I'm running the San Francisco Marathon for Rising Hearts - help me raise $800!

What made you want to run for Rising Hearts?

Lately, I've been asking myself, why do I run? The easy answer, the one I might say in passing or to one of my students, is to stay in shape and for stress relief. But I know that it's more than that. I especially realized during the times in my life when I wasn't running as much, that it adds so much more to my life. Something to look forward every day. A way to see my neighborhood and the land I live on, and to observe the passing of seasons. That reason especially was why I wanted to Run for Rising Hearts. As the years go by, I noticed how climate change affects the seasons, and then affects the land. A later monsoon season leads to the Rio Grande going dry. A later winter than usual means the cottonwoods are still bare in May, or that their leaves don't turn yellow until almost November. Seeing how these forced have changed the land where I live, and how running has given me a way to observe these changes, makes me think of how people in other places around the world are affected by climate change. So Rising Hearts' mission to elevate Indigenous voice through movement advocacy and storytelling is what drew my interest to the organization. I realized that through my running, I had a story tell, and running for RH would give me an opportunity to share that story with others, provide a way for others to find what I found through running, and to run with a larger purpose, to finally answer that question, why do I run?

I started running when I was thirteen, and I noticed that I actually liked when my gym teacher had us run laps around the track. That love for running eventually led me to run cross country and track all through high school. After that, and as I've gotten older my relationship has ebbed and flowed, grown and changed. But through everything, running has always been a part of my life in some way. Sometimes, it's nothing more than stress relief; exercise, getting outside, getting away from life for a bit. But other times it's my way of connecting with the land I live on; watching the seasons go by, seeing the way the land both changes and stays the same. And yet other times running scratches an itch to challenge myself and get me out of my comfort zone.