With about 1,200 runners at President's Cup Night Race running through town, one local resident thought to do something a little different, juggle a soccer ball the full 5,000 meters.
"I came up with the idea of juggling the ball and I usually run the race," Nathan Davies said, 37, of Maplewood, where most kids call him coach Nathan. "I'm pretty good with a ball so I thought I'd try it."
Davies took on the challenge to for Kick4Life, which he has already volunteered for in the past. With a lot of freestyle and indoor soccer experience, he did a few miles practice and contacted the organization to do it for the charity.
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Kick4Life is a South African based organization, founded in 2005, which focuses on HIV and AIDS education of boys and girls through sports in Lesotho.
"It took me about 120 minutes to finish," Davies said. "I did the course twice and it took about an hour and 15 minutes. It got a bit dark at the end but I didn't rush so that could be why it took me five minutes long than I thought it would."
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"I managed to keep the ball up the whole way around the course," Davies said.
Davies, with 25 years of expierence in soccer, has run his own coaching program since 2004, First Kicks, for children two-to seven-years-old, for Short Hills and Maplewood residents.
During February and March of 2009, Davies traveled with Kick4Life to Lesotho, South Africa to play charity soccer games to raise awareness for HIV and AIDS.
Originally from Connahs, in Wales, he played semi-professional socer in the Nation League for Wales.
