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Monday, June 28, 2010

Catherine at the Safaricom Lewa Marathon 2010

Catherine and her husband, Anthony were in Isiolo this past weekend to attend the 2010 Safaricom Lewa Marathon. It is the only marathon held entirely within a game reserve and the race benefits the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. Even though she did not run, Catherine and Anthony came out to support Safaricom and the Conservancy. You can read more about the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy here.

I know people run marathons for many different reasons but but I'm especially fond of this worthy cause. It is so important to protect the wildlife. I can only imagine how awesome it must be to be running alongside such amazing animals! I wonder if part of the motivation to keep going is to outrun the lions! :-)

Please don't forget to stop by and support our fundraising campaign at our Official Website or at our IndieGoGo site.  We need your help!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

WinCatherine on IndieGoGO now accepting Tax-Deductible Donations!

I mentioned an announcement would be coming regarding the IndieGoGo campaign and now it is official: Our fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas, has now  partnered with IndieGoGo which is great news for anyone making a donation to WinCatherineNow in addition to choosing a perk or incentive for your donation, your contribution is tax-deductible (to the extent of the law)! Click here to visit WinCatherine on IndieGoGoo;  check it out and be a part of making this film happen!    

Now on to other news:
I spoke to Catherine today for the first time since her return from the UK in conjunction with the Kenyan Community Bedford program (see previous post). She said it was an excellent trip! Along with a few other top elite athletes from Kenya,  they visited an elementary school, a high school and a university where they ran with the students.  They visited a hospital where Kenyan Community Bedford has been involved with raising money to support the children's ward, and they also did a run on Saturday with adults. The program was designed to  inspire both the British and Kenyan people in the communities.  The schedule was quite busy and there was not much time for training but Catherine said it was all a great experience!

Photo by Ken courtesy of Kenyan Community Bedford


Catherine is now back in Kenya again and continues to heal from the injury to her piriformis muscle which forced her to withdraw from the Boston Marathon back in April. At this time she is not in pain and has just begun to add speed work back into her training.  One of Catherine's many strengths is that she has always been able to listen to her body and progress as she sees fit. She's hoping to be fully healed soon so she can resume her racing! For now she is enjoying being back home with her family. Her daughter arrives home tomorrow for an extended weekend break from school and Catherine is very excited to spend time with her and celebrate Jane's belated 13th birthday!

Want to see footage from Catherine's visit to the UK and much more?  Please don't forget to check out the IndieGoGo campaign and our website and donate whatever you can to help us get this film finished; there is a lot of amazing footage and interviews waiting to be assembled!

Monday, June 14, 2010

A New Look for WinCatherine Blog

Welcome to the new look of the Wincatherine blog! Since there were new tools available, I decided it was time to upgrade and spruce up the look a bit. I hope you like it! Your feedback is welcome and appreciated!

Things are moving along and more funds are starting to roll in. We were mentioned on another running site recently so please check it out at garycohenrunning.com/

Coming up I'll post comments from Catherine from her trip to the UK for the Kenyan Community Bedford program that she participated in along with other elite Kenyan athletes.

Stay tuned for some more changes and a new announcement about the IndieGoGo campaign! 

Thursday, June 3, 2010

WinCatherine on IndieGoGo, RunnersWeb.com and more....

Much has been going on since my last post. First, we now have an IndieGoGo campaign going to raise money to get to the next stage of the film. click here for WinCatherine on IndieGoGo We have many hours of footage shot with Catherine in Kenya, London and Boston and more that need to be logged. We have interviews that need to be translated from Swahili and Kikuyu. And, we need to edit a longer cut to submit with an application to apply for a grant from the Sundance Documentary Fund! Crowd funding is fairly new and people have been having much success with it by appealing to their audiences to help fund what they want to see. Do you want to see an inspirational film about how Catherine Ndereba was able to defy the conventions of a male dominated society and rise from a remote village in Kenya to become the great athlete that she is? Every runner, every student, every athlete of any type can benefit from the lessons learned by dedication and hard work so this is your chance to make a difference and help get the film made! Pass it on to your friends, family, running clubs, Facebook friends, and even enemies :-) With as little as $10 you can make a difference if you pass it along!

Today, RunnersWeb.com posted a link to WinCatherine on several of their pages! If you go to the home page, http://www.runnersweb.com/ the trailer is right there! Also, if you navigate on the left and go down to "Women's Sites" at the bottom, it will take you to a page that lists an incredible number of sites pertaining to women's running and we are listed alphabetically under WinCatherine! (hmmmm, maybe a change of name to bring that up to the top!)

Now on to news about Catherine. On June 6th she will arrive in Bedford, UK along with a group of Kenyan runners with a mission of inspiring members of the community there. The program is being set up with the co-operation of Bedford Borough Partnership and Kenyan Community Bedford. (You can read the announcement here and what they hope to do: Kenyan Athletes to visit Bedford.) This is the list of athletes attending from Kenya: marathon runners Paul Tergat, Catherine Ndereba, Duncan Kibet and Samuel Wanjiru, with middle distance runners Wilfred Bungei and Benjamin Limo..Notice anything here?  I find it interesting that Catherine is the only woman among the group! There are many talented female Kenyan athletes now but Catherine is the only one invited on this mission. In my opinion, this demonstrates how much of a hero Catherine is to her country.  On the other hand, does it also show that women are still much farther behind the men in representation in Kenya?

Catherine is still working on recovering from her injury so was not able to take part in the Prison Championships this year. It was odd for me not being there either; I was there the past two years! I miss Kenya and look forward to getting back there one day to complete filming. I learned some sad news last week regarding someone I was looking forward to interviewing. He was a man who literally helped Catherine start her career and I learned he passed away suddenly from a heart attack. I spoke with his wife and she said he always followed Catherine's career with so much pride. I'm sorry that I will never meet Rajesh Padia but look forward to meeting his wife Kalpa when I go back. (when you see the film you'll learn what his role was in Catherine's journey).

I wish all the Kenyan athletes a safe journey to Bedford and look forward to hearing all about it upon their return.

Please don't forget to promote the IndieGoGo campaign! This is a great way to help get a film made that YOU want to see!  http://www.indiegogo.com/WinCatherine-The-Story-of-Wincatherine-Nyambura-Ndereba