Casablanca

Last week I had the great fortune of being invited to attend a conference for Gender Equity in Sport for Social Change and to run a 10k called “Course Féminine” created by Moroccan Olympic Champion Nawal El Moutawakel.



On Sunday May 18th, 27,000 women took over the streets of Casablanca, stopping traffic and making jaws drop as they ran the course. I’ve never experienced anything like it. (Above: Here I am gearing up for the start with Holly who flew all the way from Portland to participate.)

To get a feeling for the awesomeness of an all woman event in Morocco please click here for video highlights of the 2007 race. At the end of the race, I had the inspiring opportunity to meet marathon pioneer Joan Benoit Samuelson who wont the first ever women’s Olympic marathon event in 1984 (you can tell which one she is in the pict below; also in the spotlight are Betty and Awista who are NGO directors for women and sports projects in South Africa and Afghanistan). Joan got me thinking I might pick up running again a bit more seriously. Step one has already happened: 2 friends of mine and I are signed up for the Nike+ Human Race in New York at the end of August.



The social change conference, which was held the 18th-21st, brought together NGO directors from North Africa, the Middle East and Afghanistan to share knowledge and resources for the empowerment of women in these regions through sport. It was moving and motivating to be in their presence and the entire trip reminded me how lucky I've been to work on the Nike Women account and for WK who have taken one of the organizing NGOs (Women Win) of the conference on as thier only pro bono client.

Burgundy

In late April I completed my Mary Magdalene tour of Europe, this time heading to Burgundy to visit Vezlay where her remains were said to have been taken in 1050. Most people don’t know Mary Magdalene ended up in France and stayed until her death. History tells us that after the death of Jesus, Mary M. was exiled from Jerusalem and sent adrift on a boat with a few others and by fate landed in Marseilles. Today a complicated debate remains over exactly where Mary Magdalene’s relics really are (Saint Maximin or Vezlay) but my friend Laura and I, being the thorough pilgrims that we are, decided to cover our bases.



And while we did, we were sure to stay in some lovely chauteas (Demessey and Petit Manoir Bruyeres), visit some other medieval abbeys (Cluny, Fontenay, and Pontigny) and finally ended the trip with a night in Paris.

This trip was particularly significant, as it would be my last with my friend Laura in Europe before she enters an Abbey in Connecticut as a postulant (on her road to taking full vows).