This is the week the Adidas hit the hot pavement of life. They’ve been making contact with asphalt on Lott Smith Road for a couple of months now, but this is when it counts, at Saturday’s Casa de Fe 5K.

With seven in my family registered for the annual event, there’s a good chance one of us might do all right. On the other hand, there will be strollers involved, as well as the recently injured, so I’m not expecting much. But that’s not the point.

Here’s why we plan to get up at six o’clock on a Saturday morning to run in the Casa de Fe 5K (and perhaps be unable to walk the rest of the weekend):

1. It’s an entry fee we’re glad to pay. Casa de Fe is an Ecuadorian orphanage with a solid record of fruit-bearing ministry to abused, abandoned and special needs children, and it takes funds to make that happen. For more information on how they operate, you can visit lacasadefe.org.

2. We want to support one of Casa’s biggest fans, our friend Jeff Freeman. Even a new hip can’t keep him from putting his whole heart into this event. This year he’s organizing it, rather than running it. (That’s a plus for you serious competitors, by the way.)

3. We’ll get T-shirts that proclaim our athleticism (ha). And there’s always the possibility no one else in our age bracket will show up, which means we could come home with a medal, too. Hey, it’s still a medal.

On top of all that, we’ve had an additional reason for setting our sights on finishing the Casa de Fe event this year — training has helped us empathize with our boot camp boy. As you’d expect, Son No. 3 says they do lots of running at Parris Island. “Anytime we’re not in formation, we’re running wherever we go,” he wrote in reply to one of his brother’s questions. That’s in addition to scheduled PT runs each day, as he was careful to clarify.

And for those of you who have asked for an update, here it is: about the time our running shoes hit the starting line at the Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce Saturday morning, boots belonging to the 2nd Battalion’s Fox Company should be hitting a more sacred surface – the soil surrounding Parris Island’s Iwo Jima flag raising statue. They’re scheduled to arrive at that spot after completing the rigorous 54-hour final test of U.S. Marine recruit training known as the Crucible, a rite of passage that includes food and sleep deprivation, 45 miles of marching, and a barrage of day and night training exercises at “Warrior Stations,” each of which is named for a Marine hero whose actions epitomize the values the Corps wants recruits to adopt.

But here’s the best part — those who complete the course are awarded the coveted Eagle, Globe and Anchor emblem during a ceremony there at the statue. It’s an insignia that has been part of the USMC uniform since 1868, and when drill instructors hand them over Saturday morning, they’ll also start calling the recruits Marines for the very first time. To the guys who’ve endured three months of intense training to earn it, the emblem is a priceless piece of metal.

So regardless of what happens at our 5K, at least one member of our family should get a medal (of sorts) this weekend — and it’s safe to say it won’t be me.  Run, Baby, run.

 

Wesson resident Kim Henderson is a freelance writer who writes for The Daily Leader. Contact her at kimhenderson319@gmail.com.