Calgary Marathon 2014

Less than two weeks ago, eMi participated as a charity in the Calgary Marathon.  This is the fourth year we've done this as a fundraiser.  Staff, interns, board members, former volunteers, friends, family and supporters raise funds and run one of the distances (5k, 10k, half marathon, marathon or, this year only, 50k ultra) for Engineering Ministries International Canada.

This year we had over 50 runners in Calgary (an eMi record), as well as runners in North Carolina and Haiti (as members of a project team ran while on their trip).  The runners raised almost $20,000 to support projects to Haiti and Ecuador (also an eMi record).

Check out the Facebook photo album by clicking here.

While Liz and I didn't run this year, we spent the morning taking pictures/video and cheering on our team.  It may sound a bit cliche, but the runners were truly inspirational.  Every year, I'm amazed by their dedication, work ethic and pain tolerance as well as the joy of seeing their hard work pay off.

It was especially fun seeing Chris, a member of our team, crossing the finish line at the end of his full marathon.  Chris recently moved to Canada from Korea and has been working some afternoons in the office, learning AutoCAD, practicing his English and helping us out.  After over 4.5 hours of running, Chris made his way along the final stretch before the finish line.  As others from the eMi team cheered him on, Chris raised his hands in the air, gave everyone a thumbs up and danced his was across the finish line.

We're really looking forward to see what God does at next year's marathon.  We'd love to be able to top our record number of runners and funds raised.  I'd love to see a few of our own supporters, family and friends out there with us.

For now, check out the video below that I put together after the run.  God bless!

Braden