Mending Broken Hearts: Chairing our First 5K
I have known since day 1 that I needed to figure out how to prevent this journey happening to another family.
So what is the easiest way to raise awareness, and at the same time raise money to fight Autoimmune Disease?
A 5K.
One day at the gym, I googled "Autoimmune Disease Awareness" 5Ks, and nothing came up in the search engine. There were specific races for Diabetes, or Multiple Sclerosis, but there was nothing that brought awareness to the diseases that over 23 million Americans face daily.
I texted a friend of mine who has a son that developed Alopecia his kindergarten year in Paige's class. "Want to chair a 5K with me?"
The rest is history.
I looked for several organizations to run our event for us, and they all came with a hefty price tag. A good friend of ours sent us one he had found- and their contract was signed within the next two weeks.
My first email from the Parks and Rec department came on June 22nd, and we had less than 12 weeks to pull off a 5K in our community. I had so many ideas- I wanted it to have a health aspect (so we targeted many health-oriented sponsors), I wanted to create a competition between the local crossfit gyms, and my initial goal was 200 runners. My same friend who found the logistical group asked what my real goal was, and I told him I would love to see 400, but realistically we would get 200. He told me, "Nope. We will get 401."
Registration opened. The first few weeks were exceptionally slow. My logistical team told our committee we wouldn't hit big numbers, but to still hold out for 200.
I made several contacts with our City Council, and they decided to make our race date the official "Autoimmune Disease Awareness Day" in our city. Our committee went to the meeting, and presented information about Autoimmune Disease and were presented the official declaration.
I can't say I didn't get tears in my eyes as I started to see my vision come to life.
We had some good press in our local papers, and the numbers slowly started to rise.
One month out, we were still under 100 registrants.
A couple members of our team and I did appearances and promotions at local gyms, the farmers market, hung signs all over our city, and prayed that we would reach our goal- or we could potentially owe money after all was said and done.
I just had to keep the faith.
2 weeks out- our numbers rose every day. I was addicted to checking our race website- my co-chair and I would text one another with the latest stats. T shirt orders were due, and we decided to order 275, about 90 over where our numbers stood. We were ecstatic that we would hit 200 runners!
1 week out- unbelievably, we were getting close to 300. We updated our FB event page, with such great excitement and gratitude, and those numbers continued to rise.
The couple days before the event were a blur. I ran between meetings, sponsors, securing food donations (along with our awesome team members, we ended up only purchasing $32 worth of product, which was Starbucks coffee). We had over 300 bagels, oranges, bananas, granola bars, cookies, muffins, cornbread, bottled water, energy drink...it was an amazing outpour from our community.
I could hardly sleep that night before the event. I have raced many, many races, and I have never felt the nerves like I did that night. This entire event had my name on it- and if it was a failure, I would have many, many unhappy people.
Race day morning, our numbers soared. With the 45 walk-up registrations (unheard of!!), we totaled 446 runners.
446 runners, supporting our cause, running and walking in honor of those who suffer daily with Autoimmune Disease.
My awesome PR friend wrote an amazing release that gained attention from a local news channel and we were on their morning program with a full interview onsite. We had to wear ear buds, the whole nine yards- after the live interview finished, I knew it was time.
Our committee was pumped. I can't fully explain the adrenaline that flowed through my body that morning. Even though we ran non-stop until the runners started the 1 mile fun run and the subsequent 5K, every minute I was in shock. The crowd. The cheerleaders. The friends and family that traveled many miles to be with us (my cousins drove 17 hours to be at the event, and my mom and sister flew in), the strangers that I shook hands with that morning...
each and every runner was my hero.
We had a DJ who played the best family-friendly, pump-up music- when our numbers soared over 300 that last week, we knew that we now were chairing an "event-" and we needed to make an impression.
Between the food, the music, the warm-up from our local gym, the camaraderie, the awards ceremony...
I seriously had to remind myself that I wasn't dreaming.
And at the end of it all, after announcing all of the winners, we were able to announce the real champion:
Our fundraising efforts soared past $12,000.
We will be presenting a check to our two charities focused on Autoimmune Disease research and treatment within the next two weeks.
We weren't perfect: several people were upset that we didn't have enough t-shirts (we ordered a second batch and delivered/ shipped them out to all those that didn't receive them), the weather was hot and we started 9 minutes late due to the walk-up registrations, some of the volunteers didn't know the course when asked...but overall, for our first year, it was an amazing success.
And it will be an annual event.
Every long night, every rejection email for sponsors, every effort was completely worth it all. My friend's son had taken this event to heart, and wanted it to so badly be a success- and he took the microphone at the awards ceremony and owned his autoimmune disease.
Hearing him speak made every single minute worth it.
At the end of the donation announcement, I thanked those still standing for taking part. "As a mother of a son with Autoimmune disease, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for making a difference."
And I broke down in tears.
A vision had become a reality; watching 446 runners, over 70 volunteers, and family and friends who had come out to support our mission of raising awareness of Autoimmune disease; it was more than I had ever imagined. Tears of joy, pride, thankfulness, hope, and gratitude for being chosen to walk this journey of Autoimmunity with our son.
Every day has not been easy. The early weeks of hypothesizing about what went wrong, praying about how to "fix" it, and going through the stages of grief to learn how to most effectively help our son recover.
So what is the easiest way to raise awareness, and at the same time raise money to fight Autoimmune Disease?
A 5K.
One day at the gym, I googled "Autoimmune Disease Awareness" 5Ks, and nothing came up in the search engine. There were specific races for Diabetes, or Multiple Sclerosis, but there was nothing that brought awareness to the diseases that over 23 million Americans face daily.
I texted a friend of mine who has a son that developed Alopecia his kindergarten year in Paige's class. "Want to chair a 5K with me?"
The rest is history.
I looked for several organizations to run our event for us, and they all came with a hefty price tag. A good friend of ours sent us one he had found- and their contract was signed within the next two weeks.
My first email from the Parks and Rec department came on June 22nd, and we had less than 12 weeks to pull off a 5K in our community. I had so many ideas- I wanted it to have a health aspect (so we targeted many health-oriented sponsors), I wanted to create a competition between the local crossfit gyms, and my initial goal was 200 runners. My same friend who found the logistical group asked what my real goal was, and I told him I would love to see 400, but realistically we would get 200. He told me, "Nope. We will get 401."
Registration opened. The first few weeks were exceptionally slow. My logistical team told our committee we wouldn't hit big numbers, but to still hold out for 200.
I made several contacts with our City Council, and they decided to make our race date the official "Autoimmune Disease Awareness Day" in our city. Our committee went to the meeting, and presented information about Autoimmune Disease and were presented the official declaration.
I can't say I didn't get tears in my eyes as I started to see my vision come to life.
We had some good press in our local papers, and the numbers slowly started to rise.
One month out, we were still under 100 registrants.
A couple members of our team and I did appearances and promotions at local gyms, the farmers market, hung signs all over our city, and prayed that we would reach our goal- or we could potentially owe money after all was said and done.
I just had to keep the faith.
2 weeks out- our numbers rose every day. I was addicted to checking our race website- my co-chair and I would text one another with the latest stats. T shirt orders were due, and we decided to order 275, about 90 over where our numbers stood. We were ecstatic that we would hit 200 runners!
1 week out- unbelievably, we were getting close to 300. We updated our FB event page, with such great excitement and gratitude, and those numbers continued to rise.
The couple days before the event were a blur. I ran between meetings, sponsors, securing food donations (along with our awesome team members, we ended up only purchasing $32 worth of product, which was Starbucks coffee). We had over 300 bagels, oranges, bananas, granola bars, cookies, muffins, cornbread, bottled water, energy drink...it was an amazing outpour from our community.
I could hardly sleep that night before the event. I have raced many, many races, and I have never felt the nerves like I did that night. This entire event had my name on it- and if it was a failure, I would have many, many unhappy people.
Race day morning, our numbers soared. With the 45 walk-up registrations (unheard of!!), we totaled 446 runners.
446 runners, supporting our cause, running and walking in honor of those who suffer daily with Autoimmune Disease.
My awesome PR friend wrote an amazing release that gained attention from a local news channel and we were on their morning program with a full interview onsite. We had to wear ear buds, the whole nine yards- after the live interview finished, I knew it was time.
Our committee was pumped. I can't fully explain the adrenaline that flowed through my body that morning. Even though we ran non-stop until the runners started the 1 mile fun run and the subsequent 5K, every minute I was in shock. The crowd. The cheerleaders. The friends and family that traveled many miles to be with us (my cousins drove 17 hours to be at the event, and my mom and sister flew in), the strangers that I shook hands with that morning...
each and every runner was my hero.
We had a DJ who played the best family-friendly, pump-up music- when our numbers soared over 300 that last week, we knew that we now were chairing an "event-" and we needed to make an impression.
Between the food, the music, the warm-up from our local gym, the camaraderie, the awards ceremony...
I seriously had to remind myself that I wasn't dreaming.
And at the end of it all, after announcing all of the winners, we were able to announce the real champion:
Our fundraising efforts soared past $12,000.
We will be presenting a check to our two charities focused on Autoimmune Disease research and treatment within the next two weeks.
We weren't perfect: several people were upset that we didn't have enough t-shirts (we ordered a second batch and delivered/ shipped them out to all those that didn't receive them), the weather was hot and we started 9 minutes late due to the walk-up registrations, some of the volunteers didn't know the course when asked...but overall, for our first year, it was an amazing success.
And it will be an annual event.
Every long night, every rejection email for sponsors, every effort was completely worth it all. My friend's son had taken this event to heart, and wanted it to so badly be a success- and he took the microphone at the awards ceremony and owned his autoimmune disease.
Hearing him speak made every single minute worth it.
At the end of the donation announcement, I thanked those still standing for taking part. "As a mother of a son with Autoimmune disease, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for making a difference."
And I broke down in tears.
A vision had become a reality; watching 446 runners, over 70 volunteers, and family and friends who had come out to support our mission of raising awareness of Autoimmune disease; it was more than I had ever imagined. Tears of joy, pride, thankfulness, hope, and gratitude for being chosen to walk this journey of Autoimmunity with our son.
Every day has not been easy. The early weeks of hypothesizing about what went wrong, praying about how to "fix" it, and going through the stages of grief to learn how to most effectively help our son recover.
I know now why we were selected for this road. We are to educate those who are questioning symptoms, offer hope to those newly diagnosed, and give strength to those suffering from these chronic, often debilitating diseases.
I can't really ever recreate the full moment, not in a blog, not in my head...
but I filled my heart with this incredible peace where there had been a void for many, many years.
I can't really ever recreate the full moment, not in a blog, not in my head...
but I filled my heart with this incredible peace where there had been a void for many, many years.
Happy tears. Thank you for letting me relive that amazing, life-changing day! -Lindy
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