Why I run in 90°+, humid heat.

The sweat is so thick on my skin, I am literally sloughing it off my skin. It is 85 degrees, and this is the cool part of the day, after dusk–it feels almost nice after jogging 4 miles last Monday in 90+ heat. The toads are hopping, the couples getting in their evening walk in the dark. I know I’ll come home to a sweaty cup of iced water and nice cool shower.

This is why I can’t complain.

I started this marathon training at the end of May, inspired through Eagle Brook Church. It was a great opportunity because not only did proceeds from the fundraising go to a wonderful organization that I have the privilege to working with this summer, World Vision, but it is a perfect summer to try something new.

Graduation this past May from Northwestern sent me spinning into summer—the internship, more hours at Lakeshore Barbers, and left me gobbling up time I get with my best friend, Julie. She is marrying this August and moving to New Jersey, where her fiance lives.

Huge summer already.

So, to celebrate, I thought I would run 13.2 miles in a bright orange jersey.

Clearly.

What started out as personal goal/fitness driven/good-cause motivating running process has turned into a journey of awareness: I have been learning two things: 1) How bad I am at running 2) How blessed I am.

I can make time to run, I have an education, I choose who I marry, what I will do occupationally. I don’t wake at 5am, like Sabina—a 23yr old woman and mother of three, and destroy my back every day.

Sabina and neighbors:each woman scoops 13 gallons a day.

For her entire life, she walked 2 miles to a brown river, filled up 70 pounds worth of water, walked two hours back—twice a day, every single day…even the days she gave birth to her children.

Four back-breaking hours for 13 gallons of water to do all her cooking, laundry and children bathing.

I imagine her praying that Cholera and Typhoid fever would not snatch her family or self like it did some neighbors.

Her dream is for her kids to have the education she herself never had time to have.

Her dream is to take a bath in her own home.

Her dream is that her young daughters would not be kidnapped into a marriage at the water well, as early as age 6, since women are the ones to bring water to family.

Through World Vision, she and 68,000 others will receive water through a

Water!

spigot in her very neighborhood, and get her life back.

So this is why the humid training is worth it. My couple of hours of jogging in the heat is nothing compared to the life that’s been robbed by those women and families who are “chained” to the river.

Sabina’s story made me cry one paragraph and smile the next—I hope it touches your heart as well.

Here is one example of how World Vision brought water to a place where no Lelan resident thought was possible.

Would you contribute to this water project by supporting me in my upcoming half marathon? Not only would I feel more motivated in my humid runs, but you could save the future of an entire village.

Any donation is welcome—from $10 dollars to $500 dollars…

Please consider matching my gift of $75.

http://support.worldvision.org/site/TR/TeamWorldVision/General?px=1169719&pg=personal&fr_id=1450

She carries 70 pounds of water on her 100 lb frame for 4 hours a day, and rests 12 min per 24 hours. Every day, even the day she gives birth.