The road to the Olympics is a arduous and painful road. A long distance runner must run thousands of miles of preparation in order to make it to the Olympic Trials. This road is even harder for the amateur runner, who receives neither sponsorship nor aid that the professional runner enjoys. An amateur runner by the name of Brandon Rowe is trying to change that by asking for a penny for every mile he runs in order to support his running career.

Brandon graduated from Haverford College in 2004 and has been making ends meet as a web designer, but his true passion is running. He runs anywhere from 11 to 18 miles a day to prepare himself for his main event, the 10,000 meter run. In building web pages, Brandon developed the idea of creating a web site where people could fund his Olympic aspirations for a penny per mile. He estimates an average run of 13 miles a day, 93 miles a week, 400 miles a month, or $4 a month in order to sponsor his Olympic quest. Since the site's launch on December 5th, 2005, Brandon has run 184 miles in 13 days, and has received one sponsor.

Brandon's site can be found at http://penny.runnerunner.com. It features his running log with daily mileage totals and training synopsis, along with profiles of his sponsors as well as a message board.