I am running the Great River Relay on August 20-21 to help raise money for Drinking Water in Africa. Water shouldn't be a source of pain. Please hop over to my fundraising page and provide a cup of cold, refreshing water to a child in Kenya.
The Inaugural 13.1® Minneapolis took more than 2,500 runners and walkers on a course filled with festivities, beautiful scenery and live entertainment. Kicking off near St. Anthony Main and ending at Nokomis Park, the half marathon and Karhu 5K, proved to truly be where the party met the pavement.
Coming in first was Chad Ernst, 22, a lieutenant in the Marine Corps, with a time of 1:13:50. “I was pleased with
everything about the race, especially finishing first,” said Ernst, who has been running since he was ten years old
but had never won a race this large. Other top male runners included Christian Mihelich, coming in second at
1:16:32, followed closely by Jonathon Balabuck who finished the race at 1:17:38.
The first female to cross the finish line was Leah Thorvilson, 31, with a time of 1:26:11. Thorvilson recently
qualified for the Olympic trials marathon team and has run over 150 races in the past 3 years. “I’ve competed
in a lot of races and was really impressed with this one, particularly the turn out for an inaugural race,” said
Thorvilson.
Charity partner Team WorldVision has raised more than $150,000 and expects to top the $200,000 mark overall
for the race. The money will go towards providing clean water for more than 68,000 children and families and
I’ve been busy and haven’t done a very good job of promoting my fundraising efforts for Water Projects in Kenya. Nevertheless, families need clean access to water throughout the world. Can you imagine not having clean water? You couldn’t wash your dishes, laundry, or even get a drink. You could wash your hair but it wouldn’t be soft and you’d need more than conditioner to make it look good.
What would you do?
We turn on the faucet and clean water comes out. Occasionally, during the snow melt in Minneapolis our water has some weird smells to it and tastes a little odd, but it is still safe to drink. We snuff our noses and buy bottled water. Some people don’t have that choice. They spend hours each day to get water that we’d refuse to drink.
We can change that.
Watch this video and consider making a donation on my behalf for clean water in Kenya.
According to the Science Museum of MN, the average American drinks 26 gallons of bottled water a year. That is about 416 8oz bottles of water. That adds up to a lot money! World Vision estimates that it can dig a well for $13,700. If 33 people gave up bottled water for a year and gave that money to World Vision a village could have a healthy and safe water source!
A deep well fitted with a hand pump can provide up to 2,800 gallons of safe water a day to benefit as many as 300 people! In many communities, clean water lies hundreds of feet below layers of hard rock. Children have no choice but to walk long distances to find water that is often dirty and disease-ridden. When our drilling teams strike water, entire villages erupt in celebration because a clean water source can cut a community’s child mortality rate by as much as half. -- Well page
Check out this video created by Team World Vision.
Can you imagine drinking water like that? Our water isn’t anywhere close to that and yet we spend tons of money on bottled water! Take a second today and support clean water projects in Africa.
I’ve decided to join with Team World Vision again, to help change lives in Africa. I am running the Ragnar Relay from Winona, MN to Minneapolis. I along with 11 others will complete the 193 mile journey along the Mississippi River. This is very appropriate since this year money raised through Team World Vision will support clean water projects in Africa. Will you sponsor me?
I am raising money to help dig wells and provide clean water in places like Kenya. When a community gains access to clean water, here’s what happens:
> The infant mortality rate is cut in half
> Children can attend school instead of walking up to 6 miles for water each day
> Women can spend time learning a trade to support their family instead of collecting water
> Overall health is improved with clean water and sanitation
> Crops and livestock thrive with clean water and proper irrigation
The problem of poverty can seem overwhelming. But I believe there is something we can do. Whether you can give $10 or $1000, no amount is too small. Together we can help change lives in Africa.
PS. Team World Vision is part of World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization. Your donation is tax-deductible, and you can learn more about the organization on their website: http://www.teamworldvision.org.
I decided to do something a little crazy, especially since I’ve been suffering from Plantar Fasciitis and my knee randomly swelled up on me recently.
I signed up a team for the Ragnar Relay – Great River edition. On August 20 and 21 this race goes from Winona, WI to Minneapolis, MN and traverses 193 miles in the process. With 12 people running out of 2 vans the average distance any one runner runs is 16.1 miles. Over three runs and two days that isn’t too scary of an idea. Throw in the fun of running together and 15 passenger vans and it is a piece of cake.
I signed up for four reasons, 1 – we saved a good chunk of money on registration fees 2 – I got two free Ragnar headlamps, which will come in handy during the night-time legs of the race 3 – Ragnar posts a fairly easy training plan that starts April 9 and 4 – children are still dying for lack of healthy water.
To make the race even more exciting I and (ideally) the whole team will be raising money for Team World Vision. All money raised this year for Team World Vision will support water projects in Kenya and other African countries. World Vision is an amazing organization and I’m sure you’ve heard of it, if you haven’t I’ll direct you to this series that I wrote on my blog. My goal is to raise $2,000 again this year, which averages out to about $10.37 per mile of the relay.
So what I need from you is two things. First, I need you to e-mail and say that you are excited to join Team Run the River for Africa. I actually have to add you to the team on Ragnar’s site, we’ll then make arrangements for you to get me your $85 registration fee and a signed waiver. Secondly, assuming you want to help support water projects in Kenya you’ll need to visit Team World Vision’s site and signup under our team. (This isn’t a requirement but I’d like the entire team to be wearing Team World Vision jerseys.)
What do you think? Are you up to the challenge? I’m sure you are! We’ll iron out more of the logistical details over the next few months.
I’m pretty excited about this and look forward to running with you.
Nick
PS. As if that wasn’t crazy enough, Team World Vision is hosting a 13.1 mile race in Minneapolis on August 22. This is one of their big national events and a portion of all proceeds goes towards their water programs. Additionally, there will be a ton of World Vision focused stuff going on with hopefully 1,000′s of runners sporting TWV Orange. When I first came up with this idea, I was planning on doing the relay and finishing with the 13.1 mile event on Sunday. I’m taking a more cautious wait & see approach on that right now, but if you do it, I’ll probably do it too! If you were a little bit of a chicken and wanted to only commit to running the 13.1 that’s fine too, I suppose. You can still join my Team World Vision team!
PPS. Ragnar Relay rules require us to provide 3 volunteers to help throughout the weekend at aid stations, etc. We may also enjoy having additional drivers and nighttime bike riders/pacers. So let me know if your interested in that too!
I left Desalech with an amazing sense of hope, and also urgency. She had seen her life turn around. But I could only imagine how many other women there were like Desalech who desperately needed help: life-saving help.
I had traveled to Ethiopia with a couple of other World Vision staff who worked solely with Team World Vision. They basically recruited people to run marathons in honor of people like Desalech in Africa, raising awareness and asking for financial support in the process. This marathon thing, to me, was an absolutely ridiculous idea.
In seventh grade, I was the girl who faked being sick to avoid running one mile in gym class. Chalk it up to all the classic reasons: self-consciousness, fear of failure, embarrassment. I dreaded that one mile so much that I probably wasn’t actually faking sickness at all. The thought of running for even 10 (OK, maybe 14) minutes, coupled with the resulting humiliation of it all, was enough to make me physically ill. Let’s just say that my aversion to sports did not improve throughout high school. Or college.
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