I’ve done a lot of athletic things — more triathlons than I can count, walked the half of the Austin marathon 8 times, and of course the AIDS Ride. But I’ve never run. When I did tris, I walked the 5K. I finally decided I want to be able to run a mile. Just one stupid mile. I mentioned to my friend Gary, who is a coach and he said “why not join my group?” They are runners of various abilities, but Gary is coaching me to begin running. The coaching & group workouts part is free (other than the pain-cost of being in the park ready to exercise at 7:20 Saturday mornings); I just have to raise $500 for Safe Austin.
The name stands for Stop Abuse For Everyone. SAFE Austin is a merger of the Children’s Shelter, Center for Battered Women and the Rape Crisis Center. You can read about their history here. But they do good work, help people out of violent situations and begin healing. And I want to raise $500 for them; you can donate here. As I write this, I’ve raised $100. I need to raise half my goal ($250) by June 7 and all of it by July 25. So can y’all help me out here? I’ve gone from not running at the beginning of the year to running up to 5 minutes at a time on the trail — and over twice that on a treadmill — and I’m working on hills. The trail by Ladybird Lake, where I’m going to do my mile is flat-ish. But: ish. Nothing in Austin is actually flat. There’s a hill leading up to the trail proper that’s made me walk every time so far. But my struggles don’t compare with the people who live at the shelter. I have my own roof over my head, and no one is hurting me. I’ve had to economize a lot, but like I said: I have a place that’s mine and no one hurts me — I can’t imagine how awful the situations are that these young people have left. So please help me help them. Please donate here if you can.