checking in every day and could use the company when I'm sitting in a car for four hours a day in Poland.

Peace out.