1 Million Dollars in 365 days…

Ok, so I’m not sure if “sidewards” is actually a word, but I was trying to keep the theme flowing throughout the heading! How are we all doing today folks? Are we excited? Or are we reading this with our eyes half closed, trying to pass the time before we get to go home…where we will spend the next few hours watching mind-numbing tv?

“HELL NO” I year you say! Most excellent! Because, as a long time reader of this blog you know how lucky we are to be here today, to have another bash at life and another 24 hours in which we can do ANYTHING WE WANT! Now is that exciting or what?

So, no matter what time of the day or night you are reading this, be grateful. Be grateful that you have the ability to see this blog, that you have access to the amazing world of the internet.

You now have some decisions to make:

• What I am going to do with the next 24 hours?
• Who am I going to spend my time with?
• What am I going to contribute to?
• How I am going to feel for these next 24 hours?

Take a moment and find a pen and piece of paper and you write these 4 questions down, then spend the next 5 minutes, answering them.Be honest with yourself. How did you answer these questions? Did you answer with the normal everyday stuff, like “go to work”, feel “depressed” or “angry”. My guess is that you didn’t. I think you wrote about the things and people you feel passionate about. The things that make you feel good and empowered. Happy and successful.

As strange as it may seem, you actually ask yourself these questions everyday.

And you answer them…

• You choose what you are going to do with your time.

• You choose who you spend your time with.

• You choose what’s important to you and what you want to contribute to.

• You choose exactly how you are going to feel, every moment of every day.

It may be a bit hard to swallow, but it’s the truth. We are all responsible for what happens in our lives. I’m not saying everything is your faults, but at the end of the day - you have the choice as to how you want to handle a situation, challenge or success.

So if your written answers to those 4 questions, aren’t what you normally do every day - then maybe it’s time to take some serious action and change the things you do everyday, so you start living the life you want. It’s your choice and I know there’s lots of support for you out there.

So give it a go…

Ok, so maybe it was JUST 42km, but it may as well have been 1000 miles! This is the start of the 45th Rotorua Marathon, complete with Maori Warriors giving us runners some extra motivation.

It turns out that 42km is quite a long way. This was certainly such an amazing experience and I stil can’t really come to terms with the fact that I actually completed it. You reach different milestones on the race. There’s the 1km mark, you feel great, charged and full of energy. I was still feeling great at 10km.

At 18km I couldn’t take it anymore and had to start walking. I had managed to injure my right knee (which did happen once during training). I was alternating between running and walking, but eventually it was too painful to run.

When I set out to achieve this goal and complete a marathon, I envisioned myself running the whole thing. Sometimes life doesn’t always work out exactly how we plan, but don’t let that stop you. I certainly didn’t let it stop me. I decided before I even ran the marathon that I was going to finish.

I wanted to complete the marathon (my first ever) in under 5 hours. I had trained for 12 weeks and put a lot of effort, sought lots of advice from experts, and drank a lot of water and ate a lot of carbs! I also was doing this to raise money and awareness for STOP THE TRAFFIK - an international organisation dedicated to freeing people across the world from slavery.You can read more about the fundraising at http://www.justgiving.com/ryankilfoil

I didn’t make the decision to start walking easily. I tried to run through the pain as long as I could. I had never walked any long distances before, so wasn’t sure how my body would react or how long it would take me.

“It didn’t matter that I didn’t know those answers. I knew the outcome -I would finish this marathon today.”

That really helped me get through this. It’s crazy because you don’t realise how long it takes to walk 1km until you have to walk 25 of them in a row! I kept picturing myself walking over that finish line.

The last 10km were really tough…..then the last 3 were even tougher. They were tougher physically but, mentally, I knew I had made it at about the 36km mark….when I turned the corner and saw my beautiful wife standing there, so happy to see me. It gets lonely on the road…

This is a picture of myself, walking the last 100 metres, with my beautiful wife and our daughter Sophie, cradled in her arms:

Walking with her gave me more energy. I couldn’t stop to moving because my legs would seize up so I just kept on walking as fast as I could. She walked with me for a few seconds, gave me a kiss and moved back to the car, where our 12 week old daughter was still sleeping.

At the 3km mark I got another boost, when I saw my dad walking towards me. He walked with me for those final 3km. It felt like ages, and it was so great to have him by my side. When I got the final 200m, I was greeted by the rest of my family. It meant so much to have them all there, cheering me on. I felt like I was about to cross the finish line in the Olympics for gold….what a feeling!

As I walked over the finish line, there was more cheering and the announcer called my name. 6 hours and 26 minutes of constant movement. I did it. I completed a marathon - my first ever. Sure, I was in a lot of pain and my body ached from fatigue, but I felt like a million dollars!

Sometimes in life we get thrown some challenges, and it’s all about how we respond to those challenges and the support that we surround ourselves with, that will decide the outcome.

This is me and my good friend Dan Necklen, after finishing the marathon. I couldn’t have done this without you mate. Thank for the support - you’re a legend!

I would just like to take this opportunity to thank all those hundreds of people that have supported me in this effort. Those that had the courage to make a donation to make a difference for those people in this world that are still sold into slavery - by supporting my charity - STOP THE TRAFFIK.

For all those amazing people that gave me advice about running and training - thanks for your efforts, it was all worth it! To my wife and two kids, thanks for your patience, especially on my long 2 hour runs. Your support has been invaluable! To everyone else that I haven’t mentioned personally, sorry but my goal tonight is not to make this the worlds longest blog post…although it probably getting there!

I would like to end this entry, by saying to everybody - don’t be afraid to challenge yourself. This is how we grow and evolve. When you next challenge yourself, throw everything you have at it. See yourself crossing that finish line, whatever it may be. Until next time, keep those dreams alive….

 All the best - Ryan Kilfoil

Every day, people do things that astound me, and the last couple of days has been no exception! Five days ago the voting was going well with over 4,000 votes cast for the $10,000 challenge, which was a massive effort!

When voting closed, at 4pm today (28/02/09), the results absolutely BLEW ME AWAY! We had received a massive 51,247 Votes! I never dreamt that my cause would be able to reach this many people.

And the Winner is…

Congratulations to Stop the Traffik (www.stopthetraffik.org) with their fantastic effort, receiving 92% of all the votes cast!

So they official results are as follows:

1st Place and the recipient of all funds raised by me for the Rotorua Marathon is Stop the Traffik with 47,372 Votes!!

2nd Place was Save the Children with a great effort and 2647 Votes!

3rd Place was the Child Cancer Foundation with 1112 Votes! This charity also blew me away, with the massive support from the public and I hope to be doing something with them next.

4th Place was the Heart Foundation which finished with 146 Votes!

My sincere thanks to EVERYONE that voted and to all the charities that were involved. I know a lot of hard work went into this and I do believe that ALL the charities managed to raise their profile through this exercise.

As charity is an ongoing process, I do hope to work with all these charities over the coming months and appreciate all the correspondence and support I have received so far.

The difficult has now passed - we have a winner. Now all we have to do is raise the $10,000! So keep an eye out for some innovative fundraising activities courtesy of your Kiwi Millionaire!

To donate to STOP THE TRAFFIK please visit http://www.justgiving.com/ryankilfoil