Run 56 miles?
Yep, that’s what I’m gonna do…
I was asked to be part of a team of athletes headed to South Africa to partake in a staggering fund-raising effort to benefit African children. I would be expected to generate 100 sponsors willing to commit to a child for the next five years. To prove I was serious about the whole thing, I’d have to run the world’s oldest and greatest ultra-marathon, The Comrades Marathon: a 56-mile jaunt started 80 years ago to honor the fallen comrades of World War I.
My initial response was an emphatic “no,” the whole “run 56-miles” thing was a bit of a turn-off. Eighteen hours later something had shifted around in the cranium and all of a sudden I was anxious to start training and called back to commit.
It must have something to do with the enticement of a challenge, one I can’t say I was expecting anytime soon. Not surprisingly, such a task requires some serious training for most of us mortals. So on Saturday I ran 13 miles then ran another 20 on Sunday. Looks like I can expect similar workouts—just longer—for the next five months.
And you can expect that I’ll be looking at all avenues to gather the sponsors I’ve committed to generate. On that note, if you’re reading this, please consider. I’ll have more information available soon, but it’s something to the affect of $35/month to help an African child get an education, some food and clean water, and some clothes on his or her back.
Perhaps you can get a group together willing to sponsor as a team. Perhaps you can get your company, your fraternity brothers, your family or your basketball team to pool funds and commit with me.
Please come back to this site in the next few weeks for more information about how you can help. I know that the suffering I’ll experience on May 30 (not to mention the many, many miles and the many, many hours of preparation) will pale in comparison to living without the means necessary to live the lives we’ve been blessed with.
Still more info can be found at www.comrades4thekids.com and www.worldvision.org.
