Running for the Dogs

There’s a 10k/5k/2mile run to benefit the Humane Society of Skagit Valley every September, in honor of an animal-loving Sheriff’s deputy who was gunned down by a madman in 2008, and I have long wanted to participate. It has seemed, for the past few years, like we were always out of town for the run, but not this year. This year, I signed my butt up for the 10k and ran my heart out.

I am a sucker for animals, and I am just so happy that we live in a society that works to protect animals and find them good homes. The humane society and animal rescue organizations in our communities are so deserving of our charitable support; the animals truly are helpless and I can’t imagine a world in which these organizations are self-sustaining. They rely on donors and volunteers. I have been both in my life, and I hope to do more in the future.

Tony and I have a lot of personal dreams when it comes to wealth – it’s more than the garden-variety “what would you do with a million bucks?” dreams (those are fun, too). We are actively working to build wealth in our family in a variety of ways so that we can provide a good home for our boys, experience some of the amazing things our world has to offer, and give the rest away. No, seriously. Building wealth will allow us to have more time to volunteer and more funds to give to organizations that pull at our hearts (because we can’t volunteer everywhere). There are so many, and Tony and I are drawn to different ones. But we don’t have a whole lot of time or money right now (more money would buy more time), so we do what we can, volunteer where we can, and overlap our activities with charitable giving. Like the Humane Society run. Fitness is important to me, setting fitness goals and working through them is important to me, and knowing that my race fees go to help an amazing organization is important to me (our next run will be a zombie run to benefit the Boys and Girls Clubs – hooray, Halloween!).

Despite the noble nature of this race, I was hesitant to go because I would be running all alone. None of my friends wanted to run with me. I found out that one friend would be doing the 5k, which ran with the 10k for the first mile-and-a-half, so we chatted before the race and during that first mile, but I expected to finish the race, eat a banana, get in my car, and drive home. It’s fun and inspiring to tackle obstacles like a long run with friends and since I have always run with friends or family, it was disheartening to face going it alone.

But surprise! Tony brought the boys down to cheer me at the finish line. Such a boost.

My goal has been, for ages it would seem, to break one hour. I did that and more: I finished in 56 minutes flat.

I also finished second place overall for women and first in my age group.

I won’t tell you how many people ran because then it doesn’t seem like much of an accomplishment, but you know what? I am proud of myself. My family is proud of me. And dammit, I placed second! And first!