A higher calling...

Lime green for Kaitlyn

Tonight I nearly wrote about the pleasant surprise of being able to run outside when the forecast called for thunder and lightning after work.  Or I could write about how therapeutic runs can be when your mind is weighed down as mine was tonight.  But instead, because let's be honest there was really nothing spectacular about my run and there are more important things I could blog about for 15 minutes, I'm going to focus on a couple of recent angels taken from the earth - called to heaven - too soon.  The unexplainable scourge?  Cancer. 

Gold for Joey

No child, nor family should have to endure the agony of facing a disease that afflicts the innocent.  This holds doubly true for Kaitlyn Dzurney and Joey Sudo, a neighbor and a friend's child whose lives ended as they were beginning.  Kaitlyn was 20 with the world at her fingertips and Joey was but 12 and captured the hearts of Annapolis and beyond.  Within a month this spring, both lost their lives to cancer...too young, too soon.  Aside from being neighbors in the hospital, congregants at the same church and sharing a zip code, these two intrepid warriors share another trait - they never gave up for a second.


What can we do to honor the brief lives of heroes like Kaitlyn and Joey?  Raise awareness, support research institutes and advocate for appropriate levels of research funding.  It's easier than one might imagine and its very local. More in connection with this blog, there are 5k races all across Maryland, and many in our own community, that raise funds to contribute to cancer research.  This year I'm looking out for every way I can use my passion for running to help raise funds to beat cancer.


In the words of the great Steve Prefontaine (another case of a life ended too quickly):

"Most people run a race to see who is fastest,

I run a race to see who has the most guts."

Won't you show the guts to walk or run 5K to beat cancer too?

Stats -

Miles:  5.62

Time:   47:32 (average pace of 8:27 per mile)

Location:  Capitol Hill, Lincoln Park, Stanton Park

Feeling:  My mind was jumbled but my body was responsive