Run, run, run

Photos by Bethany Gerber Before the race

Musings of an international runner.

I can't believe that a year ago this month I first thought about running a half marathon. Me, the person who had never even ran a whole mile. I wrote about the fear of running and of committing to run the race. It was scary, it was big and I was sorely out of shape.

I did it though. I ran my first half marathon. Brittany helped me, I owe her lots and lots. It's amazing to go back through and read what I wrote about running, how I learned to love it and gain the energy from it. I continued to run during the summer and once I got here to Tanzania I looked for my daily route I could take. Here in Usa River I found such great places to run and run I have been. I even got Kellie, the Havilah volunteer, to run some days with me.

On the first day of meeting the volunteers from Cradle of Love I found out about a race taking place on the slopes of Kilimanjaro and I knew I was going to run another race.

WAIT. Take a moment to think about that. I wanted to run another race, the girl who couldn't even run a mile one year ago, run again?! Amazing.

However the downside to my training was that I got sick, a lot. I had malaria twice and a cold once. That totaled up to about 3.5 weeks or so of no training. Ugg. But I knew when the race day came I would have fun, run my heart out and enjoy the beauty of running on Kilimanjaro.

I did it. Sunday, February 26 at 7:30 am I ran my second half marathon. My first international race and I did great. I didn't make a new PR but I accomplished my goal: to run the whole thing. Which was no easy task for me because it was UP HILL (and by up hill I mean up Mount Kilimanjaro) the entire first half. That however made the second half beautiful. I was able to pick up speed again at the turn around point.

All four of us volunteers did great. It was several of their first races and I couldn't be prouder of my friends. Sure the Kenyan's beat us in time but we had a blast. Just the adventure of getting there was enough to last a lifetime.

I guess now that I'm an international runner I should keep it up. As if I could actually give it up now though.

If you are in town please stop by and we'll go for a run.

I'll even let you pick the route.