Just why am I doing this again?

 
Last Saturday I ran 10 miles.

A friend pointed out to me that that's double digits.  So now I can nonchalantly slip "yeah, when I ran ten miles..." into conversations and feel totally cool.  (haha...just kidding.)

But it took me a long time to run that far- not only on that Saturday, but the accumulation of many shorter runs that I have taken to "train" me to get that far on that one day.

And sometimes I ask myself (again)..."Just why am I doing this?"

But my answer is always clear and immediate:

I'm running so stinking far because most of the time I don't know what else to do (other than pray).  Cancer is affecting my uncle in Ohio...and Ohio is really far away.  Cancer is affecting my step-grandpa, and he's far away...and my grandma?  In that same house?  She kicked cancer- twice.    And why do I have a step-grandpa?  Because cancer took Grandpa.  And then there's my sister-in-law, who totally kicked cancer last year, but she lives a good drive away and I had a tiny baby and wasn't able to help as much as I wanted to be able to.  And there's my other sisters-in-law who don't have cancer, but who lost their mom and their grandma to cancer and I want very very much to keep them from having to fight.  And there's the friend from church who is working her way through the cancer fight right now.  And the other friend from church who is watching brain cancer steal her husband away...and her daughter's name is also Anne and Anne has a daughter Camille's age and they're losing their dad/grandpa...and my heart hurts for them, but what can I do? 

And there are so many other people who start to come to mind when I start to type who are fighting...or hurting because a loved one is fighting...or who are hurting because a loved one was snatched away by that wretched, awful, BRX cancer.

So when I start to question my reasoning for running this far, I have zero doubts.  How can I not run?  Why shouldn't I?  If I can pledge to run this race and ask you to pledge money to the American Cancer Society, then I am finally doing something.  I'm putting money into the hands of the people who can help fight cancer in a very tangible way.

So that's why.

If you are interested in pledging along with me, you can click here.