Securing An Equal Start For Every Child

This post makes a base assumption that you are aware of Equal Start and what we seek to accomplish for inner-city education and poverty relief. On Dec 3, 2006, sixteen runners ran in the California International Marathon to raise awareness and funding for and inner-city school. For more information, visit www.equalstart.com


Proceed...

December 3, 2006

To say "I'm proud of the Equal Start runners" would cheapen what I feel. Words can't adequately explain what I feel. I overwhelmed with love, adoration, and anticipation of what is ahead for hurting and broken children in Sacramento's inner-city.

Last April I started running with a group. Their hearts were so open to tackling something less than 1% of North Americans has ever done; complete a marathon. Not knowing their full intent, I knew they would run the San Francisco Half Marathon in July of this year. Secretly, I thought this would be a huge gauge of whether they really wanted to do a full marathon of 26.2 miles.

On August 1, we started training seriously. Five days a week, at 5:30 AM, we ran. Rain, fog, and bone chilling cold greeted us most of the recent days.
Sadly, on Sept 27 my shin bone was injured. I remember sitting in the emergency room at the hospital, and hearing a doctor saying in broken English, "No more running!" My fear was that the team I had grown to look forward to meeting would be disappointed in me.

After hours of rehab, MRI's, multiple bone scans, and lots of anxiety, four weeks ago, I was cleared to start jogging again. Thinking I could gain back what I lost over six weeks was a long shot. But for the team, our goal was to finish. Regardless of time of completion, the key for us was completion.
On my last day of therapy, it was said to me, "Jason, there is something better than a personal best. It's seeing eight people, non-runners, finish."

To me, that was an impacting statement!

As the gun sounded this morning, a total of 16 runners for Equal Start ran with a common goal. ENDURE, and exchange our pain for a child's gain.
Though each of us had different times, one thing is mind boggling; all Equal Start runners finished.

The journey to the top of the summit is sometimes as good as the summit.