Training for the Road2Uganda began back in June Of 2016. With a background of playing football (soccer) my entire life, I had never needed to run for more than 5 miles in one stint and never contemplated doing anything that was relatively “long distance”.
I originally took on the challenge knowing that it would test me, however I don’t think I truly knew how much of a struggle it would be! The first week of training made me realise that if I was to complete this, I was going to have show a lot of dedication.
My training schedule was quite strict; training 3 weeks at a certain distance and then having one week break before increasing the mileage for the next 3 weeks. This was consistently done for an entire 6 months. The difference from the beginning of the training until the end of the training was amazing. Going from training 24 miles per week in the initial weeks, to training 67 miles per week in the latter stages.
During the pre Uganda part of the road2Uganda I had 3 main struggles that I had to deal with. The first struggle was finding the time to actually train during the day. Being the assistant football coach at my University, having a part time job and being a full time student meant that finding time was never easy. My training times in particular were very inconsistent; often waking up at 4 am in the morning to go for a 13 mile run or staying up late and going for a 15 mile run at 11 pm at night was not uncommon. Even though this may not have been ideal, it did strengthen my mental strength, knowing that such preparation would be key.
The second issue I was dealing with was the extremely high temperatures In the Southern part of the USA. Montgomery, Alabama where I was located was suffering a 2 and half-month drought, yet the Road2Uganda was to be performed in England in early January (often the coldest month). There was not really anything I could do about this fact, but once again the test helped me have psychological strength.
The third struggle involved fundraising so that a lasting difference could be made in Uganda. With no previous fundraising experience, it was quite difficult raising awareness. It was a constant learning curve and every setback gave me a deeper understanding with how to proceed in the future. Heart to heart dialogue with each and every person I came across was vital. Just letting people know about the Road2Uganda campaign and how they could help was key. There is also no doubt that Social media was a huge help. It truly helped spreading awareness beyond my immediate circle, to people who may not necessarily have known about the cause.
Overall, the challenge has been made easier knowing that the end goal will help create value for people in desperate need. This helped me when it came to motivation and pushed me to achieve my goals. If the Road2Uganda can benefit just one person or family in need over in Uganda then it has been a success. It has shown, that no matter where you reside in the world, you can make a difference.