Wear Blue to Run

  


With Memorial Day fast approaching as well as our friends 1 year angelvarsry it got me thinking. How can I as a Army spouse live up to my promise to all those families that I would not forget their hero? I went back & forth on this. I could go to the Memorial on post again this year & have quiet time. But that just didn't seem like enough. Then a friend posted about the wear blue: run to remember. A widow from a unit off of Joint Base Lewis McChord had a passion for running well before her new title of "War Widow". When that happened she turned her passion into remembering all of our Fallen Heroes EVERY Saturday. That's right folks I said EVERY Saturday she got up with a group who had lost someone in the beginning and put on her blue to run. Now it has a following of people who just want to never forget the sacrifices of our soldiers. Many run each Saturday.  Every weekend a route is dedicated to a fallen hero. You have choices to run 3 miles, 5 miles, 10 miles, even 12 mile routes. You can buy a standard shirt now and run to remember.

Well needless to say they are hosting a big Memorial Day event. My only problem is it is about 40 minutes away and I wanted A LOT of people to want to participate. After looking through their Mile Pledge page I realized you can host your Run Meet-up for Memorial Day. So that is what I did thanks to Facebook. I have a lot of civilian friends who are runners & we live in a military community . I posted the event invited everyone and asked them to spread the word. We have one Gold Star Family attending now so I am so pleased that they will be able to see that as a community we have not forgotten their sacrifice or their soldiers.

 I'm not going to lie I am a little disappointed so far at the response. I get that you make Memorial Day plans you may go out of town or plan a bar-b-que. But I'm sorry folks that  free day off of work is NOT about bar-be-ques & vacations. Is it really that hard to get your butt up out of bed at 8AM drive to a local meet up place to run / walk the mileage of your choice to remember? Seriously people amaze me! I made it a family friendly event. 

The only requirements are 1. Wear Royal Blue to keep in context of the original group. 2. Listen to me read a list of names that I personally have a vested hero on as well as other names that may be turned in prior to the run. 3. Smile for a group picture for the Wear Blue to Remember  group to post to show how across the country people have not forgotten. I made it so simple yet even our own military families who currently have a spouse deployed can't seem to find time to take an hour of their day. The excuse of no babysitter doesn't fly with me either as you can bring the whole family & walk 1 mile.

I ask you to stop to remember as you sit at your computer screen the soldier who is far away from home. He is hungry because he has been on patrol for awhile & they don't  stop for breaks. He hasn't showered because he wanted to sleep instead. He may not have eaten because he chose to stand in line to call his wife,mom, dad, kids back home for a whole 20 minutes to hear their voice. For you to sit & tell me you can't get off your butt and take time out to remember that brother or sister who use to stand to the right or the left of those men- well yeah you just lost my respect on a lot of levels. Then you are going to post or invite everyone to a bar-b-que later?? I just don't understand how easily you forget September 11th & why these men said "I'll go, I'll take the bullet for you so you can stay at home safe".

Anyway that is my rant & I hope if you are looking for an easy FREE way to honor our men & women on Memorial Day you too will set up a Walk / Run to remember in your community or go join one that someone may have already started. It's not about us on that day folks it's about them & even my husband who is still gone. He may come home soon but until his boots are on the ground we will never know he is safe. 

Go here to see my list of who I pledged my miles for on Memorial Day : Page of Remembrance


** EDIT** A friend made a good point not everybody is on facebook- Yelm, WA Memorial Day 2012 at 8:15 AM the names of the Fallen will be read at the Yelm / Tenino Trailhead. Then you walk or run however many miles you pledged. We are up to 128 Miles Pledged from the Yelm Community- so exciting & thankful.