To all kiddos, friends, family, President of the United States (just in case) who visit this page, here is a story for you.

Sept 2012: Omar moved to SF. His history with running before then was... well, negligible. A few strolls down the park, maybe 2-3 miles around the 'hood then stopping, breathing hard and say: "Damn, I deserve to eat fried chicken after all that hard work." In summary, running was a sporadic event used to justify drinking/eating more.

Oct 2012: There had been a few runs down the park, since living in SF means you need to be outdoorsy if you want to be cool, but nothing crazy. It was all for the facade.

Nov 2012: A new idea, "why don't I run more? maybe I should set a goal." WOW MOMENT: Signed up for a half-marathon.

Dec 2012-Jan 2013: Traveled around SE Asia for a month and ate glorious amounts of food, ran just about ZERO miles, nada, and simply ate, ate, ate.

Jan 2013: Started actually training for SF Half Marathon.

Mar 2013: Ran 12 miles! Foot started hurting... oh ohhhh... Took a break from running for a few weeks and restarted back from ~3 miles.

May 2013: Goodness, my foot is hurting again. Probably overdid it in that 4-mile run where I tried to bring the pace down to ~7:30. I shouldn't have done that. Particularly since my foot hadn't recovered from a 10+ mile run two days before... (DUMB MOMENT)

Jun 8, 2013: Ran the Neon Run (5k) at a fairly good pace. Foot isn't very thrilled about it, but currently giving it lots of love for it to heal.

Jun 16, 2013: SCHEDULED TO RUN THE SF HALF MARATHON (second half)!

OK, SO WHAT?

Training for the SF Half-Marathon has been interesting, a rocky experience with some ups and downs, but definitely a great thing nonetheless. Now, I realize that the only reason I'm able to even CONSIDER running a half marathon, is because I live in a city that is fortunate enough to have an abundance of pretty much everything, starting with the very basics, food and water.

It's mind-blowing that while our struggle is to find better-tasting, flavored drinks because, well, purified water just doesn't taste good (or like anything), there are hundreds of millions of people who still don't have access to clean water.

I have followed charity:water for years and they do very well at using their funds for projects. Every dollar raised by me, or any one of us, will go directly to a project, and they will tell you which project used the funds and how many people it's benefiting. You can see that by clicking on my previous campaigns: http://my.charitywater.org/omareduardo

So - help me raise some funds to provide clean water! If you are not sure that giving access to clean water is worth your dime, take a second to watch the video below this " story" and read more at http://www.charitywater.org/whywater/

Access to clean water improves life in many ways, particularly for women and children. And considering that there's a lot of compelling reasons to empower women, read below, this is a simple way to start freeing up their time to focus on other things.

EMPOWERING WOMEN (http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2012/03/revenga.htm)

Gender equality is important in its own right. Development is a process of expanding freedoms equally for all people—male and female (Sen, 2009). Closing the gap in well-being between males and females is as much a part of development as is reducing income poverty. Greater gender equality also enhances economic efficiency and improves other development outcomes. It does so in three main ways:

•First, with women now representing 40 percent of the global labor force and more than half the world’s university students, overall productivity will increase if their skills and talents are used more fully. For example, if women farmers have the same access as men to productive resources such as land and fertilizers, agricultural output in developing countries could increase by as much as 2.5 to 4 percent (FAO, 2011). Elimination of barriers against women working in certain sectors or occupations could increase output by raising women’s participation and labor productivity by as much as 25 percent in some countries through better allocation of their skills and talent (Cuberes and Teignier-Baqué, 2011).

•Second, greater control over household resources by women, either through their own earnings or cash transfers, can enhance countries’ growth prospects by changing spending in ways that benefit children. Evidence from countries as varied as Brazil, China, India, South Africa, and the United Kingdom shows that when women control more household income—either through their own earnings or through cash transfers—children benefit as a result of more spending on food and education (World Bank, 2011).

•Finally, empowering women as economic, political, and social actors can change policy choices and make institutions more representative of a range of voices. In India, giving power to women at the local level led to greater provision of public goods, such as water and sanitation, which mattered more to women (Beaman and others, 2011).

THE GOAL

To fund-raise $100/mile I will be running! Ambitious? Maybe... But think about it, the price of a meal at a typical restaurant ($20) can give access to clean water to one person for TWENTY years.

Also, my birthday is in August and this campaign will run until September, so feel free to donate for both half-marathon congrats/birthday! Best bang for your buck. And you get to make a difference in people's lives, too. Now that's a deal worth making an infomercial for.

CHALLENGE

I will start by donating $52.40 ($4/mile), and will donate another $78.60 ($6/mile) if people help me fund-raise up to the goal!