Saturday Run with Wear Blue

Wear Blue does a weekly Saturday run in a local park down near Joint Base Lewis McChord. That happens to be a bit of a drive from Seattle so it's not always very easy to make it down there. But I was super excited that I got to tag along with Jess yesterday. She decided to go and I hitched a ride and am so glad I got to go!

All ready to hit the trails! Very wet Saturday...

They meet in a local park and there is a real sense of community in the air. There were tons of little kids running around in their Wear Blue shirts (um. cutest.thing.ever.) and quite a big crowd for the first run after the RnR. They typically have a couple routes marked up at varying distances, but today they kept it to a simple 3 mile recovery route.

They start each run with a Circle of Remembrance. Every week, in the training section of the website, they post a list of the Fallen during that particular week. On the Saturday run, they call out each of the names on this list. They follow that by calling out the names for whom they are there to run for. It's both moving and very very sad, but also life affirming in a way that is hard to explain. 

Circle of Remembrance (a part of it anyway)

I called out this name: Lance Corporal Patrick Ryan Adle, who was KIA on 6/29/04. He came from a family of Marines and was only 21 years old when he was killed by roadside bomb that detonated next to his Humvee. So incredibly young....not too much older than my own daughter. 

After a moment of silence and calling out the names of the fallen, we all headed out for the run. It was a nice little jaunt around the park we were in and the surrounding neighborhoods. My favorite part was the water station set up about midway. The awesome folks handing out water were adorable. Why, yes, older gentleman with a huge smile, I will accept your high five! 

We made it back to the park and by then it was starting to rain a bit harder. We chatted for a bit and then took off to make the drive home. 

We are going to try to make it down at least once a month or so, schedules allowing. They all start training for the MCM in October soon, so the routes will be getting longer....that will fit right in with my planned increased mileage in August and September.

Overall, it was a really great recovery run with all the folks in Blue! Can't wait until next time.