St. Jude Run 1 week to go!

The countdown has begun to the 54 mile relay that is next weekend, Saturday, August 2. It will start in Bloomington, at Bergners, and end in Peoria, at the Civic Center, during the telethon. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is the reason behind this. For those that don't know the hospital is located in Memphis, TN and researches cancer, as well as treats children and aides the families. Treatment here is free. We first came to truly know what this amazing place was all about in college, when a good friend of ours had a brother who was diagnosed with a brain tumor and was treated there. Unfortunately many people know at least one person who has had to fight this battle. The good news is places, like St. Jude, are trying to find a cure so that one day the fight won't be so hard. If you are like me all you have to do is go to the St. Jude homepage and you are affected as soon as it comes up. I have such respect and am in such of awe of people, especially children, that fight this disease everyday. Everyday I am reminded of how blessed I am to have such healthy kids. My heart goes out to families who aren't as blessed and Brad and I want to join them in their fight. So we have become involved in the St. Jude Relay.

You all know that I don't run, that is Brad's territory. While we did our own letter writing campaign to raise money (thank you so much to all who donated), we also participated in some other fundraisers around the community and on Saturday Brad will run and I will be riding in the catch van, while my mom drives. These vans are where runners can go in between the legs they run. We play music, carry supplies, and runners can keep their extra clothes and shoes that they change into throughout the run. The complete run, as stated above, is 54 miles. Brad is planning to do 13 miles. This isn't straight, there are different legs of the run and the are all around 2 miles. So runners pick the legs they want to run. We will start out at Bergner's, go towards IAA Drive-Vernon-Towanda Ave and then towards Ironwood and out of town toward Hudson, through Kappa, El Paso and then onto Peoria. They go through country roads for safety reasons. There are various stops along the way where people have generously opened their homes to provide runners refreshments and potty breaks.
My dad is going to have the girls in El Paso to see Brad. I'm excited for that and while it is suppose to be VERY warm on Saturday I think it will be a great day. I can't imagine a better cause and our hope is that as the girls get older they will get involved too! Thanks again for everyone's support, when all the final numbers are in I will let you know how successful our team was. Stay tuned...