October 20th, a scant 76 days away, I’ll toe the line of the half-marathon at the Baltimore Running Festival on behalf of Back on My Feet Baltimore.  Saturday was week 2 of a 12 week training program, and involved a 4 mile run.   I got out there at ~8:30 and started the two miles down the trail, two miles back that would comprise my 4 mile run that day.  As I didn’t want to carry water, I planned the run to turn around at the ranger station, which is nicely equipped with water fountains and bathrooms.  All I wanted to carry was my key, which I put on a carabiner and carried around my knuckles – self-defense measure at the ready were I to need it.

I was moving a bit slower than planned, as of course in my brain, I’m still as fast as I was when I was doing these things ten years or so ago.  But I made it to the turn around point, stopped for a bathroom break, and then headed back up the trail.

A little over a half mile from the ranger station, I realized that I no longer had my knuckle device – that I’d left it back in the bathrooms, hanging on a hook.  A half mile back, and then a half mile again meant an additional mile…  compared to the distance of the half-marathon, not a worry at all.  Compared to where I am as yet in my training schedule, a not-too-fun surprise.

It occurs to me that not-too-fun surprises are a fact of life for the folks Back On My Feet serves.  Bad weather, grumpy folks, a missed timeline for a chance to eat a hot meal or a hot shower, the challenges of finding transportation to a potential job or to a potential bed for the night… all very real not-too-fun surprises.  Back On My Feet seeks to be a dependable portion of these folks lives, and its own dependability, to set an expectation and goals of dependability and accountability for the homeless community it serves.

Would you consider sponsoring my run for Back On My Feet?  I’ll keep putting one foot in front of the other to make it to the race line, and Back On My Feet will keep providing support and a way out day after day for the folks they serve.  Your dollars help make it possible.