tales of a running mom: operation jack satellite run

i hope you all had a fantastic christmas!:-)

mine was awesome, thanks for asking. i went to my parents house, spent time with my family and T enjoyed his very first christmas. this christmas was a little different though. instead of spending the entire christmas weekend at my parents house, we drove back home christmas night. i had an important run in the morning. it wasn't a race. it wasn't timed. there weren't a lot of people running. it was 18 degrees out with a nasty wind chill. but it was for autism. ill do just about anything for that.

you see, back in april i met sam at the boston marathon. he ran 61 marathons in 2010 to raise awareness and money for an organization called train 4 autism. somehow in the last 8 months i have become chapter president of the maine train 4 autism, signed up for my first marathon and met some pretty sweet people, all because of sam.

on december 26, 2010 sam ran his 61st marathon of the year in california. if there was a way i could have been there, i would have. it just wasn't possible though. i wasn't the only one who wanted to be there to support sam so the idea was born to have satellite runs. it's quite simple. run 6.1 miles, where ever you are in the world anytime on december 26 in honor of sam and his accomplishment.

in the weeks leading up to the run danielle, sam and i had an interview with jake from run like health, and i had an interview with the portland press herald (you can see a copy of that story here). the press herald story ran on christmas eve and my inbox was flooded with people who had never heard about train 4 autism and were moved by the story or knew someone with autism that they wanted to support. i must say, it was pretty cool. even if they didn't come out and run with us, i know that i was able to get the word out to some more people.

ok, to the run. 16 of us met sunday morning. it was c-c-c-c-ooooooold! i ran the run with elizabeth and monica. normally i like running alone. i like being able to go my own speed and not worry about holding others back. these two lovely ladies ran my pace and we had a blast. the miles ticked by and we chatted about all kinds of things from elizabeths quest to run marathons in all 50 states in memory of her dad to monica's list of 5 stupid things to do at 50. we had fun taking pictures of random things along our run, singing ke$ha to the town of south portland and talking autism. cause that's why we were all there right? the entire time i thought of sam, his quest, his accomplishments and what he was about to do later in the day. i thought about my brother and how the money i am raising is going to help him, and every time i hit a hill that i didn't want to run i thought of the mdi marathon and how i want to own those hills.

elizabeth and i with a penguin on someone front yard. welcome to maine.

representing the other portland

danielle, melissa, elizabeth and i were the only ones running that day who have actually met sam. everyone else was just there because they dig what he is doing, they support the cause and want to help. that meant a lot to me. it meant more then christmas presents i got or the birthday presents ill be getting next week (you can still send yours though, its ok). it meant a lot because most of the runners drove 30+ minutes to get there on a very cold day. this wasn't something they had to do, it wasn't something they were doing for someone they know. i am just very grateful to those who came out and ran. so thank you to mark, christine, jim, dawn, elizabeth, misty, jen, sandra, monica, andy, brendan, eric, bj, melissa and of course my right hand women, danielle. there was also a group that ran in auburn and my mom and her friend spent 2 hours walking it!!