Every Step Counts: Run Across Tennessee
On June 9th myself and my four buddies Clay Sneed, Johnny Muresan, Jeff Stinnett (crew chief), and Ryan Courtoy (videographer) left the farmhouse we were staying at in Lenoir City, TN to begin our drive to the Virginia state line. It was Day 1 of our Callie Strong: Run Across Tennessee and we had no idea what we were in for. We just knew it was 3:30am, we didn’t get much sleep, and that we had an extremely long week ahead of us. But we didn’t care about all that, because this week was much bigger than ourselves. This was about Callie and getting the term NGLY1 in front of as many eyes as possible. And that is exactly what we did.
Over the course of the next six days we would be walking and running over 175 miles from North to South across the state of Tennessee. They were some of the earliest mornings and longest days of our lives. Full of jokes and laughs, hugs, tears, doughnuts, Taco Bell, more jokes, and more tears (mainly my tears). We battled through lightning and thunderstorms, heat exhaustion, and blisters but in the end it was all worth it. Not for us, but for Callie and NGLY1 kids across the globe. I think we would all say it was one of the best weeks of our lives and a week that we can look back on and be proud of the awareness and impact we made.
In August of last year, at 345 pounds I began walking every morning on a consistent basis. I didn’t really have a set goal in mind. I just knew how unhealthy I was and the path I was headed down very soon if I didn’t abruptly change my habits and mindset. After two months of walking almost every day consistently, I began to try and run. Little by little over time as I started to lose more weight, I was able to push my body to do even more. And then next thing I know a few months after that, I was signing up for my first ultramarathon. Somewhere around October of that year, I realized I needed a why that was bigger than myself. I realized I needed someone or something to focus on. So when days got really hard and I didn’t want to do it, I had someone that was depending on me that I had to do it for. For me, that was and still is, Callie. So from that day forward I put her picture on lock screen of my iphone so that anytime I was out on a run and it gets hard, I can look at her and remember why I need to keep pushing. Or those early 4am wake up times that I never want to get up for, the first thing I see when I turn off that alarm is her photo and then there is no more excuses that suffice.
Fast forward to February of this year, and Clay and I are driving the route for the first time for what we ended up calling “The RAT” for Run Across TN. And then we began to plan everything out. Thankfully after that I met Ryan and started to give him ideas for the initial announcement video and started talking to people who would help us and support us the whole way through.
We then set the goal that we wanted to raise $15,000 for Grace Science Foundation’s NGLY1 research and some funds to also go directly to Callie and her family. And I will be honest, we were nervous about that. That is a lot of money and I really didn’t know if would come close but we were going to do whatever we could to make it happen. But once we started the run we immediately saw how the community was reacting and rallying around this family and this cause. It was unbelievable. The amount of people who showed up to walk and run with us. The people who were just honking at us back and forth all day or screaming at us to keep going. The amount of people who shared the story. The amount of people who donated from coast to coast across this country and especially in our own local community. It all is just hard to even take in still as I am writing this with of course more tears in my eyes. We truly cannot say thank you enough to everyone.
Callie’s story and NGLY1 related to so many more people than I had ever imagined. The strength that I saw in her every time I was around her, that stuck with me, now everyone else was seeing and understanding it as well and it is evident. We were fortunate enough to raise just over $35,000 with over $25,000 of that going directly to GSF. This is one of the proudest achievements in my entire life and it wouldn’t have been possible without so many others coming alongside us to carry the torch. All we wanted was for Callie and the rest of these kids to be seen and their story to be heard. It wasn’t able the miles. It never was. It was about doing something difficult to bring attention to someone and something that we care about immensely. And I am so proud and honored that we were able to do it.
This was only the beginning for me. I want to make a direct impact on this organization and this deficiency and help find a cure for NGLY1 and I will continue to help Callie and the other kids in any way possible. Thank you to Grace Science Foundation for partnering with us on this journey and giving us the opportunity to play a small part in helping fund research to change lives.