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Man Runs His Birthday Down

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By JAMIE PILARCZYK, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 9, 2008

Updated: 02/07/2008 08:11 pm

DAVIS ISLANDS - While Gasparilla revelers were donning pirate apparel and imbibing early morning beverages, David DeLong was making laps around them.

It was DeLong's 50th birthday, and he decided to run 50 miles in honor of that milestone. At 3 a.m. Jan. 26, long before the Jose Gasparilla invaded Tampa, he joined a dozen friends and family who ran, biked and kept him company at intervals throughout the day.

"I don't know how I made it through," DeLong said. "It was divine intervention."

On a blog he kept on his Web site, www.50for50.com, DeLong wrote: "We start on a slow pace, not knowing what was in store later in the run. The miles were clicking by pretty good, lots of off color commentation helped pass the time."

It wasn't the first such challenge for DeLong. He has completed 35 marathons. When he turned 43, he ran 43 miles.

"I've never gone this far," he said.

He finished in 8 hours and 11 minutes, which he considered a slow pace. Because of two stress fractures in his hip, he alternated running five miles with walking for five minutes.

DeLong, an acoustic guitarist, began his 50 for Fifty project two years ago as a way to raise money and awareness for Hands of Hope, an organization that provides medical care, medicine and counseling to the rural poor in Guatemala.

When DeLong and his wife, Mary, adopted twin girls from Guatemala in 2002, they contacted Hands of Hope to get background on the health of Guatemalan children. DeLong then decided he wanted to help the group's founders, Gregory and Anita Giagnocavo, do more.

"We were just so amazed that Mary and David wanted to help us without ever meeting us," Anita Giagnocavo said.

The Giagnocavos moved to Guatemala from Pennsylvania in 1998 and started Hands of Hope a year later. They moved to Colorado in 2006 and plan to return to the Central American country in 2009.

They corresponded with the DeLongs by e-mail and met them for the first time at the finish line for DeLong's Gasparilla run, the baseball fields on Davis Islands.

"We were so excited," Anita Giagnocavo said of DeLong's $6,000 donation.

They run the organization on small donations as they get them.

"That is how we basically survive," she said.

Hands of Hope operates its clinic on an average monthly budget of about $3,500. It also sponsors scholarships for children, since public education in Guatemala ends at sixth grade.

Anita Giagnocavo said the donation is a big boost for the clinic. The organization wants to upgrade the 1998 pickup it uses to transport patients to and from villages.

"People like David and Mary have been such a blessing," she said.

For DeLong, sharing the run with his family was worth all the effort.

On his blog, he wrote: "One pair of shoes $85, running shorts $25. Crossing a 50 miler with my girls ... priceless."

STEPS TO HELP

For information about Hands of Hope, go to www.Hands-of-Hope.com or e-mail info@ hands-of-hope.com.

For information about 50 for Fifty, go to www.50for50.com.

Reporter Jamie Pilarczyk can be reached at (813) 835-2114 or jpilarczyk@tampatrib.com.

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