Message from the Race Director 1 May 2016

Dear Aspiring AIMers,

My race management team and I are thrilled to be in the throes of preparing for our 10^th anniversary event. A friend once told me that the secret of success often lies in just hanging in there long enough.

This is a sentiment that will resonate with most long-distance runners, walkers, bikers—what-have-you. That’s the trick of their sport or avocation, to endure.

With your support, we have endured to celebrate the 10^th consecutive edition of the AIM. We will celebrate this milestone with exuberance, and we will move beyond enduring to thriving.

We have had the privilege of bearing witness to the fitness odysseys of interesting people from many walks of life from different parts of the globe, and sometimes gotten a glimpse into the inward journey of our participants. Wow, we can only imagine the kaleidoscope of the stories we don’t get to hear about. Just as all our AIMers hold a special place in our hearts and collective memories, we hope that your AIMing experience contributes in some measure to the richness of your life’s adventures.

We hope to give you a peek into our own trek to AIM Day 2016 by sharing small bits of interesting information and keeping you informed of our progress.

First, a bit of good news for those who missed the “early bird” discount period, which ended 30 April: we are extending the period by one month until the end of May in celebration of my recent 60th birthday.

As always, we’re grateful for the early registrations that take some of the guesswork out of our ordering of event supplies. Every AIMer who completed registration by 30 April will receive a special thank you gift from us. Those who missed it can still take advantage of the discounted fees until 31 May and also stand a good chance of winning a nice surprise in their goody bags.

For the first time in our admittedly young history, the first registered AIMer was a non-American. Our first registrant is doing the full marathon and gives his country of birth or citizenship as—ta daa—the UK. He was followed a few days later by a Nigerian woman who also registered for the full marathon. About a week later, the first American registered. All three aspiring AIMers are over 40 years of age!

Of the many nationalities represented thus far in completed registrations, Americans, Brits, and Nigerians are in a dead heat for first place in terms of numbers registered. That’s right; Ghana is just slightly ahead of Mexico and Poland in terms of numbers registered. Come ooonnn, host nationals…

We can’t wait to see how the stats ultimately shake out, but this is what we’ve got so far:

• almost as many women as men
• the youngest registrant is female, aged 20, and the eldest, also a female, is 60;
• more folks over 40 than under

Most of these early registrants are doing the full marathon or the half marathon. Experience tells us they’ll eventually be outnumbered by the shorter distance participants, but we love the commitment of these endurance warriors, and we work hard to provide them the extra support they need.

Not everyone chooses to divulge their profession, but we’ve got doctors and lawyers and corporates, oh my! What a great mix for socializing and networking. With doctors and lawyers (and bankers) leading a notoriously stressful lifestyle, we’re very happy to see them mixing it up with the leisure sporting crowd.

We AIM to make fitness fun to be sure, but we also AIM to overcome some of many challenges facing our communities and societies. Last year, we raised over $10,000 in our AIMing to Care campaign for charities in the Ebola-affected countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, as well as for the Ghana Planetarium and Science Centre and another effort being led by the AIM’s very first volunteer doctors (more on their initiative in my next update).

We hope you will AIM with us to support this year’s AIM Charity Partners or the cause dearest to your heart.

I have been AIMing to be sexy @ 60, and I look forward to discovering whether I achieve and sustain that goal as my sexagenarian decade unfolds. In the meantime, we can’t wait to learn your answers to our enduring question, “What are you AIMing for?”

ciao for now,
ekua
AIM Race Director