I think I might be a runner

I finished my first ½ marathon on Sunday. In 2:31:19 (that’s about 11 ½ minutes per mile, in case you were wondering). Although I officially started training for this thing back in August, the seed was planted much early by my brother. Back in March, over lunch, we caught up and chatted about a wide variety of topics. And somewhere in our conversation, I brought up marathons and how I had no idea how people could do that. His response was something along the lines of the important thing is to just start. Go out and do a mile, then the next day do a little more and not get caught up in the big, overwhelming picture. This advice really applies to lots of things in life doesn’t it? He’s a smart guy, my little brother.

When I was thinking about ways to raise funds and awareness about the food crisis in the Horn of Africa, I wanted to do something that required a commitment on my part. As I brainstormed, I kept going back to running. After a little research, I discovered the Detroit Marathon was about eight weeks away. I would try to do the 13.1 miles and use it as a vehicle for fundraising. I just had to start.

Eight weeks later, I was standing in the dark at 7am with 20,000 fellow runners. Getting ready to run for Ethiopia, for the awesome people who donated $1680 to aid those in desperate need and for myself.

Waiting in my "wave" for the race to begin

We ran across the bridge to Canada (and came back via tunnel)

My cheering section and fellow runner (Jose pledged to run the 5K if I met my goal of raising $1310)