One Filter One Family

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The history.....

Earlier this year, after an exceptionally long and hot run, sitting on the kitchen floor, drinking water and trying to cool off, we started talking about how important water was to us and our ability to run. Well, that conversation, timed with a particular song, whose words include ‘Each day’s a gift and not a given right….If today was your last day….could you say goodbye to yesterday…’ reminded me of a comment I’d heard and experienced in Cambodia in Oct 2009. ‘Even though there is access to a lot of water, much of it is not drinkable…..’

We thought, ‘what if we could provide just one family with access to reliable, clean, drinking water without having to buy bottled water…..’We doubted we could change the world, but one life, that was something we might be able to do.

One Filter, One Family became our little project, a dream really. That was until friends and family started putting coin and more in the ‘Fear change’ growler that sits on our kitchen counter.

Through all of this, Nat had been talking with Dan Des Rosiers, the race director for Ultimate XC, a 58k race we’d run earlier in the year. (Dan, I’m not sure if you recall but I called you a ‘Twisted #@$#$ after the river stage’. I had now idea how twisted you are, but I am grateful for your help, guidance, and friendship!) He was interested in our thoughts on the race and a multi-stage/day event he was planning. As a side note, if you’ve ever considered the dark side of running, meaning the trails, mountains and deserts, you owe it to yourself to run one of Dan’s races (www.utlimatexc.com). More about this later….

Nat had mentioned our idea to Dan and on October 10th, our house got turned upside down, not for the last time. Dan had called to talk about the project and offered to build a mountain bike race in January 2010 which included donations to our cause! Suddenly, our little dream just became something more…..the conversations continued

Funny thing about Nat and I is we tend to talk a lot about the sort of adventures that would be fun, challenging, a bit on or over the edge…we need to be careful with that sort of talk. It was one of those conversations where I pondered if we could run from Angkor Wat to Preah Vihear (http://www.canbypublications.com/maps/camroad.htm) through Beng Melea and Koh Ker, a distance it turns out, of about 250km (155mi). Of course Dan found out and instantly liked the idea. Why not, he does not have to run it, well not yet at least….

Now that the idea was out in the open, we knew we needed help, solid help, from someone who would have seen it all and run it more than once. In our mind, there was no one better to turn to than Ray Zahab. If you are not familiar with Ray and his accomplishments, his work and his passion, check out http://impossible2possible.com/ and http://rayzahab.com/ or watch ‘Running the Sahara (http://www.runningthesahara.com/).

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