Setting out to RUN!!

 I've been a runner for many years, but I've never attempted anything quite as intensive as a marathon. I've always found freedom and joy in running and I'm psyched be running all the time this spring!
This marathon is much more than pursuing my love of running though; it captures all the hope I have for my future, for it is the ultimate test of trusting in myself.

Last June, I fell during a basketball game and received a traumatic brain injury (TBI) that left me hospitalized for three days. The experience, and my continuing recovery, has changed my life. Being forced to pay close attention to my body has made me realize how much I appreciate it. Throughout my continuing recovery, running and walking have been the most helpful way to reduce my headaches (besides sleep of course). This is quite a miracle as most people with TBIs have worse symptoms after running. So, running this marathon is part of my way of recognizing the struggle of recovering from a TBI in a manner that is empowering and inspiring to those who are also recovering from concussions or TBIs.

The most exciting part of this marathon, and the scariest, is the fact that I'm making it into a fund raiser to raise money to go to a Semester program in Ecuador next fall. The semester is through Kroka Expeditions, an incredible program dedicated to inspiring respect for the outdoors, compassion and awareness in youth, and it is the perfect opportunity for my senior year. The Ecuador Semester program includes biking, running, trekking in the rain-forest, and summiting a 19,000 ft volcano in addition to hands-on, tangible academics, crafting, and cultural submersion. Fund-raising the $12,500 to go will be quite a learning experience in itself, but running this marathon couldn't be a better way for me to reach for my dreams in many ways at once.

Maybe I'm crazy putting so many dreams into one event. What if I fail? What if I can't run it, or my TBI symptoms relapse, or I can't raise the money to go to Kroka?

All of these things could happen, but that's what makes this journey real, exciting and poignant. If I was an accomplished marathon runner with no history of past injuries and all the money in the world, the KeyBank Vermont City marathon would be a breeze. I wouldn't have anything to worry about and I'd know exactly what I was doing. I wouldn't be scared. But I am. I'm terrified that I won't be able to do it, but in that terror, my hope is carrying me into the greatest adventures of all my seventeen years of life. I am stepping out of my comfort zone in every way possible in this race and I can't wait to see what comes of it. Even if everything doesn't work as I plan, it will be an amazing journey.

A little video about my hopes for the marathon.....