My Brother the Runner

My brother has had a surprising few months. He has become quite the runner. He ran in the St. Jude Marathon on Dec. 1, 2007 which was amazing because he had only run a few 5K's previously. He qualified for the Boston Marathon during that race, but he also had a personal goal. He wanted his store, Dick's Sporting Goods where he is the Running Specialist, to raise $10,000 to support the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, TN. He told them that if they raised that amount he would run from the Jackson, TN store to the hospital which is 85 miles! The event was an incentive and a way to publicize the fundraiser. There was an article in the local newspaper, he had several interviews from local radio stations, and the tv news crew also helped to publicize the run. On January 31, 2008 he took off on his two day journey. He couldn't realistically run the whole thing so he said he would run five miles and then walk one until he got there. He was able to run (he didn't have to walk) 42 miles the first day before the weather got so bad that he had to stop. The next day he made it to St. Jude and was welcomed by the hospital staff. His friend John followed him the whole way and he also had a police escort for most of the journey. Here is a link to the video of the event:

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=27978948

Since then he has been raising money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. The Lance Armstrong Foundation, also known as LIVESTRONG has sponsored him to run in the Boston marathon and he is trying to raise $3500 for research of cancer. If you would like to donate to support him and the Lance Armstrong Foundation you can click on the link.

www.livestrong.org/grassroots2008/mricherson

I am very proud of my little brother the runner! :)