Please make sure my frivolous joggling pursuits aren't for naught by making a donation to help AIDS orphans in Ethiopia. Click HERE to donate.
Here's the news release from P2P Canada.
NEWS RELEASE
Michal Kapral
Joggling for AIDS Orphans at Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon Races
“The Joggler” returns
to his favourite record-breaking race to go for the half-marathon Guinness
World Record and raise funds for P2P charity
Toronto, ON, October
6, 2014 –
On Sunday, October 19, one of the world’s most famous multitaskers, MICHAL “THE JOGGLER” KAPRAL of
Toronto, is joining two-time Olympic gold-medallist MIRUTS YIFTER in raising
funds for AIDS orphans in Ethiopia with P2P Canada at the 2014 ScotiabankToronto Waterfront Marathon races. Michal is going for a new Guinness WorldRecord for the fastest half-marathon while "joggling" three objects
(yes, that's running while juggling).
“I
can’t emphasize enough how tough it is to race a half-marathon while juggling
every step of the way” Michal says. “I hope to get enough donations to the P2P
charity so this absurdly difficult challenge will make the world a better place.”
Michal,
42, is the current Guinness World Record holder for the fastest joggling
marathon of 2 hours 50 minutes and 12 seconds and also holds the 10K
record of 36 minutes and 27 seconds. There is no current Guinness record for
the joggling half-marathon, but Michal has joggled an uncertified 1 hour 23 minute
half-marathon in the past and is hoping to beat that time. Guinness World
Records will have an adjudicator at the race to validate the record on the
spot.
While
best known for his joggling feats, in 2002 Michal was the overall winner of the
Toronto Marathon in a time of 2:30:40 after taking up competitive running just
four years earlier. He also won the Burlington Marathon in 2003. A father of
two girls, he set a Guinness record in 2004 for running a marathon while
pushing a baby in a stroller, with his older daughter Annika as passenger. This
summer, he ran a personal-best of 2:03.07 for 800 metres, a non-joggled time that
ranks him in the top 20 in the world for his age group.
Michal
has joggled seven marathons, three half-marathon and the famed Around the Bay
30K Road Race, as well as several other 5Ks and 10Ks. His battle for the
marathon joggling record with American rival (and friend) Zach Warren garnered
international media coverage that included appearances on CNN, ABC, CBS, NPR, an
award-winning CBC-TV documentary with Evan Solomon and an award-winning feature
film, Breaking and Entering. Michal will
be starring in an upcoming North America-wide TV commercial and advertising
campaign for Fairfield Inn and Suites by Marriott, set to launch in late
October.
Earlier
this week, People to People Aid Organization Canada announced that the great
Ethiopian Olympic hero Miruts Yifter joined the P2P Canada Scotiabank Toronto
Waterfront 5K Charity Challenge as honourary team captain. Yifter has
wholeheartedly embraced the cause of children orphaned by AIDS in Ethiopia and
Michal is pleased to joggle in his footsteps. Team P2P hopes to improve upon
the $20,000 raised in 2013 to $40,000 this year. All of which provides life sustaining
support to HIV/AIDS orphans in Ethiopia.
MIRUTS YIFTER made
his Olympic debut at the Munich Olympics in 1972 where he won a bronze medal at
the 10,000m finals. Between 1972 and 1980 Miruts handily won numerous international
long-distance competitions, setting world records in many of them. His crowning
achievement was winning gold in both the 5,000m and 10,000m finals in stunning
fashion at the Moscow Olympics in 1980.
Miruts
followed in the footsteps of the great Abebe Bikila – the first African
athlete to win gold at the Olympics – and he himself inspired the many supremely
successful Ethiopian long-distance athletes that came after him, like Haile Gebrselassie, Kenenisa Bekele and many others. In
his heyday, Miruts was known as YIFTER THE SHIFTER due to his unique
and abrupt change in speed when executing his devastating kick to the finish.
We
call upon the P2P community, supporters and fellow Torontonians to join us on
October 19. Run or Walk with Team P2P and the great Miruts Yifter and Michal “The
Joggler” Kapral to help raise the funds – which translate into hope – for the
tens of thousands of HIV/AIDS orphans in Ethiopia. Join our team today!
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