HopeOne Hundred Miles for
Even though I still race mountainous ultramarathons every year, I think less about finish lines and more about the impact of perseverance when it’s offered in service.
That perspective was shaped during a visit to Rwanda, where I met a young girl at Cindi’s Hope Academy—one of several Christian K–6 schools serving children growing up in extreme poverty. Her life was simple in ways that were hard to comprehend: a home of mud bricks, no running water or electricity, and miles walked each day just to attend school.
Cindi’s Hope campuses are built within Reconciliation Villages, where genocide survivors and perpetrators’ families choose unity and healing. Each campus is designed to serve as a community hub—anchored by a school, a church, and most critically, a well. When I visited the land for the new Mwiri campus, I watched families collecting contaminated runoff water nearby. In that moment, it became clear that before classrooms could rise, clean water had to come first.
In June of 2025, I ran one hundred miles through the mountains of San Diego to help fund the drilling of a well for this community.
What began as a personal journey of rebuilding became an offering. One hundred miles for hope. One hundred miles for water. One hundred miles to remind myself—and anyone watching—that endurance can extend beyond personal achievement and become an act of love.
What began as a personal journey of rebuilding became an offering. One hundred miles for hope. One hundred miles for water. One hundred miles to remind myself—and anyone watching—that endurance can extend beyond personal achievement and become an act of love.
The well was drilled. Clean water began to flow.
And in that flow, I saw a fuller picture of what it means to be alive—not simply to endure,
but to give.