ellie's run for africa.

Claire's latest job has been to help me step up the exercising. My stress level lately has me stepping up the consumption of all the cookies/brownies/cupcakes/scones in sight, so to combat the excess calories, she has been taking me on extra walks. When the alarm goes off at 5am and I'd rather turn over and sleep for another hour, I just think: Claire needs to work on loose-leash walking. And somehow, that gives me the strength to haul myself out of bed, put on her Easy Walk (thanks to our new friends Abby and Tonks, who introduced us to this wonderful harness just in time to start training with the Delta Society), and stumble 1-2 miles down the street before getting ready for work. See? She's helping me. I'm getting fit. I'm de-stressing. There are so many perks to having a dog, I can't even begin to count them all!


An even bigger benefit to all of this walking is that it's helping us get ready for Ellie's Run for Africa (ERFA). I have a huge passion to help those living in impoverished areas of Africa, and one way that I can do that locally is by participating in this annual event. ERFA is a 5K that raises funds to send kids in the slums of Kibera, Kenya to school. Claire and I will be doing some brisk walking during the 5K, so you could call it Ellie's Walk for Africa (and some people choose to do Ellie's Crawl for Africa), but one way or another, kids will be getting an education that they would not have had if it wasn't for Ellie and her mission. If you want more information about it, click on the above link!


Pray for me and Claire as she helps me get in shape for the 5K - I know it's not a great distance for most people, but for someone who doesn't usually do much in terms of exercising (ie: me), combined with the heat and humidity of a Nashville spring, it can be tough!