On Sunday morning’s I run… FAST! Or, try to… I have a track session first up today which I always enjoy, (even when I run ridiculously slow), because it feels good/hurts to push myself to the limit. The stakes are higher than on a long/slow run, it almost feels like a race, and I miss racing!! I’m sure many of you miss racing, too, so as promised from the cliffhanger in yesterday’s blog, I have RACE details to share with all of you!
That’s right! Four weeks from TODAY, Sunday, May 9th, 2021, Smashfest Queen is hosting their second Mother’s Day virtual race benefitting Dr. Shalon’s Maternal Action Project. We can all run together/apart wherever our zip code lands for a festive 5K, a sturdy 10K, or a heaving Half-Marathon to honor the mothers in our own lives, and the many other mothers, like Dr. Shalon, who have not been given the attention and care they deserve by the medical community.
I have never given birth. I can only imagine the beauty, pain, uncertainty, fear, and elation that goes along with the entire experience from pregnancy, to delivery, to postpartum care. However, something that I have never felt any concern about is that if I did get pregnant, I would naturally receive the utmost medical care, because I would, I’m white.
Quality medical care is far from a guarantee for Black mothers. There are a myriad of reasons why the medical community has continually let them down, Dr. Shalon being a tragic example.
To learn more about the grim realities Black and minority women and mothers face in the U.S. as told through Dr. Shalon’s story, please CLICK HERE:
I raced/hobbled the 10K on my busted hamstring in the Smashfest Queen Mother’s Day virtual race last year, it was the farthest I ran in months, and although I ran solo, I felt the spirit of my fellow teammates, friends, and family racing all over the globe together/apart for each other, every special mother in our lives, and No Kid Hungry. I can’t wait to run the race again this year on a sturdy hamstring for another extremely worthy cause, Dr. Shalon’s Maternal Action Project.
I am still up in the air about which distance I will run on May 9th, because I am planning for a very LARGE training day the Saturday before, but I will definitely be out there racing, and I hope many of you will be, too.
The song and video choice today is a powerful visual rendition of Marvin Gaye’s stunner, What’s Going On.