Run for the Fallen

While there are still some events being planned for this coming weekend and next month, I wanted to first start off by saying thank you to all who have participated in the 2nd annual Run for the Fallen. Nationwide, the event was a success. From the individual solo runs to the family gatherings to the large organized walk/runs, we couldn’t have done this without you. We are running to remember, and we hold and carry them with us (if not alongside us!) as we run.

Thank you as well to all those who ran and do not personally know a fallen service member. Your commitment to say, “I will never forget,” takes strength, and I want to specially thank you for participating.

Together, as of this past weekend, there were 5,023 participants from 35 states and four different countries including Indonesia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo. A total of 30,081 miles were run in honor & remembrance of our fallen. This year is a huge success, and I know that events around the country brought communities together. So thank you. Update, as of Sept 9, 2009, there were 5,416 participants and over 31,404 miles ran/walked.

The distance of the 2nd annual Run for the Fallen is equivalent to the same number of miles as a round trip from the US to Iraq (13,944 mi) and from the US to Afghanistan (14,822 mi). I understand runs are scheduled for next weekend and next month, and I will add these runs to our collective remembrance.

Thank you to everyone! for participating in this year’s Run for the Fallen, and for making it another year of heartfelt remembrance. United, we will never forget.

Jon Bellona
Director, Run for the Fallen

Pictures of 2009 events across the country can be viewed below:
Fort Carson, Colorado
Sebring, Florida

The film production crew has posted a video dedicated to the 2nd Annual Run for the Fallen. In their words, “This video is for Mikey and everybody running for a loved one this weekend.”

Thanks guys.

Day 36: Mike’s Mile from Film for the Fallen LLC on Vimeo.

Amazing story. A mom is running the distance from her Illinois home to her son’s post on the front line.

The article:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/31965202/ns/today-today_people/

The video:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/32400846#32400846

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Woke up this morning, put on my running shoes, and hit the pavement. Being away from home and not near any organized run, I ran alone, but the solitude felt peaceful and the morning was brisk. I hearkened back during my three mile run to college and to Mike before he joined the Army. I recalled other good friends and our shared moments together. And then to how we, last summer, ran across the country for all the Fallen.

It is hard for me to describe last summer without pointing out that it was a shared experience, and traveled deeply into my heart. This is why it is hard to write about. As soon as I begin to write about one emotion, another leaps up to take its place. When I write about one memory, it seems as if another could be the same, a shared memory 50 miles down the road, or another or another and so on. Each moment was unique, yet each shared an intrinsic quality that I would define, as love. Love of our family, love of our friends, love of our community surrounding us. Love for those we miss deeply in our hearts. Love for those who shaped us, and in turn for those whom we continue to teach and inspire.

I know that if you are involved in a run across the country this weekend: Pinckneyville, Illinois; Run for the Fallen Maine; Bloomer, Wisconsin; these same hard-to-describe feelings will usher themselves in. And in that moment, in that time of your run, you will understand what I try to describe. Because you will know. You will feel it better than I do.

I don’t claim to know much at all, but I do feel something strongly in my heart. And that is what I choose to follow. That is running to remember.

So thank you for running. Thank you bringing this together. It is through you that we all succeed. For love, for honor, for the times in which we will never forget.

Jon Bellona, Director Run for the Fallen

Taken from an article in Utica, NY’s Observer Dispatch newspaper

By ANNE DELANEY

Observer-Dispatch

Posted Aug 13, 2009 @ 12:51 AM

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Jeannine Olney had to do something.If she’d made different decisions years ago, the Westernville woman would’ve followed her father into the U.S. Air Force or joined the reserves.She didn’t, though, choosing instead to stay on the path of practicality. Her job as a nurse was demanding enough, and taking more time away from her three children wasn’t the right move.

In March 2008, when Army Sgt. Christopher Simpson was killed in his second tour in Iraq the young man’s death “hit home” for Olney. She knew Simpson, who was 23 and a friend of her children. She knew his fiancée, Carol Fries.

Last year, when Hamilton College graduate Jon Bellona organized a nationwide Run for the Fallen to honor his college roommate, Olney found her calling for the “military running through my blood.”

Bellona’s idea, one mile for every service member killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, was perfectly matched for Olney, a member of the Roman Runners running club.

“I cry when they play the national anthem,” she said.

Olney organized a local Run for the Fallen at the former Griffiss Air Force Base in memory of Simpson and six other area military members who were killed.

“We never thought it would happen because he had been there and he came home,” Olney said of Simpson. “He was supposed to get out of the Army and he had to go back to Iraq and he didn’t come home. It was something.”

The second run will begin at 9 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 23 at Griffiss and will honor 11 local military members killed in service. Walkers are welcome, and the athletes can go further than the mile. Registration is at 8 a.m. and the run will start and end at the B-52 site on Perimeter Road near DeLutis Field.

The run/walk will also honor:

• Army Pfc. Gregory P. Huxley Jr..
• Army Capt. George Wood.
• Army National Guard Sgt. Michael Uvanni.
• Marine Sgt. Elisha R. Parker.
• Army Cpl. John Sigsbee.
• Navy Petty Officer First Class Alec Mazur.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel J. Geary.
• Marine Cpl. Blaise A. Oleski.
• Army Cpl. Michael Mayne.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Jeremy S. Lasher.

Olney said the families of at least three military members will be at the run, including the Uvanni family of Rome. Olney went to RFA with Uvanni’s father, Kevin.

Olney, 52, started running when she was 40. She was a serious, competitive runner for a while. She’s scaled back her intensity level and the sport is a bond that runs through the Olney family. Jeannine, her husband, Mark, sons Josh and Austin and daughter Andrea, all ran last month’s Boilermaker for the seventh time.
“We have a spot where we meet with a bunch of friends,” Jeannine said.

About 200 people – runners, walkers and some with dogs and strollers – participated in the Run for the Fallen last year. Olney has no idea how many will show up next week. The run’s informal structure, but serious purpose, does not require its organizer to get timers, trophies or to keep a meticulous to-do list needed for putting together competitive race.

“You do a little running around but it’s nothing compared to a mother losing her child,” Olney said.

Even the national anthem last year was done on-the-spot. The person scheduled to sing “The Star Spangled Banner” didn’t show.

“So we all sang it and we’ll probably do that this year,” Olney said.