I didn't want to participate in the 5K. Too early on a Saturday morning, and besides, I don't love crowds.
Then I learned that CSS wasn't only buying tickets for staff to participate, but we were also buying up to 10 tickets for our clients to join the first-ever Team CSS for the 5K run at the Eugene Marathon.
Nic and Amanda at our Roosevelt Community Court site jumped at the chance to be a part of the 5K, and told me they wanted to walk the course with me. Not only was I surprised they wanted to get up by 6 am to get to the starting line by 8 am, but I was honored they wanted to help get me across the finish line.
The response from our clients far exceeded our expectations for the 5K. In the end, we had 19 clients sign up to join us bright and early on Saturday, April 26. All but one client made it to the race, joining us for a CSS tailgate complete with coffee, juice boxes, bananas, muffins, and Voodoo Doughnuts before the race.
Nic was particularly interested in finishing the course in under 60 minutes to qualify for a medal. I walked with Nic, Amanda, Vanessa, Robert, and Katy during the event, and listened in as I heard our clients remark upon how clean the air was along the course that morning, to expressing gratitude for the neighborhoods who stood along the route holding their coffee cups and toddlers cheering us on, to speaking of how cool it felt to really be a part of the Eugene community.
About halfway through the race, we saw Liv, another CSS client, coming towards us from the direction of the finish line. She had gotten separated from the group and walked the course backwards in order to find us. She joined us, but as we walked at our established pace to ensure we finished within the hour, Liv began to fall behind. Not wanting anyone to be left behind, Nic joined her, even if it meant losing out on a medal.
By the final quarter of the 3.2 mile route, Amanda, Robert, and I were walking together as a team. Robert and I met last April, both of us wearing boots for our broken ankles. As we walked together, we celebrated being able to walk, and walk together, that morning.
Amanda didn't have her glasses on, and couldn't see where Nic and Liv were in relationship to our group. I could see them, not too far back, still in the running for a medal. Reassured, we pressed on.
Amanda, Robert and I crossed the finish line at the 56 minute mark, Amanda and I holding upraised hands as we finished. Once we collected our medals, we went back toward the finish line to see Nic and Liv walking down the straightway. They made it across the finish line with 40 seconds to spare.
The 5K achieved many programmatic goals for CSS, fostering positive points of connection between CSS clients and the Eugene community, giving low income and unhoused folks access to a city-wide recreational event, encouraging health and wellness, but perhaps most important, offering CSS clients and staff the opportunity to demonstrate care for one another.
We were all winners this past Saturday morning, whatever place we came in. And I, for one, can't wait to cross many more finish lines with our clients in the year ahead, be it securing housing, achieving sobriety, returning to school, finding work, or achieving whatever goals they hold dear.
