GO TEAM GO

What an incredible day October 20th was! I never expected to experience such a HIGH while running, it was so invigorating and exciting! now my TIME was not what I was hoping it to be, but HEY I finished! Many R4TW teammates can say more then THAT though, check out our times and all the money we raised:
Mic O..... 1:43.....$400
Sieru......3:40.....$725
Mike R.....1:52.....$0
Fahadul....1:57.....$0
Tharani....3:57.....$310
Catherine.31:21.....$0
Brendan...32:09.....$0
Kristen...32:09.....$500
Chris.....2:17......$120
Melissa...34:14.....$437
Erma......2:24......$275
Ali.......2:25......$0
Maygan....2:35......$1427
Drew......2:45......$0
Cheryl....1:03......$1185
Jessica...1:04......$305
Osmary.....NA.......$120
Marlowe....NA.......$100

Unfortunately Osmary's chip wasn't working and Marlowe and Rebecca never made it to the race :(.

Thank you to everyone who made it out to the after party lunch, I realize it was difficult because we all ended at different times. It was a great buffet and tons of prizes were given out.

Today is the LAST day for contributions, and WE RAISED $6035 IN TOTAL! THATS AMAZING!
With the funding match by DFATD (Previously CIDA) Cuso International has received $60,350. This means 2 volunteers will be sent on placement and a 3rd volunteer is a lot closer to sharing their skills and experiences with local NGO's!

GREAT JOB and THANK YOU. I hope you enjoyed the day as much as I did, and we really hope that you all consider joining the Toronto Run for the World TEAM again next year.
I PERSONALLY, cannot wait to beat my time!

GO TEAM GO!!!

Bokwa Dance Class for Cuso International

A week before our RACE WEEKEND, Osmary held a Dance-Fitness Fundraiser! Bravo's Dance Party generously donated the space and instructor and offered a BOKWA dance class for Donations to Cuso International. The event welcomed 9 Fitness and Dance enthusiasts to take part in the newest dance craze - BOKWA.
we laughed, we danced, we kicked, and sweat - all to support Cuso International.

Thanks to BRAVO's DANCE PARTY for generously donating the time and space, and thanks to Osmary who organized the event that raised $140 for Cuso Internatonal !

Thanks Osmary!!

Excited to be running with the Run for the world team!

Hi Run for the World team!

My name is Kristen Stamper. And I am a volunteer for the Cuso Volunteer for the world Toronto team. I have been volunteering with Volunteer for the world committee for the last year and a half, its a great group of people. I also work for Cuso International, the ottawa office as one of my clients at work. I work for a marketing and fundraising agency, and Cuso is one of our biggest clients. So I thought it would be perfect to join on with the Cuso Run for the world team and run the run with all of you.

The Scotia Bank run came at a perfect time this year as well.  I am a cancer survivour, and I am a year out from my surgery. To celebrate being almost fully recovered I was looking for a run to train for to get my butt back into shape and try and get some of my muscle mass back just as I got the email from Maygen. Perfect! So I convinced my boyfriend Brendan (who hates running :))  that he should train with me, and we are now going to run the run together. I am pretty excited about it!

It`s been a little rough taking up running as I am not a runner, but I am an avid athlete. Brendan and I both downloaded the Nike Plus App, which has been great motivation! It reminds you to run, which is great on those days that you get caught up in other things, and the gps tracker keeps track of your pace, you trail, calories burned. I would highly recommend it. We have run 20 Kms already. Give it a try if you have not already!

Well very excited to meet everyone at the race day. Look forward to hearing about how the training is going. I will keep updating on ours as well. Talk soon!
Kristen

Cuso International is benefitting from Jessica Dubelaar’s excess wedding treats.
Jessica donated the left over candy bar from her recent wedding reception and hosted a “CANDY FOR A CAUSE” fundraiser.


We set-up the candy bar and invited the other offices in the CSI building to join us for a sugar high!
The event raised $50 and all donors were rewarded with an afternoon sugar rush 
This fun little event topped off the Toronto “Run for the World” team’s fundraising - helping us reach $2500!!!

Consider hosting your own CANDY FOR A CAUSE event at your office or school!
Noone can say NO when candy is involved!

ONE TIP: We would have PRE-PACKAGED the candy bags... some of our guests we're a little greedy :s

Some Fundraising Incentives

Cuso International want's to thank you for joining our team and working hard to raise funds towards our international development projects and volunteer sending programs. Thanks to the support from local businesses in Toronto, for every $100 you raise you have ANOTHER chance to win!

Win WHAT you ask?

Aches Away Wellness Clinic has donated TWO one hour massages to ease your training aches and pains.

Take a moment to LIKE them on facebook to say THANKS!
https://www.facebook.com/AchesAwayToronto

David's Tea has compiled a beautiful collection of teas for rehydration and wellness. It's a Runner's Tea Dream Basket filled with delicious drinks to ease you into the fall!

and Barefoot Wines want's to help you celebrate crossing that finish line with a basket of their most awarded California-Argentina blends of wine. "GOOD THINGS happen to those who DO GOOD!"

Keep it up, your training, your fundraising and your motivation!
Let's go! Let's run for the world!
Reducing global poverty 1km at a time :)

TIPS FROM A TRACK STAR!

I have been chatting with Rohan Williams, a Cuso International Alumnus who volunteered in Guyana and India. Rohan is a track and field supah-star - with an expertise in sprints and horizontal jumps. He he gave me some great tips to share with the team:

Sprints are definitely good for building endurance for long distance runs, pushing the wall so to speak. I would suggest 200m and 300m, at the most a 400m. For the best impact work your way up to running as fast as you can, starting at about fifty percent.

If you plan on racing on a regular basis I would encourage you to have a sprints day once a week, where you warm up and do an interval workout. Start with 100m, 300m, and 100m all full speed with a minute in between, then move up by adding 100m and settle at 300m, 400m, and 300m. This is generic for building speed endurance.

STRIKE The fact is that most distance runners run heel to toe. Some critics will claim that this could cause injury - I would suggest that you find your natural form and use that one. if it is heel to toe, or ball of the feet, that is fine.
To avoid injury train on softer surfaces grass, dirt etc. Strengthen your calf muscles and ankles.

Unfortunately Rohan won't be in town to run with us in the Toronto Waterfront Marathon, but he will be running with us in spirit!
THANKS ROHAN!

Low-mileage training scheule

Hey! I'm Mike,

I've been running for a while but have never run a race before. I thought it was a great challenge for a great cause, and signed up with Cuso Int. I've been doing alright with my training ran a 13km this week. I found this great article with a low-mileage training schedule I'm going to try:

http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/131-not-just-half-race

Mike

Crepes for a Cause

I had a fundraiser at work so that I could meet more people in my office. I am blessed to work at such a great place: the Center for Social Innovation... AWESOME.

I promoted my event on the list serve a week in advance, reminded people the morning of, and then at about 15 minutes to Crepe time I send another e-blast.

I made about 50-70 crepes at home (they only take about 60 seconds each so it wasn't too labour intensive)and brought them in with some berries, ham, cheese, and a lot of sweet spreads - set up a piggy bank with a sign and encouraged people to partake in the Donate What You Can Crepe Buffet!

It was a HUGE success... Not only did I meet a TON of people, But we raised $72.26!!!!

Hello fellow Teammates and Blogger groupies!

I am excited to be a part of this team and run my second half-marathon.  I trained half as much as I should've for the first one, and it looks like I'm on course to repeat my mistakes so here's to putting in a quarter of the effort needed to run a marathon!

 But first things first.  Allow me to introduce myself:  The details of my life are quite inconsequential.  My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink, he would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Some times he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy, the sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. My childhood was typical, summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds, pretty standard really. At the age of 12 I received my first scribe. At the age of fourteen, a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum, it's breathtaking, I suggest you try it.  

Please Donate.

http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=1979129&langPref=en-CA&Referrer=https%3a%2f%2fsecure.e2rm.com%2fregistrant%2fteamSummary.aspx%3fEventID%3d117277%26LangPref%3den-CA

Need a Training Schedule!?!

So I fell off my training schedule this past week :( I guess I used my birthday as an excuse to do anything BUT run. So I am going to pay for it this week as I bump-up the training schedule to 4-5 runs per week.

 It would be great if the other runners on the team would like to coordinate a training schedule! We could get to know each other in person AND it would keep me accountable to my training schedule.

 

I found this in the METRO today - Great info! I'm glad to know I don't need to train 21km runs to prepare for the October event LOL

100 DAYS LEFT TILL RACE DAY!!!!!!

http://metronews.ca/features/couch-to-42k/733662/training-run-shorter-and-faster-to-prepare-for-longer-distances/

Birthday Wish

TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY

 

So I chose to donate today to Cuso International by asking my friends and family to donate to my fundraising page instead of partying with me or giving me gifts! I created a series of video messages with IMOVIE and emailed the link to my family and posted the video on my facebook. It's only noon on July 4th and my AMAZING NETWORK has already donated almost $500.

 

IF ANY OF YOU WOULD LIKE HELP CREATING A SHORT VIDEO MESSAGE -I'm your girl!

 

TO MY MOM:

 

 

 

TO MY FACEBOOK FRIENDS:

 

I hope you enjoyed that ;) Have a blessed day :D

'GO HARD' VS. THE 10:1 RUNNING METHOD

Whenever I muster up the guts to try running seriously (it never lasts long), I am always told by enthusiasts DONT STOP!  No matter how you feel,  don't break your pace!

I have attempted this method for the last couple weeks of my training, and it is HARD, but I have been able to increase my running duration from about 35 minutes to 45 minutes (I know, not so impressive)... but it must be working!

Yesterday, I came across the 10:1 method in the Metro News, and I'm going to give it a try in my training this week to see if it makes a difference in the distance & duration of my running abilities. Basically the idea is that you run for 10 minutes, walk for 1 minute - and this process can increase your TIME, improve your ENDURANCE, and prevent INJURY. I'll track my progress and let you all know!

Check out the 10:1 method featured in the Metro News

http://metronews.ca/features/couch-to-42k/719788/training-if-i-use-the-101-method-am-i-still-running-a-marathon/ 

I AM RUNNING A HALF-MARATHON...Believe it!

I am GOING TO DO THIS!

Yeah, I know... daunting does not begin to describe the mission I have chosen to accept!
Run...HAHAHAHA...me?

I am a pretty fit and active young woman. I enjoy swimming and riding my bike. I have been dancing for years and have even dabbled in the martial art Muay Thai.

But running? GAH! Just the thought of it gives me a cramp.

So, clearly, I am not running for ME... I am running for Cuso International. For over 50 years Cuso has been sending volunteers to developing nations to work with local partner organizations in an effort to reduce global poverty. Cuso International does not send aid money, they send skilled volunteers! I personally believe that the Cuso's approach to international development is a healthy, productive, and sustainable method for reducing poverty... and THIS is why I am choosing to RUN FOR THE WORLD this October (even if I can barley muster up 5k of energy today, I WILL run a half marathon in October).

JOIN ME IN RUNNING FOR THE WORLD: http://www.eventsonline.ca/events/crs_scotia/
FOLLOW MY JOURNEY,
AND SUPPORT MY EFFORTS BY MAKING A DONATION TO CUSO INTERNATIONAL:
https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/welcome.aspx?EventID=117277&LangPref=en-CA&RegistrationID=1930379

Thanks! and stay tuned for some sweaty-red-faced comedy