Ben is running the Chicago Marathon!

This post is in honor of my fabulous husband, Ben.  (If you're unfamiliar with blog world, click on the light blue words below to go to another website.)

About a year ago, while we were living in Chicago, we started attending The Moody Church.  We loved it there!  One of the first weekends we were visiting, some people got up and talked about how great it was to run the Chicago Marathon with a group of people from Moody.  They talked about training and asked people to come out and cheer them on, as well as support the team.  Many were first-time marathon runners, and they shared different reasons for choosing to take the plunge.  Ben leaned over and whispered to me, "I think I wanna do that next year..."

Well here we are.  Next year.  And the marathon is in 26 days.  October 9.  And yep, you guessed it, Ben's running :)  Yay Ben!  

SO, we will head back to Chi-town that weekend and Ben will run with a team from Moody to raise support for World Vision.  According to their website, "World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice."  Ben could have signed up to run the marathon solo and still achieved his personal marathon goal.  However, we really believe World Vision is doing a great work in Africa, and we want to support their organization.  They're not only working at a great cause, but they're doing it well!

Ben's goal is to raise $50.00 per mile (BEFORE running the race) for a total of $1310.00.  Would you consider contributing?  Whether you contribute $.10, $10 or $100, your gift is helpful and appreciated.

World Vision sent us this video to show us (and others who are interested) where all the money is going anyway.

World Vision gives Ben a handy-dandy marathon website to keep track of donations and give donors more information.  To donate and/or learn more about World Vision, click here!

Last but not least, a little side story.  The Moody Church (TMC) happens to be located right on the marathon route through the city.  If you don't live in Chicago, trust me when I say the marathon is a crazy day.  You can forget taking public transportation anywhere.  It's super cool to see boatloads of people running down Lake Shore Drive and North Ave.  BUT, it's crazy.  For a long time, TMC tried to still have services as normal on Marathon Sunday.  But, with parking, visitors, traffic, people running down the streets, roads shut down, etc... they decided, what the heck?  Let's just move our church service and cheer on the marathon runners.  An opportunity to support and minister to the community :) Here's a short video from the cheer station.  Can't wait to join them this year as they cheer on not only their own TEAM WORLD VISION but also the 40,000 (ish) others running the Chicago Marathon 2011.

 

Any questions or comments about Ben, the marathon, donating, etc...?  Email either one of us at reneecook3@gmail.com  OR jbenjamincook@gmail.com  We'd love to hear from you.  Thanks in advance for your donation!