Special Olympics Torch Run

Wow, wow, oh wow.  WOW!  What an incredible morning I had today, what an incredible experience, and truly what a blessing to be asked to be a part of something so very very special.  About 10 days ago, I along with others in Southwest Kansas were asked if we would like to participate in kicking off the Western Region Spring Games by running the Special Olympics torch across Garden City, Kansas and onto the track where the games were being held. 

This morning we met at 8:45 to grab a last bathroom pit stop, a quick photo of all of us and then we drove a few miles to where the Police department wanted us to start our run.  It was 48 degrees and very light winds at 3 mph, and the humidity was 87% as we finally had a lovely rain yesterday afternoon that we so desperately needed. 

There was a total of 10 runners this morning that included 6 men from the Garden City Police Department including the Captain and 4 SWFTR/Team 4F members.  We also had two men with the GCPD as motorcycle escorts. 7 Men and 3 Women runners total, is that not amazing!  When we got to where we would begin our run, the Special Olympics Torch was lit, and I so wished I would have carried my phone and taken a few pictures.  Drats!!  We then ran right down Kansas Avenue, which is also a State Highway, and then when we got to the 4 lane, we ran in the right hand lane for 4 miles or so until we needed to come back up to the high school. We had right at 700' elevation gain towards the end of our run. We ran just right at 6 miles in just over an hour with several of the men never having had run even 3 miles.  We ended our run at the High School track with the police escort taking us right out onto the field, to run two laps. The first was just the 10 of us Torch runners and the last lap with one team member out of the 8 teams that were participating in the Games. You could tell these special men and women were elated! I became emotional coming through 5 points hearing the sirens of the escort and them holding all traffic for us and watching the torch right in front of me and then again coming onto the track with the athletes and their families clapping for each of us.

There were 4 of us from SWFTR which happens to be a local running club for Southwest Kansas and the 4 of us also are members of a group that Dan Knight the Holcomb Recreation Wellness Director has put together in the past year or so, called Team 4F.  The Special Olympics asked that each runner try to raise at least $50.00 each, and between the 4 of us we raised over $700.00 in just over 10 days!  To each one of you that sponsored us and prayed for us, thank you, THANK YOU!

 Dan Knight, Yolanda Rogers, Patty Knoll and Meghan McFee as we prepare for our run.  Meghan is the one that was asked by the Police department to gather up some local runners as she is the director of the Garden City Recreation department. 

Patty, (Dan in the back ground), Meghan and myself at the finish!

I truly am humbled for the pure joy of the athletes this morning as they "high fived" each of us as we left the field and they entered onto the field as their games began!

PS:  When I get a picture or two from the Police Department, I will come back and add them, but until then I will share two pictures that Patty had taken of us this morning, thanks Patty for sharing them!