Photos by Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

Glen Argabright runs on a elliptical machine in his basement. Argabright is trying to run 150 plus miles on and elliptical machine in his basement to help raise money for children centers in Bangladesh.

A written message of support for Argabright, along with a picture he took while in Bangladesh.

Audio Slideshow

• See and hear Glen Argabright talk about his determination to help raise money for children in Bangladesh.

How to help

• Donations, made out to General Treasurer, Church of the Nazarene, and marked “Bangladesh CDC’s #ACM2007” can be mailed to Glen Argabright, 122 Tara Court, Daleville, VA 24083.

Glen Argabright's humbleness, passion and determination are evident in the way he speaks.

"It's not about me," falls from his lips often.

Even as Argabright, 45, a Roanoke Valley contractor, started training for an elliptical marathon to pay maintenance costs for modest, dirt-floor child development centers in Bangladesh, he wouldn't take credit for the idea.

Restless nights after a trip to the South Asian country with a group from the Church of the Nazarene nearly six months ago spurred the idea of helping its children.

He said the marathon idea was cemented in a vision from God during the Botetourt County resident's workouts on an elliptical treadmill for a bad knee.

"That trip had an impact on me like no other," Argabright said in a letter seeking pledges for his marathon, which he set at 150 miles on the elliptical treadmill.

"Over the years, I've been to many places and have seen things that won't let your life be the same. But I've never been to a place where I was intimidated by the need," he said in an interview.

"More than 141 million people live in Bangladesh, a country the size of Illinois, our fifth most populous state of 13 million," Argabright said, adding that recent flooding and Cyclone Sidr in November have left more than a third of the country's residents displaced or homeless.

Faces have stayed in his mind. He has pictures and a slide presentation his Argabright Construction office of the children he met and the devastation he saw.

"It blew me away. Ladies are so disrespected; it's not uncommon for girls to be killed."

"He was very much touched by what he saw," Jerry Guzi said of his friend Argabright.

"He was so moved to help them more" than the work he and his brother David Argabright do as members of Garden City Church of the Nazarene and through mission projects with the church's national organization, Guzi said. "He actually had met some of the people who lost their lives during the cyclone."

Argabright got his family, Northeast Roanoke business and church involved in his marathon plans.

And he appealed for outside monetary support for the first time in the more than 30 years that he and his brother have worked on mission trips.

On Dec. 28 when the event began at 5 a.m. in the basement of Argabright's Ashley Plantation home, a verse from the book of Hebrews about running with endurance was posted above the machine.

Throughout the day, Glen Argabright pedaled and sweated as family and friends gathered to encourage and pray with him.

Because of a test run on Thanksgiving, Argabright estimated he could complete the 150 miles by 1 a.m. Dec. 30.

He pedaled, sweated and rested throughout the day before a flu-like illness stopped him 82 miles into the endeavor.

Argabright had to be helped to bed by his wife, Jeannie Argabright, and his brother.

"I was just completely and totally spent. I just completely lost it. I had given everything I had. There was nothing left. It was a real battle. Saturday and Sunday I could hardly move," Argabright recalled of Dec. 29 and 30.

But his efforts weren't in vain, and he said, "I'm so proud of how everything turned out."

His nephew and trainer, Brad Argabright, and his niece, Brittany Argabright, took turns running another 70 miles to exceed Argabright's 150-mile goal.

"It was awesome for them to rise to the occasion. It was just incredible," Argabright said.

The marathon "wasn't about me. It was about calling attention to conditions in Bangladesh," he said a couple of days later.

As of Jan. 2, Argabright had raised nearly $65,000 to maintain and build child development centers that are used as schools, health facilities, churches and community gathering spots.

It takes $20,000 to run a center for a year, while it costs about $5,000 to construct the 33-by-50-foot structures of teakwood and metal siding.

Argabright said he didn't want to build any more centers unless he had at least two years of maintenance fees.

He's still accepting donations. His brother, David, who mainly builds churches, is returning to Bangladesh on Jan. 19.

"I'm just so proud of my whole family," said Argabright, who returns to Bangladesh in March.

"We had so many people praying and caring for us," he said of his family and his marathon.

His family, he added, has been blessed and he's learned that if you don't have the solution to a worry or problem, "at the snap of a finger, God can turn it into a miracle."

The marathon "scratched the surface" but exposed more people to the conditions in Bangladesh and that, Argabright said, was a miracle from God.

"He did it. He deserves all the credit."