A New Course

Wyatt and my dad in St. Paul

I thought it might be good to write down how I came to decide to run the 2011 Boston Marathon for World Vision. My dad, my son and I were wandering about the Twin Cities Marathon Expo on October 2, about to leave, when we happened upon the World Vision booth in a far corner by the restrooms. Up to that point I had heard of people running marathons for all kinds of good charities, but I didn’t know there was such a thing as “Team World Vision.” We didn’t stop at the booth very long, but I provided my contact information on a sheet to request more information and then didn’t think about it too much more. At that point my mind was more focused on the next day racing my first marathon since knee surgery 20 months earlier. Maybe that was a good thing since the next was a very special day. I ran my best marathon ever (at age 44!) and was triply blessed having Dad and Wyatt with me. Wyatt ran along parallel to the finish chute yelling, “Dad! Dad! 2:50!?” Exhausted, I looked across at him with a raised “thumbs up” and said, yes, I thought so.

In my post-race euphoria I had almost (but not quite) forgotten about Team World Vision, but at the end of October I received an email from World Vision letting me know they were responding to my sign up. I guess I’d got myself into something and it wasn’t going to go away! Since we visited Ethiopia in 2009 it had been bothering me that Kay and I needed to do something more. The needs are so great in Africa, and it is hard to know where to start or where one can make a difference. The magnitude of the problem and the uncertainty of where best to start has been paralyzing for me. But the idea had been nagging me that I had to do something, had to start somewhere. So, when Orphan Sunday rolled around at our church my heart became even more deeply convicted. There was this something right in front of me that I could try to do. I’m in the race, God willing I will run it, and now I’ll try my hand at fundraising for what I think is about the best cause there is, bringing hope and practical help to some of the poorest kids in the world. And that’s pretty cool.