Marathon reflections

After 28 hours and 28 line dances, my entire body aches likenothing I’ve ever known.

I have to admit that I did fall asleep a couple of times: whilestanding up and eating. I didn’t think it was possible tofall asleep while doing those two things. I was weak.

They let us sit down to hear someone speak. I put my head down,thinking I was just going to close my eyes and listen. I shouldknow by now that never works in class, and it will never workanywhere else.

Touching moment No. 347 in my life: seeing a bunch of collegeguys who, at first glance, would appear to be tough, oftenobnoxious and completely void of sentiment, spend time with thekids from Bryan’s House. I think every guy walked away withsome perspective and a little soft spot chiseled into him. Itreassures me that there is some hope for men after all.

Boys — use that to your advantage. Tell every girl youmeet that you just spent 28 hours dancing in a fundraising event tobenefit pediatric AIDS research and that you even spent some timeplaying with kids. It’s a surefire win with the ladies.

The line dance this year was a bit shorter than previous years,which made it easy to learn for bad, uncoordinated dancers like me.It was especially short compared to the first year. That oneconsisted of at least 20 different songs, with about 50 dance movesthat I could not do. Nonetheless, this year’s dance was asizzlin’ dance.

By the end of this event, after being deprived of much neededsleep, we were all delirious. If you walked up to any one of us andsaid, “Line dance,” or started singing one of the songsto the line dance, we’d probably stop in our tracks andperform it for you. Reflexes. I urge you to test my theory.

Mustang Marathon is a tradition now. My year wouldn’t becomplete without it. Next year will be my fourth and final year. Ihope that another fellow dancer, Thomas Kincaid, will join me forour fourth consecutive year of this event.

10 p.m. revealed the official figures of Mustang Marathon2004:

28 line dances

2000 Mardi Gras beads

Four gallons of gelato

Nine live bands

1,100 bags of chips

One human foosball, inflatable

30 Bryan’s House kids

222 banners

900 wings

198 apples, oranges, pears and bananas

1,036 bottles of water

505 T-shirts

100 moralers

75 Volunteers

17 Steering committee believers

121 Dancers

28 Hours

$40,880.44 raised

Saving the life of a Child … priceless.

Congratulations to directors Ann Chao and Brandon Barnett forputting on a successful fundraiser that has been an entire year inthe making.

Numerous thanks to members of the steering committee for yourtireless efforts: Stephanie Ramirez, Kelly Donohue, GarrettFarwell, Shelley Young, Ceesun Sumurdy, Natalie Hawwa, VanessaDaniele, Chris Harwood, Dale Vaughn, Amal Rana, Leslie Checser,Alex Haayen, and Blair Benjamin. You all redefine what it means tobe ice cold!

Props to Jim Barber, the adviser who oversees this event everyyear. How do you do it?

Kudos to Shay Fluharty for raising over a thousand dollars— the most of us all. I’ll take you up on that offernext year to hit you up for money!

My deepest gratitude to Jordan Yaker, who worked 16 hours atMustang Marathon and decided to donate the money he earned to thischaritable cause. I am truly impressed.

And hats off to everyone who has dedicated their time and effortto this event. It’s quite an amazing accomplishment.

Ann Truong is a columnist for The Daily Campus. She may bereached at [email protected].