It has only taken 5 years, but look another blog post. I am surprised they don't clean up and delete more often. Anyway, after that trip to Hawaii, my life went sideways. And it has taken me a couple years to recover from it. I am happy to say that the mess is fixed but some things you have to learn how to live with and they never truly go away. However with a lot of help from God, my life is once again happy and fulfilling. This fall will bring in the next volume of my life's story. I still have a lot to live and do in the next 6 months but September begins things anew.
Lots of other things have changed too. The biggest one is I am now an endurance athlete of some talent. I have completed two Ironman triathlons and run 7 marathons with a bunch of other race distance leading up to those. I have qualified for Nationals at the olympic distance in triathlon and have twice run a Boston Qualifying time at the marathon distance, the 2012 Twin Cities and 2013 Rock and Roll New Orleans. I am still improving and hoping for more success.
This year I will be running my first ultra-marathons. I have already put down a couple training runs of 27+ miles. I will do my first official at the Trail Mix in Hyland Park, Bloomington, MN the Saturday after Boston. Sounds crazy right. Not quite as crazy as the big event for the year..... Comrades Marathon! That is 56 miles of running in less than 12 hours on June 2.
I am doing this race for the challenge and to raise awareness and money for World Vision. World Vision will use the money for clean drinking water projects in Africa. I would be very honored and pleased if you would please contribute to my fundraising efforts at http://support.worldvision.org/goto/stephenbartos. Just think about what you pay per month for clean drinking water delivered to your house. I know I pay about $30 a month. For the cost of less than two months of water delivered to my house, clean drinking water can be provided for LIFE to one child in Africa. That is right, $50 will bring clean drinking water for life. Just think of the impact you can have. I look forward to you partnering with me to raise the awareness and bring clean water to kids in Africa.
