On the morning of Aug. 22 senior Matthew Baer and his teammates began the 199 mile Hood to Coast run from Mt. Hood to the Oregon Coast.
The impressive distance is split into 36 legs, with each teammate running 3 legs across varying in terrain and distances ranging from 3.5 to 7.8 miles.
The team ran as representatives of team World Vision, which is one of the largest organizations bringing clean water to impoverished communities in Africa. According to Team World Vision, 768 million people worldwide are unable to access safe drinking water.
“The big thing about Hood to Coast is that it’s about charity. Only a few people really do it for the running,” Baer said. “I wanted to have my running mean something…I didn’t just want to run for the sake of running.”
For this year’s race World Vision paired up with United States Olympian Lopez Lomong. One of the Lost Boys of Sudan, Lomong fled to the States during the Second Sudanese Civil War.
“While you are running, if you feel like you can’t run anymore, think about the people you are getting water for. Think about your cause,” Baern said.
As a veteran marathon runner, Baer was already in peak condition for the strenuous race.
But he said that even the most powerful athletes struggle to stay awake for over 36 hours. It’s at this point that the race becomes primarily a mental challenge.
“I might be hurting, this might be painful, but at least I am having some sort of impact,” Baer said.
The 2014 run was Baer’s second time participating in the Hood to Coast race while representing Team World Vision. He ran it at an average of 6 minutes and 30 seconds per mile. The ten World Vision Teams raised $565,394.20 total to send to South Sudan for clean water, and Bear individually raised about $1,000 for the cause.
Baer said he is sure he will be participating in the run in years to come and has hopes of traveling to South Sudan to see the effects of his hard work.
“I definitely want to go to South Sudan at some point and see some of the impact of the fundraising that we have done,” Baer said. “At this point, I am pretty removed from it, so going over there and seeing the actual impact would be so surreal.”
Malika Andrews is a sports reporter for The Beacon and can be reached at andrewsm17@up.edu.
