Good Cause, Powerful Meaning

Training for the Grand Rapids Marathon, what better way to prepare than by running the course? That was my thought when I saw Grand Rapids advertise a Half Marathon coming up, odd I didn't remember seeing anything recently. After further research, I found out the Grand Rapids Marathon was doing something very cool and there was a reason I didn't hear about this Half Marathon sooner.

This Half Marathon was a response to the devastation Joplin suffered with the tornado. Joplin was suppose to run a Marathon this year, called the Boomtown, but obviously unable with the damage. Grand Rapids stepped up and decided to offer this Half Marathon with all proceeds going to help Joplin. It didn't take more than a second to sign up for this race knowing it was for a good cause.

For being put together somewhat last minute, I have to applaud everybody involved. It wasn't officially timed and there will be no official record of me running it, but I'll always remember the speech given before the start of the race (well, fun run as they called it). This is where I ruin this blog entry with a obscure movie reference, but the speech reminded me of Cannonball Run, where the line goes something like "There isn't one state with the death penalty for speeding....though we aren't sure about Ohio". Instead in our speech went like this, "We haven't told the police that you are out running this morning, so if they stop you, good luck and we don't know you!".

I'm very excited to run this course in the fall. Running through downtown was very cool. I enjoyed looking at the buildings, running over the bridges, it made for a very fun run. Keep in mind though, I hadn't ran more than 6 miles since the Kalamazoo Marathon. Once the sun came out and when I hit mile 10, I was done. The last three miles were an absolute struggle. Once I finished, I waited for my teammates. It was great to have four of my running partners with me. It made for a great day, both for the route, then without any race pressure, it was a very relaxing feeling. Even with my struggles, I think this will be one of my favorite runs.

We were treated with this beautiful finisher medal, which by itself is special because it is the actual medal that would have been given out had the Marathon taken place in Joplin. It wasn't until after we found out there were a very specific number of medals given out, and it was the exact number of people who lost their lives in that horrible tornado. That medal represents MUCH more than running 13.1 miles.