I ran track one year in school and hated every second of it. The strides it took to make it over the finish line appeared to be endless and the grueling way we had to push ourselves to shave a second or two off our previous time seemed like a cruel and unusual punishment. In fact, I am not even sure why I signed up in the first place…
Fast forward to working at Tri-Valley Haven and I now am a part of an annual event called Pace for Peace that, this year, was held on October 14th. People voluntarily signed up to run/walk a 5k or 10k through the winding Livermore Wine Country. I internally scoffed at the insanity until I read an anonymous quote about why people run and something clicked inside. Aside from the obvious health benefits that exercise can bring, running is a raw form of freedom. All that is required is a good pair of shoes.
Tri-Valley Haven is dedicated to building a world without violence. What would that look like? I cannot say with certainty, but I can imagine it would be a place where everyone felt freedom: freedom to express who they are, freedom in feeling safe, freedom in being secure.
To answer my own question, why do we run? I can’t answer that for everyone, but I can share that 250 runners showed up to the Pace for Peace and 60 volunteers and staff worked to make the event a success. That’s 310 people who believe in the Haven’s cause of ending violence and pursuing freedom and that is why they ran that chilly, beautiful Saturday morning.
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Megan Waggener is a Sexual Assault Advocate and Preventionist at Tri-Valley Haven. For more information about how you can support our life-saving services for survivors and families, please call our office at (925) 449-5845 or visit http://www.trivalleyhaven.org
