100 Miler May

The book "Love Does" by Bob Goff has been recommended to me more times than I can count over the last 4 years. I finally finished reading it today- and it lived up to my expectations. It inspired me to be more spontaneous, to live a life of whimsy with palms up, and gave me a whole new perspective on what it looks like to be besties with God instead of just stalking him from the outside. It has prompted me to go and do, to really take action, and to live a purposeful life characterized by joy, courage, and pure kindness.

Love Does talks about doing....but doing something that is actually worth doing. In one chapter, it poses the question "What story am I telling with my life?" It says to leak what you love and to choose things that already light you up and pursue them deeper. The last few pages hit me today when they said "You've read the stories in this book, but what's better than all of those stories are the one's you are continuing to write with your life." 

So here's where things get interesting. 

As I sat on the Megabus today riding from Philly back to New York, I asked myself...okay now what?..what story will I write with my life? I read this book and was incredibly inspired- how will I take that fuel and action it for good, and how quickly can I make it happen? 

So I thought about my passions and what makes my heart tick and came up with a big, kinda crazy idea. I decided that I would challenge myself to run 100 miles in the month of May. And BOOM, Lala's 100 Miler May (is miler even a word?!) was born.

In terms of what really lights me up, I have found this year that I absolutely love getting lost in Central Park and listening to worship music on a nice long run (and of course I sprinkle in some Kanye and Beyonce here and there). I also love to set goals and challenge myself to do what I wonder if I am capable of doing. Finally, I love to rally people around a cause that will make a positive impact in the lives of others. 

So here's the game plan (which, in typical Bob Goff style, really is a very loose "plan" because I want to see where the adventure will take me, but still be strategic to accomplish my goal.) I figured out that I can *hopefully, realistically* run 100 miles by the below breakdown:

4 miles X 12 times 

6 miles X 6 times 

3 miles X 3 times

7 miles X 1 time 

Yes, I know that I could run 3.3 miles a day for 30 days.... but I need to give myself grace, just like with everything else in life. So I have 22 runs to complete, aka 8 grace days throughout the month.

After each run, I will post the distance I ran and my time on my Instagram story and in the comments section on this blog post on my Facebook. You can then visit my Pure Charity profile page and donate either the distance ($3-$7) or the time ($26ish dollars-who the heck knows for the 7 mile run)...or really however much you would like to give!

CLICK HERE FOR MY DONATION PAGE

I have chosen to have this money go to sponsoring a child in the Love Does School in Soran, Iraq. Sponsorship is $30 a month, so if I raise my minimum goal of $100, that would be roughly 3 months of sponsorship. Please please please, go visit LoveDoes.org and click on "Where we work" ---- "Iraq" and look at the precious nuggets that I could choose to sponsor and read more about the program! 

There's a great quote in Love Does which says "He found himself closer to God in the adventures of helping people." I hope you'll join in on this adventure and kinda scary challenge I'm setting out on in May of pursuing deeper what I love, doing something worth doing, and writing a purposeful story with my life. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, I would be so grateful if you would  help me to engage a student with a monthly pledge and provide ongoing support to sponsor them in the months to come!

XOXO,

Lala