Running for the Mona Foundation

Earlier this week we announced on Facebook the reason behind the madness of training for the Orcas Island 50k. The response to the Facebook cause, "Ultramarathon for the Mona Foundation" has been awesome. Just a few days later and more than 15 members have joined forces with this effort. Here are some excerpts of the bulletin sent out to all the Facebook members:

(children at the Badi School in Panama)

It's been less than a week and we've already formed a 15 member strong force. I'm taking tremendous encouragement from all of you who see the great importance in Mona Foundation's work, and are happily sending me to a cruel and punishing fate to demonstrate your commitment. It's truly inspiring! In all seriousness, you have no idea actually how encouraging it's been!

The training is picking up in intensity and the support is critical, I can't do this without you... Saturday and Sunday will be back to back long distance runs, which together, equal an entire marathon. First is a 16 mile trail run Saturday, then a 10 mile trail run Sunday. Despite a love of long distance running, it can be easy to lose sight of why I'm doing this. You can help with staying focused on the goal!

If you haven't done so already, I highly encourage going to the Mona Foundation website at monafoundation.org and getting to know their many projects around the world. They select projects on the criteria that they develop from grassroots educational initiatives and seek to raise the social and economic status of the community as a whole, including those of women and girls.

The Ruaha school in Tanzania is a great example of an effective Mona Foundation project and it's lasting impact:



As incentive, the top three contributors to the Ultramarathon for Mona Foundation will receive special gifts. These will be announced later.

Join the Facebook cause and donate at: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/414286

Interact and lend support! Get live tweets and updates on the weekend training with twitter at http://twitter.com/50kForMona

And get the lowdown on the training at http://www.dailymile.com/people/KamranL