Get Over It!

This year marked year six of participating in the annual Cooper River Bridge Run. The run carries you from Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina over the beautiful Cooper River Bridge into downtown Charleston, South Carolina. I remember hearing about this run for years as I was growing up in Charleston and watching portions of it on television. It always looked exciting! Of course back then it went over the "newer" of the two older Cooper River Bridges. Nevertheless I thought it would be fun to participate, but the size of the crowd was very intimidating especially when they revealed how many finished, and after awhile it became a faded interest. That is until 2010, when my sister and her team at work signed up to participate and she invited me to take part with them. It was just like I thought it would be, absolutely invigorating and a whole lot of fun! Of course this invitation would open up the possibilities of running that has shifted me into the season I am in now! Amazing the difference one invitation in the right season can make!

A picture taken the Saturday before the run as I "practiced" with my family

 

Crowdrise Rocks

I received the most amazing email today from Crowdrise! Crowdrise is the fundraising platform I chose to use to collect donations for #miles4change.

Not only did they provide me with the platform to raise funds, but they invested in my cause! Can you say AWESOME?!?!

Miles 4 Change

In 2009 I read a story about human trafficking that moved me to tears and prayers. In 2012 I was moved to run, but felt more comfortable looking for organizations that fought human trafficking. This helped me to focus on contacting legislators regarding the cause and finding out more information. A good thing, but not the only thing I was called to do. In 2013 I was moved to run for the cause, but created all kinds of excuses to justify my shrinking back. For 2014 I am ready to jump back on the wagon and pick up where I left off.

A message from the A21 Campaign

Run For Life

I'm going to take a minute and list a few things we run from in life:

1. dogs
2. responsibilities
3. danger
4. people who are chasing you
5. people you don't want to see
6. LIFE

Wait a minute, how do you run from life? Honestly, I ran from life by preoccupying myself with meaningless things that took my mind off my issues and made me too tired to worry about anyone else. Don't get me wrong, if I could do anything to help, I did. I organized various school projects from food drives to supplies for soldiers overseas. I wanted to instill in my students the importance of reaching beyond their comfort zones to help someone else's needs. Yet, I was so bogged down with financial issues, family issues, job issues, etc. I really didn't get time to truly look at the world around me since I was drowning in my own issues!

At the beginning of 2012, I declared that this year would be different. I rung in the new year creating a vision board to really focus on what I wanted to accomplish in my life, not just this year. One thing I really wanted to do was to become more physically active. Thanks to my sister I registered a few years ago for my first 10K and had done a few other events since then. This year I wanted to focus on a healthier lifestyle and better physical fitness. I also wanted to "savor other people's happiness". I want to reach beyond my comfort zone and bring awareness to issues that stir me to tears. Not the silent kind of tears, but the tears that come from a place so deep that your body quakes with each drop. The kind of issue that clings to you and when a new occurence surfaces, past heard of transgressions come vividly to mind. I didn't realize for me, seeds had been planted in 2009.