So I finished. I didn’t feel very good actually. Well the finish did…but for some reason, I just wasn’t having a good running day! I just didn’t feel good the entire race. That being said, I was proud to finish in under 10 minutes per mile.
The race was beautiful and it was great to run with my friends. We all finished at about the same time. We were all exhausted, but it was a great time.
Thank you all for your support and love through this race.
The next journey….Honduras….11 days. Wow!
First, thank you all for have given. You are truely generous and encouraging. Please know that you will receive a proper thank you once we return from Honduras. Until then, I sincerely thank you for your generosity. Currently, you all have raised over $700 to help the people of La Acequia in efforts to supply clean drinking water, personal hygiene, and building supplies!
Sunday afternoon, my friends and I ran for 1 hour and 46 minutes, which is our longest so far. After completion we were all so tired, and we could think nothing but, wow, the race on Sunday is going to be tough.
The biggest lesson I think I have learned from this journey happened later on after that run. A group of us are hosting a Hunger Banquet on Thursday. This banquet is to help educate people of our community of the unequal distribution of wealth throughout our country and the world. We are hoping to make people aware and then show them opportunities to get involved both locally, nationally, and globally. I’m very excited for it.
The banquet is a simulation where the people are split into different groups, randomly, called low, middle, and upper incomes. Each group will receive a meal based on the income group they are in, low (60%): rice and water, middle (25%): rice, beans and water, high (15%): speghetti, salad, option of drinks, etc.
Sunday night, after our long run, our group decided to partake in a meal much like that of the low and middle income groups (85% of the worlds population). A while after eating a meager rice and bean meal, I felt horrible. My head was spinning, I was cranky, tired, I couldn’t think and just pooped!
I got home and thought, I have had 3 meals today, with plenty of water, I CHOOSE to run for an hour and 45 minutes, and I have a nice bed to get into for rest and to sleep away the famishness I felt at that moment.
My eyes swell with tears as I think about the millions of people who, unlike me, are lucky to get one meal per day, walk for hours to get water, water that may not even be clean, and then rest their bodies on the hard ground.
I hope to press on during the race on Sunday, remembering as I struggle that I run for those who do not have a choice, for the most part they are born into it. I run that I may not sit in my own comfort, but remember.
I hope that you too, have learned from this journey and can in your own part of the world make a difference for those who struggle daily for simple things we take for granted.
“He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” Micah 6:8
Thanks!
