Marathoning.

Hello, friends, family, and other web-surfers who have stumbled upon this site on accident (please stay, anyway). As some of you may know, I had the privilege of going to Kakamega, Kenya two years ago to complete an internship. While in Kenya, I was blessed to go through the internship experience with two wonderful people and friends, Abbey and Hayley. They have both stayed involved in initiatives in Kenya since they returned to the US in December 2007. Abbey has been involved with a project called Water for Shikokho, which aims to bring clean, accessible, and sustainable water to this village, where she lived and worked in the fall of 2007. Hayley is on the board of directors for an organization called Just One Person, founded by Annette Lilly Russ, which aims to educate and empower Kenyan girls. Through my time in Kenya, I by no means became an expert of any kind - but I did learn that two of the biggest issues facing Kenya are a need for clean, accessible water, and a need for young girls to be given the opportunity to be educated. Since Hayley and Abbey are both working to raise awareness and support for these issues, I wanted to join in their efforts - although I am doing much less work than they are.

However, I figure the more the word is spread, the better. So, at the risk of becoming a total stereotype (a la Stuff White People: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/26/27-marathons/ - I also love sea salt, Mad Men, and promising to learn a new language), I have decided to run a marathon. And I will blog about it! My hope and prayer is that this whole endeavor will bring awareness (and yes, raise money), to these really important issues being addressed by Hayley and Abbey, and not be about me. Running a marathon may sound impressive, but as someone who has run one in the past, I can tell you that anyone could do this. I will not reveal my time in a public forum such as this, but I will say that the guy who won the Chicago Marathon yesterday could probably run the course twice and still beat me. However, it is still quite a useful way to raise awareness and money (I hope), so I'm doing it.

My blog entries will probably be totally haphazard - I will present stories and information from Hayley, Abbey, Annette, and others about their work and their experiences in Kenya. I will also write some running-oriented posts about such fascinating topics as the cushioning of my insoles and my favorite running songs. It's going to be exciting. My goal is to really make this an interesting website, even if I only have a handful of readers. If you have anything specific you'd like to hear about - stories from people living or working in Kenya, questions for Hayley, Abbey, or Annette, etc... - please let me know and I'll try my best to make this an interesting blog to read.

I will try to update almost every day, so feel free to subscribe to me in your Google Reader or just bookmark me! This week, I will dedicate posts to more extensive descriptions of each cause, including thoughts from Hayley and Abbey themselves. I will also talk more about my time in Kenya, as well as my motivations for staying involved in some way. On days when I don't have anything important to say, I will probably just write posts about running as if I know what I'm talking about. Mostly, this will probably just consist of me plagiarzing from Runner's World. Just kidding (maybe).

My goal is to raise money for both of these causes and to spread the word about causes that are deserving of our attention. I do realize that most of you probably receive appeals of this sort regularly, and it's not possible to give your money or your attention to every single one. However, if you do feel the urge to give - even a little bit - it would be very much appreciated. There is a PayPal button located to your left, if you do choose to donate. I will make sure that half of each donation goes to each cause. You will receive a letter directly from each organization to acknowledge your donation. I'm running a legit operation here - I promise! And if by some chance you've stumbled upon this blog by accident, would like to give money, but don't trust me, you can go directly to their websites (http://www.just1person.org and http://www.fsdinternational.org/donate/projects/Pape), although I promise I'm trustworthy. Even if you can't or don't want to give, I do appreciate you taking the time to read this far, and if you enjoy the ramblings of someone who pretends to be both a writer and runner, I invite you to come back for the witty stories about my shin splints. If any of you are marathoners, I welcome any and all advice. Thank you so much for reading!