As you know, I am achieving my dream of traveling to all 7 continents by the age of 30 very soon: not only I’m going to Antarctica in March, but I’m also running a marathon there. I am incredibly excited about the trip, but even more excited to have an opportunity to team up with the mentoring organization Big Brothers Big Sisters to help children in my community.

As a teacher, I see on a daily basis how adults can help shape children lives by being there for them. The Big Brothers Big Sisters program positively influences children self-confidence, provides stability, changes their perspective on life and encourages them to set higher goals. The high school graduation rate for children living in poverty in Washoe County, where I live, was 56% last year.  Recently I was pleased to learn that 75% of the age eligible “Littles” graduated last June. Since I joined Big Brothers Big Sisters, my “Littles” have also enriched my life in countless ways and I would like to keep supporting this organization.

In the spirit of my upcoming Antarctic adventure, I’d love for you to join me in making a difference in a Little’s life. Your contribution to Big Brothers Big Sisters will help provide one-to-one mentoring programs for at-risk youth in northern Nevada.

Join me by following this link and making a donation and don’t forget to check out my Antarctica journey on this blog Run, Eat, Travel, and More.

Thank you for your support! E.M. 🙂

www.runeattravelandmore.com

http://bbbsnn.kintera.org/antarctica

Ps.: Since I don’t have Facebook, I’ll love your help sharing a link to the fundraiser there!

Outing with with my Little

As you all know, I love to travel and have been to six of the seven continents. This March, the fiancé and I will be going on a trip to my last continent: Antarctica!

Antarctica is a huge land in the South Pole. To get there, we will be flying from the US to Argentina, and from there we will embark on a 10-day cruise. 99% of Antarctica is covered by ice: in fact, 90% of the world’s ice is there!

But, what is there to do in such a far and cold place? Each day we will explore the continent with a group: from kayaking to penguin and whale watching, there will be a lot to learn. On March 9, we will even attempt to run a marathon (26.2 miles!) on ice! Check out this article for 10 reasons to do this crazy trip: http://www.runnersworld.com/photos/10-reasons-run-antarctica-marathon.

I’m really excited, but also very nervous because I haven’t been training at all! The race is less than a couple of months away, so I decided to focus on training for a half-marathon instead. As the fiancé keeps telling me, we can just walk the latter half… unless we get frostbite! BTW, the marathon benefits “Oceanites“, an organization that researches the impact tourism has in Antarctica, among other things.

Check out my Antarctica Half Marathon Training. As you can see, I should have started before the New Year, but that didn’t happen, so I’m a week behind. No matter what the outcome of the race is, just achieving my goal of seeing all 7 continents by the time I’m 30 will be a huge accomplishment!

Check out this video of last year’s trip: