For those of us who come here often, it pretty much looks the same each year. A picture of the race expo or the race course from this year will look exactly like the expo and course from last year. Not very exciting, right? It's easy to see the same stuff every year and think, "What's new? What's different? Why am I about to run 10 miles in this race, again!?"
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| Cherry Blossom Run Expo 2014 |
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| Cherry Blossom Run Expo 2013 |
But as I walked into the expo this year, and I saw the familiar set-up and the familiar faces, I realized something I hadn't quite been able to articulate before. These people--runners, volunteers, organizers, supporters--just like me, are here again, doing it all over again because they get what this event is really for--it's not for the runners, the spectators, the sponsors or the credit unions....
It's about the fact that every year this race is run, there's between 500,000 and 1 million MORE dollars raised for NEW children and families that unfortunately need the care that Children's Miracle Network Hospitals can give, but fortunately because of this event, there's money available to allow them to get what they need to survive.
So for those new families, even those who've had long medical struggles and are receiving new and better treatment each year--for them, none of this is same old, same old. To them, to these children and their families, the fact that we gather in D.C. every year and keep running, means everything.
