Oak Hill Flyer

given my training calendar, it was my full intention to enter the bearathon half-marathon in waco to sharpen the race legs. i was looking forward to seeing the brazos and another pocket of texas culture not yet seen by myself.

plans for this trip were all but finalized. two days before the race, however, i read about a benefit run for amber galvan in san antonio--a story that i had only briefly heard of prior to this article.

the bearathon benefitted the baylor university student foundation; amber's run benefitted a local running pillar whose family was in need. many years ago, my friend jeff preached the importance of understanding what your race money benefits, and i have always done my best to heed that advice. the decision to abort bearathon and head south was a no-brainer (not to mention the drive being one hour shorter)--sorry waco, hopefully next year.

about 200 people showed up for the pay-what-you-can 14-mile run. at the park pavilion, one saw hand-painted get well posters and newspaper clippings where one usually expects to see t-shirt pick-up and timing chip distribution. "registration" was nothing more than your dropping a donation into a plastic bucket labeled "for amber." announcements were made regarding the general location of the course, and the informal spirit of the event. amber's mother liza briefly spoke before the event, emotionally expressing her gratitude for the turnout and advising all to be safe on our roadways, short for words to better describe what she felt.

the run just started. no anthem, no pistol--just athletes who knew what they were doing and why they were doing it. what started as an easy jog with light conversation eventually picked up to near-race pace after 2-3 miles with a fellow named mike, but it wasn't like we were racing. we stopped at water stops and chatted with volunteers. we talked our own running and folks we know in the community. this light-hearted departure was welcome; maybe it was the reason why we were moving so fast (seriously--some of our miles were flat-out sick). we weren't quite sure where we were, we just knew to turn whenever we saw an orange cone.

post-run (again: no finish line, no awards) greeted everyone with a giant barbeque brunch, door prize drawings, and a silent auction. there were several quality items of interest to bid on: spurs tickets, a cycling trainer, a hand-stitched quilt. however, the items that caught my eye, however, were the collection of autographed running singlets: moses tanui, margaret okayo, and paul tergat. the tergat singlet especially caught my eye--"who in this pavilion has the hookup to the current marathon world record holder?!?" i thought, amazed. it didn't take long for me to decide to trump the high bid on the item, which was followed by my watchful guard of the auction sheet for the next 15 minutes. fortunately for yours truly, everyone else was bidding on other items.

i met several SA runners, including the galvans. liza was especially happy to see the tergat jersey go to someone who appreciated the history behind the current world-record holder. i was just happy to contribute to someing of far greater importance. after observing the events of the morning and meeting the people behind the story, one simply cannot underestimate the power of a community.

[...]

if you are interested in making a donation to the galvan family to help offset medical expenses for their daughter amber, contact machelle cochran at 210/887-3470 or mcochran[aht]ahisd[daht]net.

Posted by OHF on 04 March 2007 at 20:49 | Permalink