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On Your Mark.

Please read more: http://www.runningforstrength1027.blogspot.com

Many of you know Cady, my five year old daughter. Cady was born with cerebral palsy (CP) because her umbilical cord was tied in a knot and deprived her brain oxygen. She spent her first six weeks of life in the hospital and has periodic return visits for miscellaneous health complications. Ask anyone though especially her teachers and her nurse, Deb, and they’ll tell you she has spunk and intelligence. As another child once put it, ‘she’s trapped inside a body that won’t work’.

On her second birthday, we took Cady to Duke University for an umbilical cord blood reinfusion a pilot program. The hope was that the stem cells from her own banked cord blood could migrate towards damaged areas of her brain and perhaps regenerate or repair the area. Thanks once again to everyone who helped make that trip possible we had to raise a considerable amount of money. Although she has made quite a bit of progress since then, Cady continues to have to eat via feeding tube, still cannot speak, and cannot yet stand or walk unassisted. We still hope for the best for her.

Thanks to my brother-in-law, Chris, I recently read about a father who has been helping his disabled son participate in sports for over 30 years Dick Hoyt (see the link here to Team Hoyt: http://www.teamhoyt.com/). This is a guy, now in his seventies, who has run well over 1,000 races and triathlons with his son Rick: when running, he pushes Rick in a race wheelchair; when swimming, Rick lays in a raft and Dick pulls him; and when cycling, Rick sits on a specially-made seat at the front of their race bike. Seriously?! Who commits to doing that? Dick Hoyt, that's who. Rick says that when he’s out there with his dad he feels like his disabilities disappear. There are others I'm finding out there who are doing similar activities.

Well, I have been so incredibly inspired by the Hoyt's tenacity and determination that I’ve set out to at least run with Cady. She's only about forty pounds and the jogging stroller is pretty easy to push (except up the hills!). I don’t aspire to be like Mr. Hoyt per se, but I have already started to experience the rewards of having Cady participate in a sport with me. I don’t yet know exactly how she feels about it, but she smiles and kicks her legs when we’re out there and I think that means she likes it. I ask her each time we go out and I think she tries to tell me 'yeah'.

I’ve started a blog to track our running progress. We’ll be running a couple times per week and I’m starting to find races that I can register us for. I’ll post pictures and will write there regularly. I'll ask my wife, and English major and writer, not to critique my writing too harshly. I encourage any of you runners and/or supporters out there to chime in whenever something strikes you. If if you like the blog, tell others about it. Our first official race is the 2012 Falmouth Road Race.

Get Set.

Because registration has already closed for the Falmouth Road Race, we needed to register through a charity. I chose the Easter Seals because they help people with disabilities, like Cady. It's a cause I can feel good about fundraising for.

We've pledged to raise $1,000 and I'd like to have most of raised before we run on August 12. If you'd like to make a donation (donations to the Easter Seals are tax deductible), simply click on the button and follow the directions. Your donation will be immediately received directly by the Easter Seals and you will recieve an ackknowledgement statement soon thereafter for your records. For those of you lucky enough, don't forget to keep that acknowledgement if you plan on asking your employer to match your donation (I'll be submitting one aggregate match form for any FM Global employees who donate).

Go!

More to come!