Race to 2025 Take 8

Created: 2018.02.09

Best health of my life - and still time to donate if you want!

Hi friends. I have reached a personal milestone that I wanted to give an update.

As you know from my previous email(s) and blogs, I have been fundraising and physically preparing to run the Race to 2025 which is all about bringing literacy to every remaining living language in the world. And MOST of you know that we got the final adoption paperwork a few weeks ago – but just in case you don’t – I have a brand new 2 year baby – Kayden James Horwood (K), he has been in our home since he was born and we picked him up under an anonymizing name from the hospital, he is now legally our son.

Update on my training:
My first 5 years of life I'm told I was sickly, my next 50 years, as far as I remember - I was always overweight or obese. As of today - I am the most healthy and 'thin' I can remember ever being in my life. Superstore's health check thing tells me I have ideal body fat (13-15%), I have low blood pressure (95/65), low heart rate (49), 'normal' BMI (24), Excellent hydration. My upper body strength is still pathetic - but it is the best it has ever been in my life I can do 51 push-ups, 15 clap push-ups and 6 'full extension' chin-ups in a row, so while none of those are great and I know many of you can beat me, they are personal bests for me. I have been exercising about twice as much as normal for the past 5 months including lots of HIIT training.

I’ve also been up and down several mountains in training, by snowshoe, by microspikes. Hard to pick one picture that captures the experiences – so I’ll just pick one fun one, here is one of our team members, Daryl, spurred on by a wing and a prayer?

Is there still time for you to donate?
Yes (I'll bet you guessed that was the answer!) If you've been putting it off and planning to - can I gently encourage you to do it today? Donate here For those of you in the USA, if you want to donate, let me know and I'll send you the current instructions on how you can do it in a way that you get a tax receipt.

What now?
I'm stopping trying to lose weight until after the race. I'm not convinced that I am at 13% body fat despite what Superstore's machine say, I'll be checking with my doctor in a couple months and see whether he and/or other tools I am waiting for agree with that number. My last annual checkup in early 2017 I was told 'other than being overweight you are healthier than most 25 year old's' - he explained in detail why he said that when I guffawed. I'm looking forward to what he says this year - hopefully losing all this weight hasn't messed up my blood work! He may suggest I lose a bit more or gain a bit - but other than that, I hope his analysis is the same as the last several years.

The fact that I don't believe I am that 'thin' doesn't change the fact I'm the thinnest I can ever remember being - even thinner than after doing each of two 40-day fasts several years ago. If it turns out I really am 13% body fat - then I'm done; I just have to maintain it.

I'm cutting my intensive exercise in half starting today, and cutting all intensive exercise out 72 hours before the race - all so I can be, to the best of my ability, in the best possible shape I can be come race days.

I do plan on this change being a life long change. My goal is to be as healthy for my new son Kayden as I was for my 1st 4 kids, and this better health I currently have, if I can keep it, should mean that even though I'm older this time - I'll be 'as healthy' on average for him. My 4 kids have also said they won't object if I stay healthier and more energetic for Kayden than I was for them.

Is there time to participate in a non-financial way? No, the race is in 1 week and all the spots are filled and all the volunteers are in place. But I am planning a future ‘500km in 24 hours’ non-stop bike ride that I'll tell you about later. If you love road biking and have the stamina to ride 18 or more hours non-stop - I plan 24 hours non-stop (literally except for pee breaks), it won't be as low cost but you could possibly join us for that race. You can start planning to participate in the 2019 Winter Race to 2025 in Alberta Canada, or you can talk to me about racing in the 2018 summer one in the USA.

Do you want to know more about the Race to 2025 or the Ndop cluster of languages in Cameroon? Go to my web site, I have lots of links especially in my, now outdated with respect to 'me' blog #2 on this. My 2nd 2025 blog

Thank you.
If you plan to or have financially participated and/or if you have been praying for us and/or if you have just gone to the links to learn more about this exciting adventure and this wonderful goal of bringing literacy to every living language. Let me offer you a very big Thank You.

<updated Oct 2019 when a minor error on the page was brought to my attention>