This past week, I started ramping up my running milage for my next upcoming race: The Denver Rock and Roll Half Marathon. \u00a0This will be my third half marathon on the books.<\/p>\n
As I prepare for the race mentally, I’m realizing how freaking lucky I am to be able to run. \u00a0For years, like a decade, I told myself I couldn’t run. \u00a0In high school, I suffered a full patellar dislocation during a basketball game. (dislocated knee cap) It was quite painful and took a lot of therapy to ‘fix’. \u00a0I often wonder if I had been at a proper fitness level while playing school sports, if it would have happened. \u00a0Regardless, \u00a0I used this as my excuse of why I couldn’t be a runner for a decade. \u00a0I also used it when convenient. \u00a0If something was too hard, it was obviously my knee issues. \u00a0If something was too long, my knee would get swollen for sure……or would it? Let’s be serious: I WAS OVERWEIGHT. \u00a0Half of the time it was the knee, half of the time it was me. \u00a0As soon as I started strengthening my legs, my knee was never an issue. \u00a0Even now when I have knee pain, it’s never from this old injury.<\/p>\n
For a decade, I missed out on so many things because of the excuse I gave myself. \u00a0As I prepare for my marathon, \u00a0I am also fundraising for the first time. \u00a0I have joined a team at my gym and have set a goal to raise $1000 in the next month, to donate to Augie’s Quest. \u00a0Augie’s Quest is a foundation that is out to Cure ALS. Even though most people associate ALS with “the ice bucket challenge”, very few people know what ALS actually is.<\/p>\n
I used to fear something like cancer because it’s the worst thing I can imagine happening. \u00a0Now I fear ALS. \u00a0Imagine being a runner and then one day you have trouble tying your shoes. \u00a0Then next day you trip on a rock you thought for sure you had cleared. \u00a0The next month your legs start feeling stiff every morning and you have to develop a new stretching you routine. \u00a0Then you notice you can hardly get into the position to stretch. \u00a0You’re legs start locking up on you as you run. \u00a0Then one day, you trip so bad you’re injured. \u00a0After the injury heals you’re disease has now robbed you of the ability to run at all. \u00a0And then slowly, you can’t even walk. ALS slowly robs you, day by day, of your motor skills. \u00a0Slowly you can’t walk, talk, dress yourself, feed yourself, wash yourself…….day by day. Then eventually, you die, frozen in time and space. \u00a0This is my absolutely nightmare. \u00a0The worst of it: ALS is cureable if only it had the funding to do so.<\/p>\n
We can all help cure ALS. \u00a0Can you donate just $5 to help me reach my goal? Can you help me help just one person get the medicine they need to walk a little bit longer? To hug their children? To smile?<\/p>\n
give.class.org\/kimgalbreath<\/p>\n
We never know how lucky we are, until we aren’t. \u00a0Help me help them. \u00a0If you still aren’t convinced, listen to Anthony’s Story.<\/p>\n