Why Race?

noreply@blogspirit.com (Sandy) — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 18:15:00 -0400

The other reason to enter races is because they are so often linked to good causes. I have never looked into whether or not this is a particularly efficacious way of raising money, but it’s got to be more fun than cold calling and bulk mailing. It also raises awareness and makes a community and engenders good feeling for the race and everybody involved.

The organization that ran and benefited from the race I recently ran is worth giving a little space to here. It’s called Love Lane Therapeutic Riding. The therapy in question is for kids and young adults who have central nervous system disorders or injuries—cerebral palsy, head injury, autism, muscular dystrophy, Down’s syndrome and the like. By all accounts it has amazing results. Especially for kids who can’t walk at all or not well, who can finally get the essential rhythm of walking to their brain by means of the horse’s gait transferred through their own body. Elegantly simple, when you think of it. Through that mind-body connection, as well as skill mastery, self-discipline and fun, young people speak who hadn’t before, gain muscle tone where they’d had none or relaxation where they’d had too much, interact and emote appropriately when that’s been difficult.

It’s hard not to get a little choked up reading about it. Which is one thing sitting at your desk reading it online…. I was getting choked up at the starting line, when the organizers gave an extremely brief outline of who they were, and the father of the girl in whose memory the race was named spoke a few words about how Love Lane had meant so much to his daughter and family. I kept thinking, surely, weeping at the starting line is not advocated by many coaches…. But, we all seemed to hold it together enough to make it out of the starting gate. It was a small race, and many of the young riders were obviously there, some littler ones in joggers pushed by their running parents. The fellow-feeling was strong. One woman even told me she got through the last hill (a big one at the end of a rolling course) because a little group of spectators were there yelling, “You can do it! Do it for Susan!”

Who's In? - riding

Why Race?