2007 Blue Planet Run Lands in Denver on August 14

MEDIA CONTACT: Alysha Crouse
Kaplow for Blue Planet Run Foundation
acrouse@kaplowpr.com 646.747.3598

“Runners Edge Of The Rockies” Running Club and Water For People to Provide State-Wide Escort

Denver, CO, July 24, 2007 — On August 14, the team of 20 international citizen athletes who have been running around the world nonstop since June 1 will arrive in Denver, as part of their journey across the continent for the 2007 Blue Planet Run.
This unprecedented international athletic event is raising money to fund water projects that will deliver safe drinking water to some of the 1.1 billion people who currently live without it.

The inaugural 2007 Blue Planet Run, an event made possible by the generous support of The Dow Chemical Company, launched from the United Nations in New York City on June 1. Since then, the team has traveled relay-style 24 hours a day, seven days a week through Ireland, England, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Poland, Belarus, Russia, Mongolia, China and Japan. Enduring some of the world’s most diverse terrains, the runners have faced tough conditions, from navigating the crowded streets of Prague to swatting flies through the Gobi Desert.

A member of the Blue Planet Run team will arrive in Denver, carrying the Blue Planet Run baton, which will be handed off to the awaiting runner. Videos and other activities at the exchange point will educate and entertain local citizens, and inspire donations through the Blue Planet Run Web site, www.blueplanetrun.org.

A $30 contribution can provide one person safe drinking water for life, according to the Blue Planet Run Foundation (BPRF), the nonprofit group organizing the Run.

The runners, representing 13 countries, include a renowned jazz musician; a Scottish gardener; a champion marathoner; and married couple Brynn Harrington, 29, and Sean Harrington, 30. Upon arrival in Denver, the team will have covered more than 10,000 of the 15,200-mile journey, which will take 95 days to complete. Blue Planet Run team members run individual 10-mile (16-kilometer) shifts.

“By the time the Run leaves Denver, we hope every local resident becomes a witness and messenger to a human crisis happening right now — a crisis brought about by the lack of safe drinking water,” said Jin Zidell, founder and chairman of BPRF. “Just as we’re doing around the world, we’re carrying a message of hope, step by step, through the streets of Denver, to push the issue to the forefront of people’s minds and hearts in this city.”

The 2007 Blue Planet Run route through the Denver area includes Golden, Bennett and Aurora, beginning in the morning hours of August 14 and continuing west for the next several days. After Denver, the Run continues on to Kit Carson City and enters Kansas on August 15.

Runners Edge Of The Rockies running club

Members of the “Runners Edge Of The Rockies” running club and the non-profit water and sanitation Water For People will accompany the team on their four-day journey through Colorado. “Runner’s Edge of the Rockies” is a Colorado-based running club of ~250 runners who are training for marathons and half marathons throughout North America and internationally. Water For People is a long-time partner of Blue Planet Run and provides water supply and sanitation to communities in Africa, India and Latin America.
Nearly 2.2 million people, most of them children, die each year owing to diseases related to unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene. Water-related illnesses are the single greatest cause of human sickness and death worldwide.

“The water crisis is a worldwide epidemic, affecting more than one-sixth of the world’s population,” said Andrew Liveris, CEO and chairman of The Dow Chemical Company. “As a global company and a world leader in chemistry, we at Dow are uniquely positioned to help provide safe water to those in need — and sponsoring this first-ever Blue Planet Run is just one of the ways we are addressing some of the most pressing challenges faced by humankind.”

Through the Peer Water Exchange, BPRF’s breakthrough online system that taps a worldwide network of water experts to optimize funding decisions and project management, 100 percent of individual donations made to the foundation are contributed directly to sustainable water and sanitation projects in the rural developing world. To date, BPRF has provided funding to 135 water projects in 13 countries.

Blue Planet Run athletes and support staff are staying connected with one another during the Run thanks to wireless products provided by sponsor Motorola. “With more than 1 billion people throughout the world lacking access to safe drinking water, we felt compelled to get involved,” said Jeremy Dale, corporate vice president, Mobile Devices Global Marketing, Motorola. “Motorola’s dependable products will ensure Blue Planet Run athletes and support staff stay seamlessly connected with each other so they can spread the vital message that safe drinking water must be made available to all.”

Blue Planet Run is inviting runners, walkers, teams, clubs and ultra-runners to be part of the Blue Planet Run team by participating in the 10-Mile Challenge. To learn more, visit www.blueplanetrun.org/runwithus or contact Ned Breslin at Water For People regading the Colorado legs of the run at nbreslin@waterforpeople.org.