Running for Life

Seven weeks from today, I'll be running the 34th annual Marine Corps Marathon - my second time in that race and my third marathon in a year. After last year's MCM, I was proud of myself and glad to be done, and had no intention of running another marathon anytime soon. A week later, I started looking at marathon calendars online to figure out when my next one could be.

Running has become such an essential part of my life that I can't imagine not doing it - it's as natural as breathing. Or maybe a better simile is that it's like drinking a glass of water: I can go without one for a while, make do with other things to drink, but that first sip of water is more refreshing and rejuvenating than anything else.

Not everyone has the luxury of reaching for a glass of water whenever they want. There are people around the world whose only accessible water source is dirty and disease-ridden, but it's all they have so they bathe in it, cook with it, drink it.

In an effort to bring them the clean water I take for granted every day, I'm dedicating this third marathon and my first year as a marathoner to the people charity: water, an amazing non-profit organization, works to help. In the past three years, their water projects - digging wells, drilling wells, protecting mountain springs and the streams that carry their water - have brought fresh, clean water to 725,000 people. Their goal is to have reached 1,000,000 people by the end of the year, and I'm hoping you'll be a sponsor of my project - Running for Life - to help them get there.

(Convinced? Visit my campaign at mycharitywater.org/runningforlife to learn more and to donate. If not, keep reading.)

Through charity: water, $1 is all it takes to provide fresh, clean water for one person for a year. To make my project reflect who I am, I'm raising $5,240, enough to fund an entire community's water project and give 262 people - for the 26.2 miles in a marathon - access to clean water for 20 years.

$5,240 sounds like a lot of money and it is, but it's not impossible if we reach out and work together. You see, if 200 people - less than half the number of people in my high school graduating class - give $26.20 each, together we'll have raised that $5,240 and be able to give a struggling community fresh water and fresh hope.

So I'd like to ask you to give $1 today for every mile I'll run in the Marine Corps Marathon on October 25th, and to share the link to this post (http://tinyurl.com/mwd4q6) or to my campaign (http://mycharitywater.org/runningforlife) with anyone you know who might want to help. $26.20 is a symbolic amount. I know that's a lot for some of you and not much for others, so just know that every dollar makes a difference. And if you can't give a dollar, please pass this on and ask others to help instead.

Running for Life received its first donation on September 4th and will be accepting them until December 3rd. By then, I hope we'll have reached our goal and be well on our way to bringing new life and new hope, in the form of access to clean water, to a community in need. In the meantime, thank you for reading, and for any help you can give this campaign.