HBO.....Smile Pinki on Tonight

At 7:00pm ET/PT, the Oscar winning documentary, Smile Pinki will premiere on HBO. It’s a big deal - a film about clefts - hitting the big screen and HBO’s 40 million subscribers!

The brilliant director Megan Mylan does a great job of showing how The Smile Train program works, how it helps desperately poor children no one else will help, and how a simple little surgery that costs as little as $250 and takes as little as 45 minutes can give a child not just a new smile, but a second chance at life.

There is not one word of English in the entire film and yet it says everything they do perfectly. So please try to watch. Make some popcorn, bring some Kleenex and kick back and enjoy it, its only 40 minutes!

And remember, this film, this program, and these surgeries that you will see with your own eyes, would never be possible without support and donations.

For more information visit The Smile Train here

First Race of the Year.......

This weekend is the first race of the year for me and why not just jump in the deep end and make it a marathon! Yep, got the B&A Trail Marathon on Sunday and to be honest I think I am probably under trained for this one. My running mileage compared to this point last year is around the same level but the number of long runs is dramatically down. I think it could well be a day for a good long training run (although we know that those days never happen when the competitive juices get flowing!).

My best marathon time of last season was 2hrs 41mins at the National Marathon and it would be great to get somewhere near to that time. Anything under three hours would satisfy me this early in the season....fortunately the course is almost as flat as you could possibly make it.

This week has been a recovery/taper week and so the legs should be raring to go come Sunday morning (who wants a start time of 7:30am though?). The other downside to the race start time is that I won't be glued to my computer in time for the race registration for The Jefferson Cup and we all know how you have to have a trigger finger if you are a Cat 4 racer!

Oh and btw, I hope that everyone noticed that Smile Pinki won the Best Short Documentary Award at the Oscars on Sunday!

Smile Pinki.......

As some of you may know I was born with a cleft lip and plate and fortunately I was able to receive the medical treatment that many children in "developing" countries never receive. Back in 2006 as part of my first Ironman we raised over $3,000 for the Smile Train charity, which provides free surgeries to children with cleft lip and palates. It is certainly a cause very close to the hearts of my family.

As such, make sure you get to watch the Oscars tomorrow as Smile Pinki has been nominated for best short documentary. It is a story about two young girls in India who were born with clefts and in particular about Pinki who was able to receive the surgery courtesy of the Smile Train. You can watch the trailer here

If you feel as though you would like to help children in a similar situation to Pinki or would just like to know more about clefts or The Smile Train, please visit their website.