this broke my heart. :(

I'm so glad that I'm doing something (through WorldVision) to bring clean water to these communities that so desperately need it. You can support our efforts by donating to Team World Vision - or make your impact last longer by sponsoring a child. This picture does not need to remain a reality. THANK YOU FOR MAKING A DIFFERENCE!

20. Check.

I finished my the peak of my marathon training long runs this past Sunday morning. 20 miles. 20 long, grueling miles. I usually do my long runs with the Team World Vision training group, but had to change it up this weekend (for the longest run) because of the #Lawndale5K (which was awesome, btw).

My man and littlest kiddo at the Lawndale 5K - just before the Kids' Dash.

But my running buddy was true and great and we struggled along and finished together. Of course, I forgot to take pictures of the 20 miler effort. Blast. :(  But even though it was so much longer than I wanted it to be, I finished. And I finished strong. My feet were sore, my back hurt, my mind was numb - but I finished with a strong pace.

Some of my motivating thoughts while running: I thought about my kids and how proud they would be. At some point. You know - like when they're older... and I thought about my loved ones who have sponsored me. They see my effort and how much I care about this "clean water" thing and are willing to give their hard earned money to tell me "Go, AMANDA! I think you can totally do this!" And all those things motivated me to want to finish.

The marathon itself is only 15 days away now and it's looming closer. I can't believe all the hard training is done and I'm tapering now. I have two more "long" runs, and I find myself looking forward to them. I love running. I love clean water. And I love all my friends and family who have been so supportive this training season. THANK YOU!

a world away...

My daughter and I will sometimes talk about the World Vision child that we sponsor as a family. Her name is Robin* and she lives in Uganda. She's in the fifth grade. She loves her friends and learning things at school.

On the surface, it seems Robin and my daughter have a lot in common. With the only exception being that Robin is a bit older and lives in Africa. But when we look at a few of the things that separate them, stark differences surface - one that becomes apparent rather quickly is access to clean water.

My daughter can have great water for drinking/cleaning/brushing her teeth whenever she wants. It's brought into our home - she just has to turn the faucet. That's it. My daughter's chores include cleaning up her toys, keeping her room clean and helping fold laundry (sometimes). Robin's chores are much bigger and include hauling water for her family. And that's just how things are there. She doesn't have a faucet to turn on. She doesn't have plumbing. No one there does. So she fetches water so that the rest of the chores in her house can happen. Washing clothes, dishes and people. Not to mention, drinking and cooking.

The thought of my daughter walking through a village to bring back jugs of water is not a pleasant thought for me. It feels heavy and unsafe. I don't like to think about it. And I don't really like thinking about Robin doing that either. I know that the miles I run and the dollars I raise for clean water projects in Africa make a real and tangible difference in the lives of girls like Robin. Their quests for clean water don't necessarily end, but they can become safer. Shorter distances, in public areas with truly clean water as the prize. If Robin can more time going to school than trekking with heavy buckets for her family, then we've all done her a great service and as she learns and loves and grows, her entire world will benefit.

Thank you for supporting me as I work to make a difference for girls like Robin.

*Name changed for privacy. Not that I think you know all the 5th grade girls in Uganda or anything - but seriously - it just felt skeevy to put all her personal deets out here on the world wide web.

A family that trains together...

I ran 29 miles this past week. My calves are sore and I have blisters on my feet, but it's worth it. That cost of soreness and blisters really isn't too much considering all the benefits - fitness, fun(ish) and I love that I'm running for a great cause - clean water. Who doesn't need/crave/love clean water? But another unexpected benefit for me is being able to experience this with the support of my family.

Base training for most of the other runners on my team started in mid-April. But I had more of a "base" to build, so my training started way back in January. It's already been 8 full months of early mornings and treadmills and running magazines. But my husband has been supportive the whole way - making sure we have plenty of the right foods to eat, keeping gatorade in the house and cheering me on, all while managing the kiddos. With two little ones - that's no small feat. He plays with them and handles morning routines on longer run days. He's even been known to rub my feet. Once. (But it was amazing and I'd really like it to happen again someday. Soon.)

My kids are awesome at being supportive too - in their own kid ways. One of my favorite parts of a run is the when I come back home after running and my 4-year old daughter asks me "how many miles today?" She's so excited that she says, "Wow! That's awesome!" no matter how many miles I tell her (even when it's "just" 3 miles). My little guy squawks and squeals when I come home, and runs feverishly around my legs and the living room - he likes to be a part of the excitement too. I didn't realize how good this was going to be for our family to do together. We even started a countdown calendar (shown here) for race day - the big day is now in just 41 more days (I'm a day late posting this picture). It's starting to feel like it's actually going to happen and race day will be here before we know it.

I thought that doing this with kids was going to be so much harder. It's not always easy, but it's so fun to have this family thing that we can do together.  They make this whole process of training for a marathon a little less grueling. (And a lot more cute!)

16 miles, intense fog & a mild case of heat exhaustion

I probably had some dehydration too. But to be fair, it was totally the weather's fault. Sweat can't cool you down if it can't evaporate...

A quick photo of Lake Michigan I snapped while running on Saturday.
The fog was thick and made it hard to cool down. :(

Saturday morning's long run was particularly long. The first few miles are always hard. But they usually get easier as my legs and breathing fall into a mindless rhythm. This didn't happen Saturday. At mile 6, I accepted that it wasn't going to get any easier. At mile 10, I started feeling light-headed. At mile 10.5, I told my running buddy that I had to chillax a bit. We slowed our pace wayyyy down.

We ended up walking (serious speed-walking) the last few miles to try to cool down a bit. The fog lifted - kind of. The sky started to clear. We talked about how much we wanted a tall glass of ice cold lemonade. And remembered why we were doing this huge, seemingly insurmountable thing in the first place - so that everyone can have clean water to drink, to cool down, to get clean. So that everyone (especially kids) can have all the things we so desperately wanted as we slugged it out on the running trail.

I got in all 16 of my miles and took my chills and headache home. I rung out my clothes, showered and continued on with my life of mothering my adorable kiddos while trying to take it easy, drinking plenty of water and gatorade. It's been a few days and I'm back to my old self - feeling healthy and ready for a few more miles bright & early tomorrow morning...