Since February his year I’ve been training to run in the City to Bay fun run from Adelaide to Glenelg. I’ve never done it before and before I started training I’ve never run more than 5km before. The City to Bay is 12km and during training I’ve managed to run the distance a few times now.
I’m not just doing this for fun however. Tomorrow I run the City to Bay with Team World Vision to help raise money for the UN World Food Bank. I’ve set myself a target of $500. If I can raise this much through World Vision it qill unlock $5000 worth of food and resources through the multiplying gift appeal. $10 of aid for every $1 raised. Visit http://www.teamworldvision.com.au to find out more.
While I’ve been training, I’ve been reflecting over the journey and what motivates me to keep going. My personal target is to run 12km in under an hour. It’s been hard work and often a mental battle as much as physical one to keep going and finish what I’ve set out to achieve.
It’s an uphill battle
I train in the Adelaide Hills and where I live it’s impossible to go for a 12km run without encountering hills. You can’t even run 3 or 4 km laps without hills. Do you know what I’ve discovered? Running up hill is darn hard on a long run! It requires extra energy and eating into reserves and drains you that bit more for the rest of the journey. You can’t maintain pace with hills, it just throws you out.
This is what it can be like for the +900 million people who will wake up hungry today. While I can easily enjoy 3 meals a day and maintain pace, they will wonder if they get to eat today. Survival can be a constant uphill battle against the many elements that stand against them. Just accessing one quality meal a day and clean drinking water will help desperate communities catch a break.
Restrictions
I’ve noticed during my runs in the hills that the air can get quite cold. The cold air restricts my capacity to breath normally and I find it harder to run at normal pace. Unlike when I started training on a treadmill where the environment was controlled, there were no hills and the atmosphere was comfortable, out on the road conditions vary from day to day and are not always predictable or controlled.
When I visited South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe in 2008 i got a glimpse of the reality of the impact of uncontrolable conditions. When we experience drought, floods, fire or cyclones in Australia it hits our farmers devastatingly hard. We are incredibly lucky to live in a country where our government has the ability to offer financial aid and help re-establish farmers. We also have incredibly generous citizens who band together and not only donate money but time and effort. The impact this has on me personally is my groceries may be more expensive at the supermarket for a period of time.
What I saw in Africa is when there is a drought or a flood, many communities have their crops destroyed and there is no back up plan. There is no shop to buy supplies and if there were, no money to buy supplies with. For a community totally dependant on self sustaining, to have to endure years of drought with not enough water or good soil to grow food, this is devastating. Then when the rain comes it floods and everything is destroyed. I’ve heard heartbreaking stories first hand and some communities year after year just can’t get a break. They constantly endure restrictions because of the environment they live in and rely on assistance from outside their own country to help get hem back on their feet.
These restrictions are heartbreaking. I find itvhard to breathe when conditions are difficult but i have a comfortable warm home with running water and food in the pantry to retreat to. Those communities i seek to help struggle to live.
Giving up is not an option
There have been so many times during my runs that I have just wanted to stop, give up, because it’s all to hard. I think I can’t make the distance. This is more a mental battle for me than a physical one. So I set myself mini goals to get me that bit further. I still can’t run 12km without slowing to a walk every now and then but one thng I’ve vowed not to do is stop.
Every time I think about stopping I’m reminded that stopping or giving up is not an option for the millions who struggle to find ways to sustain life everyday. I run for relief because sustainable living is a marathon. So I keep going running, it’s the endurance of those who keep going against the odds that inspires me to keep going. If they can I can. What I can do is something with my resource and ability to raise enough men to give some communities a chance to build capacity to the point where they might not need relief anymore. Now that would be pretty awesome.
How you can help
I have a fundraising page at http://www.teamworldvision.com.au/mark_riessen please donate there if you want to make a difference. Your donations are encouraging me to run the race and finish within my target time because I know I’m doing it for a purpose that will help change the world for the better.
Thanks for reading, feel free to comment and encourage and watch for further posts
Shalom
Mark
Mitcham Hills Churches 
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