Breaking Through

In the home stretch!

As the countdown to my first marathon entered its final hours, the parallels I saw to the experiences of first-time microfinance borrowers grew. I heard the echoes of many stories told to me by poor (and formerly poor) women in Bangladesh, as they recounted their journeys of borrowing, investing and repaying sums like $60 or $100 years earlier.

In the 48 hours before the start of the Detroit marathon, I was anxious and, according to my wife Emily, fairly irritable. I wondered about how my left knee would hold up, and what the conditions had in store. Some weather forecasts predicted an unseasonably warm and windy day. Not good for marathoning. I felt a cold coming on as I tossed and turned in bed Saturday night. As I lined up the other runners in my “corral,” however, I felt a sense of peace – perhaps what a microfinance client feels when she finally receives her loan and is off to start or expand a tiny business.

At the finish line with Emily.

Like the experience of many who own microbusinesses, my race had several phases. The first 16 miles was relatively easy; I was on a four hour pace. My wife turned up every 6-8 miles to cheer me on, as did thousands of local volunteers, mostly at areas called “Spirit Stations.” I slowed a bit for miles 16 to 19. Then things started to get complicated. Just after the 19-mile marker, one of my legs started to cramp up. Seeing my wife at mile 20 put a smile on my face, but I knew that there was trouble ahead. Still, I reached mile 22 in the same time that it had taken me to cover 20 miles during my longest training run.

The last 4.2 miles were very difficult, analogous perhaps to when a woman who is raising chickens as her business sees half her flock die, or has a family health crisis that strains her finances and frays her nerves. My cramps worsened as I passed this final trial, extending to parts of my body that I barely knew had muscles. I ran at a snail’s pace, watching helplessly as runners who looked to be in their 60s and 70s passed me by. More power to them!

When the final stretch was at hand, in an instant I saw the finish line, my colleague Erin, and Emily. I tried to look dignified and celebratory as I crossed the finish line, but within seconds I was crying and being led by an EMT to a medical tent. There was nothing seriously wrong with me, and before long I was released by the very helpful medics and on to enjoy a beautiful afternoon in Detroit with my wife, whose challenge got this all going months ago. My official time, as reported in the Free-Press, was 4:35:32.

How could I not reflect on the trauma and triumphs of microloan clients as I passed the final grueling miles of the marathon? For them, the stakes are much higher – the possibility of breaking the generational cycle of poverty, as a quiet but powerful legacy that will resound for decades, even centuries.

P.S. I would like to thank my colleagues at Grameen Foundation -- Maya Uppaluru, Matt Mechenbier and Helen Yuen -- for their efforts to make this blog a reality, and everyone who sponsored me financially.

Grameen Foundation's 10th-Year Birthday Bash

Well, it is finally the home stretch of my marathon preparation. Seeing the sponsorship contributions increase every day has been encouraging – I am reasonably confident I will not let all these supporters down. My wife is gearing up to write her checks to Fonkoze, Project Enterprise and Grameen Foundation – perhaps at a ceremony in the GF offices the week after the marathon.

Last week was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to celebrate the power of microfinance in what turned out to be a Grameen “family reunion” as well. It all began with a “Knowledge Sharing Roundtable,” held last week in New York. Every year, Grameen Foundation recognizes the best and brightest leaders in microfinance with awards. The roundtable is a time for the winners to answer questions. This year’s winners, Grameen Koota from India and ACSI from Ethiopia, shared their journeys and insights with some of GF’s most generous supporters and most active volunteers. It was a stimulating dialogue facilitated brilliantly by Paul Maritz, who was elected our fourth Grameen Foundation Board Chair two days later, succeeding Susan Davis.

That was followed by a luncheon celebrating Grameen Foundation’s 10th anniversary where we honored those two organizations, plus Sam Daley-Harris, the founder of RESULTS and the Microcredit Summit Campaign (not to mention one of my personal heroes), who received the inaugural “Susan M. Davis Lifetime Achievement Award.” Professor Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank and a founding board member of Grameen Foundation, spoke at the luncheon, acknowledging Grameen Foundation, Project Enterprise (which was also celebrating its 10th anniversary), Grameen Koota, ACSI and Sam. It was the one year anniversary of the announcement of his selection as the Nobel Peace Prize honoree, and he talked about how progress had accelerated in so many ways in the last twelve months. The final event of that day was the first Grameen Foundation/Sing for Hope concert, at which superb singers including Monica Yunus, Dr. Yunus’ daughter, performed and we were able to raise more than $225,000 for educational scholarships in Bangladesh under the leadership of my colleague Tania Ashraf.

The next day was our Board meeting, where we were looking forward rather than backwards, charting our impact on the menace of global poverty during our second decade. The discussions were complex and inspiring, and will give me much to reflect on as I travel 26.2 miles this coming Sunday in Detroit. Right now, I am on my way to Dallas and then New York for galas being organized by the Chiapas Project, which was founded by Lucy Billingsley to raise money for Grameen Foundation’s work in Latin America, and Project Enterprise. Both events are in their third years and based on past experience, will be testaments to the power of concerned people in privileged societies coming to together to advance the cause of self-help empowerment through microfinance.

Turning the Corner

I am now in the phase of marathon training that some people call “tapering” – my training regimen is slowly being reduced after reaching a crescendo about one week ago. This is a good thing, since I am in the midst of the most intense, fun and time-consuming period of the fall fundraising push. I just spent some very productive time in southern California with my colleagues Julia Wilson and Manon Cypher, and am now off to India and then New York City for our 10th anniversary celebration. This Friday is our Sing for Hope benefit concert, which promises to be a really exciting event. Talented opera and other emerging artists will perform to benefit Grameen Foundation’s Scholarship Program. We’re all anticipating a moving moment when Monica Yunus takes the stage. She’s a talented singer at the Met and will be performing to her dad, Dr. Muhammad Yunus. He is a 2006 Nobel Peace Laureate, a Grameen Foundation board member and the evening’s special guest. Earlier in the day, we’re honoring Amhara Credit and Savings of Ethiopia and Grameen Koota of India at our annual awards luncheon. They are both partners of Grameen Foundation and microfinance institutions who have been pioneers in the industry. At the lunch, we’ll also honor tireless microfinance leader Sam Daley-Harris with the first-ever Susan Davis Lifetime Achievement Award. With all these events going on, I would not have much time to train at full tilt, but still I am beginning to get antsy. Those long runs are somehow addictive.

I have been touched by the pledges that have been received from friend and stranger alike, for this marathon run. Giving to Grameen Foundation means that these precious resources will be used to fight poverty in a very direct way, and help us reach our $18 million goal this year. I’ll be thinking of each and every person who pledged something as I pound through the 26.2 miles on October 21, imagining a circle of friends who are committed to the end of poverty and took an interest in this personal journey. There will be a lot of time to think – more than four hours based on my expected finish time.

Uphill and Beyond

My training for the Detroit marathon, my first, is entering a critical stage. In some ways I am feeling more confident, but in others feeling increasingly nervous. My body seems to be getting stronger, and also more fragile. Frankly, it is hard to explain what I am feeling.

Sending out messages to hundreds of friends saying that I was running the marathon, and having the Grameen Foundation staff make up a humorous fund-raising webpage on this project, made it all more real for me. Buying the tickets for my wife Emily and me to travel to Detroit, and booking a hotel room, also drove home the reality of this project. The rallying of people making donations, and even some family and friends who have surprised me by saying they intend to come to Detroit, has served as wind at my back. I’ll need it.

I have reflected recently on the similarities between how I am stretching myself to train for a marathon, and how micro-loan clients as well as front-line staff do the very same thing to reduce poverty. They also experience doubts and discomfort, as well as the joys associated with achieving milestones beyond what they have ever done previously. (I was elated when I completed a 16-mile training run – my longest ever – and immediately thought of a borrower I knew in Bangladesh make the last payment on her first micro-loan.) The moral and material support they need, and often receive, in the microfinance context seems very analogous to what I am experiencing.

There’s already been a huge outpouring of support for my race, and I can’t tell you how much it means to me. We still have a long way to go though, so help me out by spreading the word to your family and friends. Your support is what keeps me going on those uphill training runs!

The Last Mile

Before I began training for this marathon, I had done one run longer than 13 miles in my life. Probably it would have made most sense to run a half-marathon, since most of my runs in recent years have been 6-8 miles. In order to be ready for October 21, I knew I needed to start doing a weekly run of at least 12 miles in order to accustom my body to running long distances. I have made runs of 13, 14 and 16 miles in recent weeks, and today I did a 20 miler. Boy am I sore!

One of the things I have observed in these longer runs is that no matter how long it is, getting within one mile of my goal is not that hard, but once I am in the final mile, the physical and psychological discomfort gets much more severe. The interesting thing is, that has been a consistent pattern whether I was doing a 12-miler or 16, or 20. I’ve learned that it is important to stretch oneself with aggressive goals, since the mind and spirit begin to align themselves with the goal, whatever it is. Why else can I get within one mile of my goal each time – regardless of what the goal is – without major difficulty?

Four years ago Grameen Foundation staff debated vigorously whether we should aspire to increase our partners’ outreach by three million or five million. Many felt that three million was achievable and adopting five million was tantamount to setting ourselves up for failure. In the end, the five million goal won out. Today, less than two years from our end-date, we are on course to exceed our five-year goal of five million new microfinance clients. As I ice my knees at home here tonight, I am glad that we did not opt for three million. If we had done so, perhaps our creativity and effort would have been set at that lower level. And maybe two million poor families would lack access to the lifeline of microfinance in early 2009 as a result of limiting ourselves to more “realistic” goals.

My Wife's Challenge

Everyone has their Everest. Mine is a challenge issued by my wife, signed on a paper napkin at a Washington area Mexican restaurant, no less.

She’s challenged me to run my first marathon ever. I’ve been a runner for five years; so why now, you ask?

Well, like so many great ideas, this one started at an informal after-work happy hour back in May. Grameen Foundation staff were talking about marathons or triathlons they had done, and my wife Emily suggested that I probably would never make the time do to the training necessary to complete a marathon, despite my occasional promises to do so one day. To “prove” that she was right, she offered to buy me dinner at my favorite restaurant, Oceanaire, and triple her personal donations to three non-profit microfinance organizations I was on the Board of – Grameen Foundation (GF), Fonkoze USA and Project Enterprise. She laughed and said that even these incentives would not move me to commit to doing the marathon. All I had to do was to complete a marathon in 2007 and give up my occasional cigar – a small vice that I picked up in recent years – from June 1 until the marathon is complete, and these things would be mine.

Exhibit A: The infamous napkin!

Well, I committed to doing the marathon on the spot, which my colleague Matt Mechenbier helpfully documented on the paper napkin. Both Emily and I signed it and he scanned it in and circulated it to all the Grameen Foundation staff the next day. I was on the hook!

Finding a marathon that was relatively close to our home in the Washington, DC area and where the dates were convenient for my schedule was a challenge, but I finally settled on the Detroit marathon on October 21. We have a lot of friends in Michigan, since our second Chairman, the late, great Jim Sams, was from a well-known Arab-American family there. Jim helped get our work in the Arab World going and we have named our annual fund after him and his wife Betty, who remains an active force within GF.

As president of Grameen Foundation, I’m turning my temporary loss of cigars into GF’s gain. I’m using the marathon to raise awareness and funding for GF’s work. I am determined to make it to that finish line and raise money to help more borrowers as they struggle with their own personal challenges. You can help me along the way. Match Emily’s gift and sponsor my run.

Any contribution, no matter how large or small, will go a long way to supporting microfinance, a uniquely powerful tool to ending poverty across the world. I travel a lot, and training for the marathon while on the road continues to be a tricky experience. But when I think about where all the proceeds will go, it reminds me why I’ve taken on this challenge.

I’ve decided to record the experience through this blog, up until race day (and one final post-race entry, if I survive that far!). This is my first post; please come back to read regular posts in the next few weeks on how it’s going and insights. Thanks and wish me luck – I’ll need it!