A UMNS Report
By Stephanie Kovac*
July 9, 2009 | RICHARDSON, Tx.

Mike Lightfoot wanted to mark his 50th birthday by realizing a dream – running the 56-mile Comrades Marathon in Durban, South Africa.

But it was not long before the music director at First United Methodist Church came up with the idea that his personal quest could be turned into something greater.

He approached the church’s pastor and mission director, and they got the church moving.

“Project 56: It is well with my sole” was born.

By the time Lightfoot left for Africa in mid-May, the church staff logged 5,800 miles on their own and the congregation raised enough money to provide three wells for clean drinking water in Africa.

The first 28 miles of the race went well, then he began to get nauseous and had pain in his side. He felt a strain in his Achilles. He was at mile 42 when he realized he couldn’t run anymore, and was forced to make a decision.

“Do I stop or do I keep going?” he asked himself. “That’s when my parents, everyone at the church, my friends, flashed through my mind. I thought, I got a lot of people cheering for me. This isn’t just about me.”

Sanity questioned

Lightfoot, an avid runner, said he knew the South Africa race would “be difficult, but I thought, what a challenge.”

His colleagues at First United Methodist were more skeptical.

The Rev. Clayton Oliphint, pastor, and Joy Anderson, mission director, initially reacted with disbelief. “I thought we needed to check his sanity,” joked Oliphint.

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Instead, they broadened Lightfoot’s vision, and challenged the church staff to walk or run 5,600 miles before the race in South Africa. Staff members surpassed that goal.

The pastor took it one step further. Knowing 1 billion people around the globe lack access to clean water, Oliphint challenged each family in the congregation to contribute $56.

The congregation raised $22,000.

“To dig a water well, and a latrine, and to train the people how to use it, which is also equally important, is $7,000, so we got three wells,” Lightfoot said.

Fighting pain

On May 24, Lightfoot and 13,000 other runners set out on the 56-mile challenge. Lightfoot admits his goal was never to win the race, only to finish it. And, at the halfway mark, he was on track.

“Twenty-eight miles into the race I was feeling good and I was on pace, a great pace to finish the race. I had run that in 5:35 so I still had 6 hours and 25 minutes to run the second half of the race,” he said.

Lightfoot walked until he found strength to run again.

“I was thinking about the release I would have as I crossed the finish line. I thought I’d probably crawl across on my knees.”

At mile 42, he made a decision to continue despite the pain. He would make it to the 50-mile mark by the 12 hour time limit.

“There are a lot of excuses, the hills were much larger than I ever dreamed. It’s more heat than you would want to run in. The humidity was so high. The nausea, the side stitch, the Achilles, but the bottom line is, I simply wasn’t ready for Comrades,” he said.

Still, Lightfoot recognizes the race was as life changing for him as the water wells will be for those in South Africa. And he is strongly considering a second attempt.

“I’m already getting the itch,” he said. “I think it’s something within each of us. You wonder what happened out there, and you wonder, can I do it?”

Persons wishing to help provide clean water to communities throughout the world may do so at Advance No. 3020600.

*Kovac is a freelance producer based in McKinney, Texas.

News media contact: Fran Coode Walsh, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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