Dopey Dos: Legs for Luke (the full report)
Preface
Although this is primarily a trip report, the purpose of the trip deserves a proper introduction.
THE BEGINNING… In 2018 I discovered passions for running and fighting Childhood Cancer when my then-2-year-old son became a cancer survivor. The next year I joined the St. Jude Hero team and with them ran the Wine & Dine 2-Course Challenge at Walt Disney World. This is a 10k race followed by a half marathon the next day. It was a life-changing experience. I raised $2,500 for St. Jude thanks to the generosity of my friends and family and shared a “live photo report” from the races. This sparked my imagination for future fundraisers.
THE YEAR WAS 2020… I had signed up to do the next Wine & Dine with St. Jude as well, but because of the COVID pandemic almost all racing events were sort of canceled – they became “virtual” events. I decided to postpone my fundraiser to 2021, but I still ran the “virtual” races for St. Jude locally. To make this more interesting, I filmed it and talked about childhood cancer and St. Jude to raise awareness in a unique way: Runcast for St. Jude (23min). Little did I know that almost at that very moment in November 2020, Luke, a neighbor’s child, was being diagnosed with Leukemia and starting a year-long fight for his life.
LEGS FOR LUKE… Near the end of last summer, Luke came home on hospice care when treatment was no longer recommended. The news hit me like a brick. I did what I always do when life seems out of balance – I went for a run. And my passion for running for St. Jude was renewed. I used to run for St. Jude because the research done there helped save my son’s life. This year I’ve been doing it to honor those that are no longer here to run alongside us, like Luke. In August, I renewed my commitment to St. Jude and ran the 2021 Wine & Dine races to kick off my #LegsForLuke campaign.
DOPEY DOS… Wine & Dine was just the beginning, the warmup. The real finish line was to be the WDW Marathon in January. But more than that even: the Dopey Challenge. This is a four-day race series including a 5k, 10k, half, and full marathon for a total of 48.6 miles. To go along with this, I raised the bar on my fundraiser to $10,000: 4x the miles, 4x the money, 4x the impact. The #LegsForLuke campaign was an incredible success – I raised $13,618 from 82 donors, and St. Jude asked me to be the North Texas Ambassador for 2022-2023! As a St. Jude Hero, I strive to carry a message of hope that tomorrow can be better than today.
So, in January 2022, I completed the Dopey Challenge with the St. Jude Heroes team. This is that story, along with plenty of non-running shenangians.