Saturday, December 26, 2009

The day of the run...

Wow, 9 weeks ago I started training for today’s 8 km (5 mile run). Following a training program, I started running for 3 minutes, followed by walking for 1 minute, and repeated this 5 times on day 1. Looking back, it’s funny to think that I found this challenging enough to start out with. Two weeks into the program I was running 15-20 minute stretches without a break. And after five weeks I was faced with the 40-minute endurance run. This was a stretch for me and it was interesting to see how much I could push myself!

Some runs were definitely tougher than others. I ran in various places and in various weather conditions- the icy roads being my least favorite as they caused a lot of muscle pain due to running extra carefully to keep from falling. I think I ended up using muscles I’d rarely used before while running; I still have some sore muscles from my runs over the past week! I also discovered that running with music makes the runs much more enjoyable and somehow seemed to help me press on.

So 35 training runs later, here I am. If I calculated correctly I have run 926 minutes (15 ½ hours) and walked 135 minutes (2 ¼ hours) over the past 9 weeks. And today is the day of the main event- a sponsor run to raise money for a well to provide water for a community in a developing nation. A community who does not have access to clean drinking water. A place where mothers and children have to walk for miles to get to water, which is often contaminated and causes many diseases. With the help of others in this campaign I am hoping this can make a difference in the lives of these people.

For more information, see: http://mycharitywater.org/sandralako

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~ Act Justly. Love Mercy. Walk Humbly. micah 6:8 ~