Perhaps the biggest marathon news of the year was the eight hours it took for registration for the 2011 Boston Marathon to close.  In one of my first posts I stated that I wanted to run in the 2011 Boston Marathon and that to qualify I would run the Sacramento marathon.  The historic Boston marathon sell-out took place on October 18th, 2010 about 6 weeks prior to the date of the California International marathon, where I had planned to qualify.  So while I did run under the qualifying time for my age group by 33 minutes in Sacramento, I missed the boat a few times over  in terms of registration.

In 2007 I placed 3rd in my age-group, 271  out of 8000 women and 3061 out of over 20,000 finishers. My goal had been to try and make it into the top five for my age group for 2011, a goal, which was probably not realistic for 2011 but with more time to prepare a possibility in 2012.

The most disappointing aspect of this development is that I had planned to use my Boston marathon goal as a way of raising funds for a sponsorship program for AIDS-HIV orphaned children in Ethiopia.  Which brings me to MY BIGGEST GOAL FOR 2011 WHICH IS TO RAISE FUNDS FOR THE ORPHAN SPONSORSHIP PROGRAM run by P2P Aid Organization Canada. Our family sponsors an 8 year old girl named Tigist and my husband and I are organizing a gala event to raise funds for this program.

Tigist, 8 years old

In November we attended a dinner held by P2P Canada.  A good friend, originally from Ethiopia is one of many highly committed volunteers and donors for the sponsorship program.  And, no, he does not run.  Hopefully, the challenges of the over 1,000,000 AIDS-HIV orphans in Ethiopia will be as well known as Haile Gebrselassie and the incredibly talented Ethiopian distance runners who have dominated the Boston marathon for years.

I am training for a spring marathon but have yet to decide which marathon. Entry to the London marathon in April is already closed so I will have to do some research and come up with a new goal race. Meanwhile, training continues to go well with 42.5 miles this week and a very comfortable 11 mile run with good company today. Remember that keeping fit should and can be FUN!

With our P2P friends

LOVED - FED - CLOTHED - EDUCATED