On January 9th, 2009, my 19 year old son, Brian deployed with his unit for Iraq. It was a difficult day for me as a mother, to send my son off to war, into a volatile environment where he would be in danger every single day. Although I was very proud of his bravery and commitment to his country, I was scared. I knew from day one that I needed to find a way to stay connected to him, and to shorten the distance between us. For me, I found that in running. I measured the distance from our home in Charleston, IL to where he was stationed near Kirkuk, Iraq – 6,436 miles away.
With the help of my husband, Matt, and some other family members, we set off on our journey to Iraq on January 10th. Our goal was to run the 6,436 miles before Brian came home after his one-year deployment.
“After local newspaper articles and an article in Sports Illustrated our running ‘family’ exploded. Hundreds of people from all over the world were so touched by our story; they wanted to help by donating miles. We now have over 400 runners/walker/bikers that are a part of our running for Brian ‘family’. We have 45 states running with us, as well as Iraq, Afghanistan, Canada, Norway, Germany, and Egypt. People young and old, both military and civilian, each connected in their own way, have joined us on our trek. We run now, not only for Brian, but also for all our soldiers overseas. We now have a new goal; by the time Brian gets home, we will have run all the way around the world in support of our soldiers!
….Vivian White
We’ve done it! With your help, we’ve run all the way around the world 7 times in support of all our soldiers! Outstanding work! Thanks to all of you who’ve donated miles to our journey. But we can’t stop now, I will continue to run until Brian comes home, and you’re all welcome to join me. Keep on running! Let’s see how far we can get.
Currently Brian’s family has run 3,423 miles
Currently our total community family has run 183,572 miles