Why and what is Log a Hero Mile?
Well, it started with the fact that one day my son decided he’d run a marathon. He was 16 at the time, and 26.2 miles seemed a decent and worthy challenge.
And when you’re a born athlete (and 16) any good challenge feels pretty surmountable, doesn’t it? But for the majority of us- 26.2 miles, all at once? Well, that can feel pretty insurmountable, so when he said, “Mom, you should do it too,” I’m pretty sure I laughed out loud.
But Jake had this innate ability to accomplish the tasks he set his mind to, and that gift extended to others as well. If he believed in you, it was enough to make you start to believe it yourself and find the courage to try.
And that’s how a 37-year-old, overweight, out of shape mom decides to run a marathon too. Because when her son simply says, “You can do it mom,” you believe him, because he believes in you…
And so we did. Two of them, in fact! Back to back, and the first one just 10 weeks out from the ‘yes’ to the finish. Not the recommended training plan for first-timers (!), but a most amazing experience to have shared together nonetheless.
Fast forward to a few more marathons under each of our feet, and a Marine Corps enlistment in between. Graduations, marriages, schools, training… and eventually the inevitable deployments.
…And then the knock at the door that shares the news that shatters your heart.
And for a long time after, you inhabit a space where there’s simply no air to breathe. You know you won’t survive it; it’s just a matter of how long it will take for your body to realize your heart stopped beating in that same moment your son’s did too.
But at some point, different for all of us, you realize you’re still here, there’s still life to be lived, and there are people who need you to live it. And you find the ways to carry the loss amidst your brokenness, and hopefully, eventually, find the avenues to channel the tremendous grief energy into the good your loved one would have you see and do.
Because in the end, that’s what all of us want and need, isn’t it? To have some part of our lives matter, to make a difference, to do good. And if we can encourage and inspire others in the process, we give meaning to the loss, and hope enough for tomorrow.
So Log a Hero Mile began with a desire to do the thing we did together, and to make it matter. I didn’t know exactly how to do that or what it would look like at the time, but I knew my heart longed to run the same route my son’s feet had tread just a couple of years earlier, and so I signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon.
Unbeknownst to me, there were 26 of us who signed up together that day.
Because through the course of the training, on the days when just getting up, much less getting out the door felt like such a monumental, insurmountable task, I needed to find the reason. The thing that mattered. The reason for the run.
So each day I’d take that list. That list of way too many, and I’d cut out the names, one by one, and tuck those fallen heroes behind the flag, just as each of those heroes had stood and raised their hand in support of the very same.
Through those long training weeks I’d run a mile for each. Saying their names, and praying a peace for the families who daily endure their loss. And that October morning when it came time to run that route through our nation’s monuments and memorials and the way of life they stood up to defend, there were 26 heroes who came along with. HERO tags for each. Their names in my hand and their stories in my heart.
I gathered them up through the miles, those 26 fallen heroes. And though there were 40,000 runners alongside us, it felt like we were logging the miles with singular purpose.
To honor. To remember. To make it matter.
A mile for each, a tag for each, a reason for the run… And though I thought I’d carry them with me, in the end, it was they who carried me.
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Some days it’s so very, very hard. But I look down and I see Jake’s words in my hand, etched in my heart. And I lace up my shoes, take a deep breath…and together, we log the next mile.
Hero Miles, each and every one.
I hope you’ll join me. I hope you’ll find the reason, carry their name, and Log a Hero Mile of your own.
In Their Honor, Always.
-Keirsten