I’m currently training for my 7th marathon! It’s hard to believe! I started running in 2005 and I ran my first marathon in 2008. It’s been quite a journey! The past two years, I ran for Light of Life Rescue Mission. I’ve had an absolute blast running for them. In fact, I’ve enjoyed the experience so much, that I want to challenge you to run for your favorite charity. There are several reasons why I believe running for a charity is better than just running to finish:
1.) It Gives You a Reason to Run – I believe the more reasons you have to do something, the more likely you are to actually do it! A lot of people desire to run a 5k, Marathon Relay, Half Marathon, or even a full marathon, but they never commit. Signing-up to run for a charity gives you several more reasons to run your race! When you run for a charity, you’re now running to finish a race, to honor the people served in the charity you’re supporting, to raise money for the charity, to raise awareness of the charity, and running for everyone who supports you! That’s a lot of reasons to finish your race!
2.) It Gives You Purpose Beyond Finishing – I’ve run 4 marathons without supporting a charity and ran two while supporting a charity. The two I’ve run for charity have been much more fulfilling than the ones I didn’t. When I run for charity, it no longer is just about me finishing a race. It’s about me training hard to run for the charity I support, the team I’m a part of, the donors supporting me, and the men, women, and children we serve at Light of Life. I don’t think it is a coincidence that I got my best marathon times when I ran for a charity.
3.) It Gives You a Team to Run With – Perhaps my favorite part of running with for a charity is the team you are a part of! Our first year, we had 40 runners on our team. Last year, we had 76! We’re going for 100 this year! I’ve made some great new friends through running for charity. Our team fundraises together, trains together, encourages each other, and in the end, we celebrate together!
4.) It will Motivate You to Train Harder – When I don’t feel like training or don’t want to train hard, I think about everyone who is supporting me and everyone we serve at Light of Life. It forces me to get out there and go hard!
5.) It Allows You to Raise Awareness for Your Favorite Causes – This is also one of my favorite things about running for charities! I’ve become aware of so many charities I was never aware of before joining the Marathon Charity Community. There are some incredible charities out there doing some incredible things! Running for a charity is a great way to let the people in your life know about the charities you love most!
6.) It Allows You to Raise Money for Your Favorite Cause – Honestly, having run a few marathons, I no longer get excited about simply running a marathon. I get excited about running a marathon, going for a personal record, and raising as much money as I can for the charity I love! There is nothing more fulfilling then crossing the finish line knowing I ran a marathon and raised a ton of money and awareness about Light of Life!
I’d like to ask you to consider running for Light of Life or your favorite charity this year! You can run the Pittsburgh 5k, Relay, the Half Marathon, or the full marathon. The charity will pay for your registration and in return you raise money for them. Even if you’ve already registered, you can still join our team!
Here is what you need to know:
- For more information about running for Light of Life, click here.
- T0 register to run for Light of Life, click here and click “Run for Charity”
- If you’ve already registered, but would like to join our team and raise money for us, click here, click “Run for this Charity”, then click “Fundraise only.”
- To see what other charities you can run for, click here.
If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at dougsmith@lightoflife.org.
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