I’m running a marathon for charity! (Well, a 1/2 marathon but still…)!

               
                I recently decided to become involved with a charity Marathon run here in South Africa.  I completed that Olympic-distance Triathlon for cancer research (Team In Training) back in late 2007 in the states and so this opportunity seemed kind of familiar.   I guess I’m at this exercise-for-a-cause thing all over again – just in a new country…  The opportunity to run in the Drakensburg Mountains of eastern South Africa for a charitable cause seemed like something I really couldn’t pass up.
                The name of this charitable half marathon is called the Longtom Marathon.  It’s actually a half- as well as an ultra-marathon, and I plan to participate in the half, which is 21.1 km.  (I’m a bit too out of shape and it’s a bit too hot here in South Africa to venture into ultra-marathon territory though maybe it will be something to strive for when I return to the states…).  This half marathon is happening on March 29^th in the village of Sabie which is in the Mpumulanga Province of South Africa.  The area is not far from Kruger Park which is the famous game reserve in eastern South Africa (You can search on You Tube for some wicked wildlife videos at Kruger including the Eyewitness Video-of-the-Year filmed a couple of years back.  Actually, I searched for you:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM).  The run will start at the top of the Longtom Pass and go downhill most of the way into the city of Lydenburg.  A good number of other Peace Corps volunteers will be taking part so I imagine it will be a lot of fun to get together with them for the weekend and run in this beautiful part of the country of which I have not yet seen.

Oh and the charity component…  The main reason for my (and Peace Corps’s) taking part in the Longtom Marathon is to support the Kgwale le Mollo (KLM) foundation.  Their website is www.klm-foundation.org; please check it out.  The KLM foundation is an organization that was founded by two Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV’s) who served here in South Africa a few years ago.  They decided to hook up with the existing South African Longtom marathon as a fundraiser.  The KLM foundation funds a worthy, needy child to attend an excellent secondary school in Mpumalanga Province.  The school that the recipient child attends is called Uplands College.   KLM’s philosophy is to help South Africa by educating a future leader through a quality program that otherwise would be unattainable for these children.  And the child they choose is meticulously selected, going through a four-tier process of elimination (a bit brutal perhaps but necessary since only 1 child a year is funded through this program).  The four children who have been chosen so far in the preceding years are so far excelling and the foundation has been successful.  The feeling of having all of that support behind you as an aspiring child is inspiring to me.

Yes, I hesitate to request anything over my ‘blog’ and so please forgive me if this seems inappropriate (and don’t start avoiding the blog!).  But I hope after reading about the KLM Foundation and this marathon you will find yourself as supportive as I am of their work (yes, I am donating money myself!).   Donations of $5, $10 or $20 really would help out.  I only need to make a minimum of $200 but there is no upper limit and this foundation definitely needs the money.  US dollars go quite a long way here in South Africa!  All of the donations are tax-deductible.  Donating is quite easy online as all that is needed is to go to that KLM website (http://www.klm-foundation.org), and click on the ‘donate’ photo in the top right corner.  Make sure to put my name in the top white box where it asks for the Longtom runner you want to sponsor.  Don’t let the amounts they have listed there scare you, you can just put “other” and put whatever amount you feel comfortable.

Thanks so much for your support of me, and especially for supporting the child who is chosen next year to attend Uplands.  If you are not able to donate at this time, that is of course okay as well.  Thanks for reading this blog!  I most definitely will give an update in this blog after the race to document how the weekend goes.

~ by Andrew Bernish on February 24, 2009.