8,000 PLUS RUNNERS COMPLETE INAUGURAL CHARITY RACE: PROOF THAT HEALTHY LIVING AND COMPASSION ARE STILL ALIVE IN AMERICA

It took us the better part of three hours to run a half marathon on Sunday (that my GPS clocked out at 14.4 miles, thank you very much). I don’t expect to be the front cover of the sports section. I didn’t expect the headline “EJG and JSG Complete Third Half Marathon.” We ran for our health, and for the benefit of a very worthy charity, with no expectations of glory. But our lousy local paper barely made mention of the inaugural national marathon to fight breast cancer, a race that attracted over 8,000 runners from all 50 states and dozens of countries around the world. Sure, the little story they buried in the middle of Monday’s sports section mentioned some winning African natives and a big-time Olympian who happened to win the thing for the women. But covering only the winners doesn’t tell a fraction of the story.

There were more than 8,000 of us out there. 8,000. There were moms and grandmas. There were breast cancer survivors, and there were those, who like me, ran to honor survivors (my mom). Some ran for their future daughters and nieces. We ran with teachers, Starbucks baristas, physicians, and Publix cashiers, all grinding away at the pavement on a Sunday morning. Running instead of sleeping, or instead of bellying up to the biggest breakfast buffet offering. When Americans are slovenly, apathetic, and obese we get great media. How many stories are there on the expanding waistline? Bad news sells the news, and a charitable act that simultaneously benefits the giver may not be spicy enough for advertising sales. So I wrote my own headline today.

I guess EJG had some of the same feelings.