Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.  All funds collected will go directly to the Los Angeles Rotary Foundation.

My Goal:

As a long-time Rotarian (first with the Inglewood Rotary Club and now with the Westchester Rotary Club),  I am committed to fighting Polio and its debilitating impacts.  This means I am willing to take on a big challenge:  I have signed up to run the 2018 LA Marathon in March with other Rotarians to raise funds for the Rotary Foundation. This will be my first full marathon (26.2 miles).  I started this journey in August 2017, when I joined some  Westchester Rotary Young Professionals in a series of spin classes at the Burn's Recreation Center at Loyola Marymount University to improve my cardiovascular conditioning (thank you Burns Rec!).  Then I joined the LA Leggers running group in Santa Monica with the goal of running in the Malibu Half Marathon and to get into better shape. Once I completed the Malibu Half Marathon in November 2017, I assumed I was done and would run 5Ks and 10Ks to stay in shape.  But if you know the running community,  there is no such thing as being "done."  In early February 2018, I completed my second Half Marathon at the Huntington Beach Surf City Marathon event.  With the encouragement of the L.A. Leggers' mentors, I started training for the LA Marathon.  The wonderful Charisse Older, president of the LA5 Rotary Club, let me know about the Rotary's End Polio Now fundraiser for the LA Marathon.  This turned out to be a great way to stay motivated for what will be a challenging run.

Lessons Learned:

Honestly, training for long-distance running has not been easy or a linear process for me.  It has entailed a lot of ups and downs, small injuries, times when I doubted if I could finish those 10 mile training runs at Santa Monica Beach, where more than a few times I would stare at the blue sky and wonder what possessed me to undertake such a grueling journey.  So far, I have learned that the mind can undermine everything if allowed to do so; I have learned to train my mind to stay positive and to banish negative thoughts during tough parts of a long run.  I have also learned the value of a committed support system -  i.e., people who will hold you accountable to show up and be there for you during the good times and the bad.  The L.A. Leggers have been great about being this support system for me.   Again, the lessons of how to fuel and hydrate during a distance run are less important than the lessons of how to train the mind and inner voice to be strong and self-affirming.  Any negativity opens the floodgates to all kinds of intrusive thoughts.  I'm still a novice in this area of sports psychology; I have more to learn.

I will continue to update you on my progress!  Thank you for anything you can donate to this effort.

Sincerely yours,

Hampton Cantrell