A moment to reflect...

As I sit here typing this, I still cannot believe it is August, and just 2 days away from the Inaugural Run 4 Everett. The event was born out of a need to do "something", out of a sense of helplessness on my part I suppose. We wanted to memorialize our little boy with an event, but also raise awareness and educate the masses. The race seemed like the right venue for what we wanted.

In the past 9 months +/- it has been tough, stressful, emotional, healing, uplifting, exciting and scary all rolled into one. To know we have put together an event that so far has far exceeded our expectations (373 participants as I type) is amazing. Now, I know we still have to hold the event, but in my mind's eye, it will be a fun event for all, and it will not only be a great race for runners and walkers, but for families who have experienced a loss as well.

I was thinking about how running ties so well into all of this. Running is a social sport - it truly is. I know of no other sport where, for whatever reason, you open up and share more than you would otherwise. But it also allows you to be by yourself and your thoughts too. I am sure I have mentioned it before, but it is worth repeating, running helped me work through my grief in so many ways. And I have heard of another father who took up running and channeled his grief as well - he truly understands where I am coming from.

So the next two days will be busy (an understatement for sure), but we are having fun. We got 300 bags stuffed yesterday. We had help from family and friends in the morning. Then in the evening it was a true family affair. Lilli was so excited to help. We had an assembly line formed. She dropped in pens and a bracelet, I did cards and magnets and Steph was putting in flyers.

Packet pick-up on Friday, plus setting up some of the race course that evening, then all hands on deck Saturday morning to get things finalized.

I'm pretty excited...