Marathon Quest 250 is over

Do you remember this post about the Albertan who planned to run 250 marathons in 2010 with hopes of raising $250,000 for Right to Play? Well, he did run number 250 on New Year's Eve, but fell a little short of his money goal. I am in awe of his accomplishment.

Marathon Quest 250

Even after taking into account my lack of posts lately, I'm surprised I haven't posted about this yet. Especially considering it is running related. Martin Parnell of Alberta is running 250 marathons in 2010. He'll do a marathon a day for five consecutive days, and then take two days off, and repeat that 50 times. (Well, the 50th time will end with more than two days off, I'm sure.)

From the Marathon Quest 250 homepage:

Martin Parnell will attempt to run 250 marathons in 2010. His goal is to raise $250,000 for Right To Play.

Right To Play is an humanitarian organization that uses sport and play programs to improve health, develop life skills, and foster peace with children and communities in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the world.

Right To Play also works in Canadian communities to inspire children and support their right to grow and learn through physical activity. More than 4,500 schools in Canada use the Right To Play program.

To raise $250,000, Martin will run all 250 marathons between January 1st and December 31st 2010. He'll cover a distance of 10,550km or 6550miles, which is approximately the same distance as a run from Cochrane to Boston then west through the US to Vancouver and back to Cochrane.

Visit the site to see a video introduction, and then keep checking back to follow his progress. I encourage you to consider making a donation to Right To Play through his site. Today Parnell did his 13th marathon of the year; in -7C weather his time was 5 hours, 56 minutes, 33 seconds. Ha - that's nothing compared to my run of 49 minutes, 59 seconds in 12C weather.

Right to Play

Have you heard of the charity, Right to Play? They do great things for children worldwide and have been present at the past several Olympics - with a booth in the athletes village - to recruit athletes to their cause.

Right To Play is supported by an international team of top athletes from over 40 countries. As role models, these athletes inspire children, raise awareness and promote opportunities for funding for Right To Play projects. Currently Right To Play works in: Azerbaijan, Benin, Chad, China, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Pakistan, occupied Palestinian territory, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, and Zambia.

The above quote is from a blog post titled, Support Right To Play, Shame On VANOC and GM Canada, written by psa on the blog, Canadian Cynic. The post focuses on the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) banning Right to Play from the 2010 Olympics because of conflicting sponsorships. For shame, VANOC, for shame. I encourage you to read psa's post in full, especially if you live in British Columbia.

Today's run route
In Pacific Spirit Park, start at Sasamat Reservoir, down Sasamat, right at Council, left at Sword Fern, left at Powerline, left at Salish, left at Council, right at Sword Fern, turn around at Salish, left at Long, left at Salish, right at Council, left at Sasamat, end at Sasamat Reservoir.
Today's run time
58 minutes 14 seconds