If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing started off with a dream and a mouse. — Walt Disney
Through the rest of the year, I will occasionally write about what has inspired me to change course and aim for something bigger with the running team. We have done a lot and could very well easily continue to do what we’ve always done but that’s not always the thing that allows you to grow.
I will also announce the ways that some of that change will occur. It’s really important that this is shared. So many people have been a part of this that I feel obligated, not that anyone has made me feel that way, to share the vision and from my end, hopefully, continue to share the course with all of you.
So the first inspiration for making this change….see below:
This is very much a family change. Jenn and I have put a lot of time, over the soon to be 5 years, into this crazy running adventure. As I’ve mentioned before, that first year, if she wasn’t on board, this wouldn’t have happened. Nearly as important as her support though are these guys.
These pictures only show 2 of the 3 but the reality is the first three years, our kids got to feel that they were a part of the process. They ran the Fort 4 Fitness the night before we ran our bigger races and they LOVED IT. The last two years, as we’d roll out of town to Ragnar Michigan, we did so knowing how disappointed the kids were that they weren’t running in the Fort 4 Fitness.
It’s tough enough to leave them for a few days. It’s a sacrifice for us but having our decision’s taking them out of something they love so much, we don’t want to do that anymore.
The Fort 4 Fitness is a great event and a blessing to our community. It gives the kids a sense of accomplishment, a path to better health – not just now but in the future, and shows them what can happen when a community comes together. Those are all things that, if we’re going to promote our running group as a great community group that I feel we certainly shouldn’t hold our kids back from being a part of either.
So the change for 2020 is, we and our littles, will be running the Fort 4 Fitness, which means that Runnin’ Not Walken will not be back at Ragnar Relay Michigan.
A bit of a teaser:
I see two things for 2020, both a scaling back of the bigger running event but also a broadening, hopefully, of our network of runners. I hope that more folks want to be a part of making their miles count for something. I think it’d be cool to approach this as a “season” with the end of our fundraising efforts being the Fort 4 Fitness in the Fall of 2020. I’m still working out the details of the idea but when the time is right, I will certainly share it with you.
Have a great Monday everyone!
— Gabe
Runners Doing Good 