Meg's Miles - What's Best About Running

A rather remarkable thing happened yesterday. Tens of thousands of people laced up their running shoes and went out to run miles in honor of a person most had never met and a week before had never heard of. The people I am talking about, of course, are members of the running community and the person they honored was Meg Menzies. I was one of them. Sadly, I never knew Meg and never ran with her, but celebrating her life was really important to me.

In case you missed it, last Monday, Meg went on a morning run in Richmond. She was an accomplished runner training for the Boston Marathon. She never came back from her run. Her life was taken from her by the senseless act of a drunk driver. She left behind a husband and three children. More of the story can be found here. In a split second, the world was changed for the worst.

Almost any runner can tell you stories of close calls with cars or trucks operated by careless drivers more concerned with texting or talking than devoting attention to the operation of a 4000 pound piece of metal hurdling down the road. Fortunately, most of those close calls are just that. We hurl a few expletives, but we come back from the run. Meg never came back.

Cornerstone Striders running Miles for Meg at
Windsor Castle Park in Smithfield

It would be even more tragic if that was the end of the story. Fortunately, it was not. Some very devoted folks in Richmond organized #megsmiles to honor Meg. They also set up a Facebook page. They asked the members of the running community to dedicate their miles on January 18 to Meg. To do what she could no longer do. Although I saw various figures, the number of people was over 80,000 runners from around the world. Some ran in freezing cold and others in staggering heat. Some ran two miles and some ran twenty miles. They ran in the United States, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Australia. Our running group had 16 show up in Smithfield, Virginia. Simply amazing.

Everyone wore the MegsMiles bib on our run yesterday morning

In my short time as a runner, I have met some truly amazing people. People who inspire me to push myself to achieve more and to live better. For me, that is what is best about running. It is a community of devoted people, who brave the elements and encourage one another to dream of what can be. It is a community that is poorer for the loss of Meg, but one that celebrates her life and who she was.