From left to right: Alissa Bjerkhoel, Marco Macklis, Ignacio Ayana, Justin Brooks, and Mike Semanchik
With a little over 3 weeks until the start of the march, we’ve been super busy. Between training, promoting, and working on the clemency petitions, we have not been sleeping much. We did, however, have time to sit down with Ignacio Ayana last Friday. Ayana is a friend of the project that has climbed nearly every mountain in the world. He lost a few toes climbing to the top of Mount Everest. He’s also run from Cabo to Tijuana in 50 days (roughly a marathon a day), biked from NYC to Tijuana in 30 days, and many other crazy athletic feats. He is, by all accounts, an insane athlete.
We spent the lunch hour discussing the most essential elements of a long trek such as the innocence march. Ayana stressed the importance of a healthy diet, quality gear, and keeping your mind in check. In fact, Ayana talked about the importance of envisioning only the completion of the day’s task. We were instructed to never think about Sacramento. We are only to think about the end-point for the day we’re walking.
This past week, Alissa and Mike spent a few days training. As we get closer to the actual start day, we are going to wind down our training and start resting up. We do not want to get any injuries in the weeks leading up to the challenge. Hopefully our training will pay off!
The first day is finally coming together. We will start at California Western School of Law with a press conference at noon. Justin Brooks will make introductions and Mayor Bob Filner will briefly address the crowd. We will walk along Harbor Drive, up and over Narragansett Avenue, and down into Ocean Beach. The Harp will have drink specials for everyone wearing our awesome new Innocence March shirts (see here to buy yours). There will be a special on beer and shots so be sure to get yours today!
The last day is also starting to come together. We’ll have a press conference on the West Capitol steps before presenting the clemency petitions to the Governor. If you can’t make the first day, be sure to come for the last! That, or come to our press conference at San Quentin State Prison on June 13th!
We’d like to thank each and every one of you who have contributed your time, efforts and money to help us on this worthy cause. If you haven’t done so, make a donation to sponsor one of the walkers. We could use your help making sure we have a fresh pair of shoes about 200 miles in.