Run to Remember

The front of the race shirt.

This morning, I ran my third 5K race in my life; all three of them being in the last month of my life.  Since I live and work in the same building, I found that my self-care was to leave the building and head to the tribal fitness center for a daily workout.  I've found a lot of emotional strength through strengthening my physical body.  Today's race was the first one in Pine Ridge and it was called the "Run to Remember."

This particular 5K was dedicated to all of the young people of this community who joined the Creator far too soon.  Teen suicide, drunk driving accidents, murder, gang violence, etc, etc, etc.  Our shirts were decorated with the list of names of the young people who we were honoring.

My last two races were significant.  The first race was for Court-Assigned Special Advocates (CASA) for people who were abused and needed an advocate in the courtroom.  The second race was for Working Against Violence Inc. (WAVI), which is an organization dedicated to supporting people who are victims of domestic violence.

Today's race was different.  There was no formal clock.  The race was scheduled to start at 11am; it started closer to 11:45am.  There was no registration form, fee or even waiver.  There were 300 young people from the Pine Ridge school.

I will admit that I initially came to the race for my own needs.  I'm on this kick of running 5Ks and it seemed like a perfect chance to run it while also supporting the community.  I realized quickly that I was showing a positive presence for a number of our young people, one in particular.

A young lady, who I'll call Sammy, said that she wanted to run with me.  Sammy is in third grade and I told Sammy that she might be faster than me to start, but that I wanted to run the whole thing.  She said that she'd run alongside of me regardless.  And she did.  She ran nearly the entire 5K.  I could tell that she was getting rather tired near the end, so I decided to walk with her for a bit.  I gave up trying to get a new best record for myself and decided that I needed to walk with Sammy.  This was most important to me because Sammy's older sister killed herself a few years back.

See, I can sign up to run these 5Ks with a good heart to support CASA, WAVI or any other "good" organization.  At the end of the day though, I run those races for myself.  Today, I ran for myself and walked for Sammy and her sister.  That's what mattered at the end of the day.

All of those names on the back of our shirts mattered to me, because if I didn't know the young people personally, I know their family members.  Several of those names have died in my brief time in Pine Ridge.

I've stood at the graves of children who were killed in drunk driving accidents.
I've stood at the grave of a person my age who committed suicide.
I've stood at the grave of a baby who was murdered by a family member.
I've stood at the grave of a baby who drowned due to a lack of supervision.

My list could go on and on.  This is not just Pine Ridge, but this is the reality in a lot of places in our country and in our world.  The south side of Chicago is infamous for the number of young people shot each year.

So, today, we ran to remember each one of them; it doesn't bring them back.  We also ran to remember that life is sacred and that each one of those young sprinters deserved to be loved and remembered.  Each one of Sammy's friends deserves to be taught how to live rather than how to die.  Sammy deserves to grow old, even if her sister didn't.