Day: October 5, 2010
Luke Asked: What is this about?
My good mate Luke asked me a question this morning by email. “What is the 10 City Bridge Run actually about?” It is a good question. Here is an answer.
The central question that the 10 City Bridge Run seeks to address is: “How can you build a bridge to help close the gap on extreme poverty?” A response requires to you think and feel, as much as to act.
This is part of a bigger movement about social impact. In this movement, we are each playing a small part in a bigger change. The 10 City Bridge Run is a small part in a well-established ecosystem of other initiatives.
We all should know that extreme poverty is a problem. There is enough news and branding around the issue. But do we know the extent to the problem, or do we know how we might make a difference – a real difference- aside from donating money to charity?
The 10 City Bridge Run presents a global challenge. There is a physical challenge – the 10 sub-marathons across 10 countries, which is more of a symbolic act through a tough and demanding journey.
The bigger challenge, the real challenge, is asking people to engage intellectually; asking people to engage emotionally and take action. Small actions. Like taking a photograph of others building a bridge.
Is it possible? Does it matter? Can one person on their own make a difference? (I would suggest the answers are Yes. Yes. and No.) And these answers are reflective of the bigger questions facing humanity on the issue of extreme poverty.
It is a complex issue. I think it starts with building a bridge to help close the gap on extreme poverty. You might be doing this already, and if so please show us what that looks like by capturing that in a photograph.
There are larger global forces at work. Is the global financial system broken, at least in part? This is the importance of passing a petition to the G20 Summit leadership. Will the petition make a difference? Will President Lee Myung-bak acknowledge the receipt of the petition? There is only one way to find out, and that first requires the collation of 24,000 photographs online.
Please join us.
Training Log: Six Bridges of Separation
My last training run was on 2 October when I ran a 25 km route around Sydney Harbour. I started with some discomfort on my ankles but was able to pick up some reasonable pace for the first half. Moving onto the goat tracks along Sydney Harbour for the second half I slowed down considerably and left some room for improvement.
Crossing the ANZAC Bridge from Pyrmont to Balmain I passed Senator John Faulkner (Australian Senator) and stopped briefly to say hello. I will email his later today and ask him to sponsor the 10 City Bridge Run and will let you know how I get on.
Finishing the run I had restricted range of movement in my ankles and a tight tension on my left hamstring. I spent the last two days seeing what effect stretching, acupuncture, massage, yoga and fish oil had on my soreness. Massage and fish oil appeared to have the biggest impact, and maintaining more stretching will be important over the coming month.
Training Log: Bringing up to date
Last entry on the training log here was 12 September. Why the delay in a new entry?
Since 12 September the date for departure and commencement of the first run has changed four times. A appreciate this might have created some difficulty for people following how the 10 City Bridge Run is emerging. From my perspective, it heightened my awareness of difficulties encountered when looking to make change. Things rarely go to plan, and a flexible view that embraces disruption is important.
The date changes to the commencement date for the run (initially planned for 24 September, then moved to 1 October then 8 October, now commencing 14 October) occurred for a number of reasons, but the three principle factors were (initially) securing sufficient sponsorship to commence the journey, unexpected delays encountered through PayPal and more recently confirmation of host arrangement in Seoul. Before I commence the running, I must make sure I have optimal confidence in how this initiative will unfold. Running is as much mental as it is physical. Managing these delays give me reason to reflect on the expression “the loneliness of the long distance runner”.
As I finish this post I am listening to Matt Flannery from Kiva on live-stream speaking at SOCAP10 shortly after Jacqueline Novogratz. The bigger challenge this presents is how do I better draw upon all the resources that are available to me…the journey of the long distance runner need not be lonely! Extrapolating from this thought, when it comes to making change, the question we might reflect on is “how do we better draw upon all the resources available to us?”
Back to the training log: training continued during this period of delay. I extended my training program three times which was a welcome bonus to give more time for preparation and conditioning. I think that toward the end of September I had entered a phase of overtraining combined with less than sufficient stretching. This resulted in a reduction of range of movement in my ankles which created some discomfort when running. Pain is almost inevitable with running training- my sports medicine doctor who I consulted a few months earlier for a complaint on my left achilles said that pain management strategy was an integral part of training. During the last period of date changes and delays, I was less enthusiastic about making posts about my training until I knew what date I was committed to running.
Ten days left until I start running.
Building Bridges 