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| Running for Malawi Geoff Huband explains how the prospect of helping children in Malawi helped him overcome injury and illness and achieve a life long ambition to complete the 26 mile London marathon. Running a marathon has been a goal of mine since 1998 when I was forced to watch a friend from the sidelines having myself trained to the point of injury. A frustratingly timed virus forced me to withdraw from training once again last year and so I was counting on my third attempt being the lucky one. Serious training started in January and true to form I was plagued with an unreliable knee and the usual winter colds that meant that every fortnight's training would be followed by an unavoidable week off. The problems with the knee were partially remedied by running around a track, which meant low impact but also the most boring runs imaginable. Running isn't always FUN but can be made bearable with carefully selected scenic routes. 110 laps of a local racetrack were far from stimulating! It was as late as three days before the race that I decided to go for it. I knew my training had been inadequate but I had still put in a lot of hours and didn't want to see them go to waste once again. I always knew that if the worst came to the worst I was very capable of walking 26 miles, and if the knee buckled I fancied my chances for a long hop as well. As it turned out I needn't have worried and buoyed on by a very vocal crowd the length of the course, I finished the race after an official 4 hours 21 minutes and a second, calculated by the microchip attached to my shoe. With my name plastered across my shirt, the resulting shouts of personal support motivated the legs to keep going and although I was a few hours slower than Paula Radcliffe, I can safely say that crossing the line was for me as close as I'll get to breaking a world record. A Canadian Missionary who has spent a lot of time working in Malawi recently visited my local church. He presented a short film highlighting the many problems faced by a country I knew very little about and suddenly my moaning about a painful knee and a slight cold were put into very sober perspective. I came to hear about MACS from a member of my family and clearly if I was going to run twenty six miles I could do with some additional motivation. For that reason I decided to run for MACS and consequently finishing the race was that much more satisfying. As someone about to embark on a career in teaching I am particularly interested in the educational projects, and am delighted that through incredibly generous sponsorship and the hard work of this charity, children in Malawi might enjoy new opportunities and new hope for the future. To find out how MACS is supporting education programmes in Malawi click here | |  Somewhere in there is someone running for Malawi! |
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