My journey to the Spaulding Race for Rehab Team was practically accidental.  It all started with my friend Chip.  Two years ago my friend decided to start training for a half-marathon. His motivations included a mixture of general health gains, stave off damage from rough college living, and shedding sympathy weight gained during while his wife's first pregnancy.  I didn't see Chip until after he'd run the race and was blown away with what great shape he was in. 

Around the time of Chip's success, my girlfriend Taylor brought the work of Spaulding Rehab Hospital to my attention.  Unlike an acute care center, Spaulding's mission is to literally get people back on their feet again.  The staff's goal isn't just to help people recover, but return to full, productive lives.  Patients may be recovering from a stroke, head injury, chemo, spinal injury or a number of life-altering traumatic events.  These patients go to Spaulding because they want to recover something they have lost.  Forget trying to run a marathon, for some patients at Spaulding, taking a single unsupported step is a victory worth celebrating.  

The fall of 2011 rolls in and Spaulding announces that they are once again participating in the Boston Marathon with their successful Race for Rehab Team.  I immediately think of Chip and how his hard work could help this wonderful institution.  However, as the father of now two young daughters, he simply didn't have to time to train.  

This is when I said to myself, why don't I do it?  This is a cause I believe in, what's holding me back?  Well, for one, terror.  Shear terror at the prospect of training, racing and fundraising. It was around this point that a press release announced that Spaulding Rehab would be treating a group of Libyan freedom fighters. That was the turning point for me.  I knew that I didn’t want to run the marathon to see how fast I could go. I wanted to run for all those people in the Spaulding Rehab Network who couldn't run for themselves.  

So even if you've never been a patient of, visited or even heard of Spaulding Rehab, please consider donating to this organization to help those that are struggling just to take a single step.  Let me take the other 26.2 miles worth.  How many steps are in a marathon? I have no idea, but I'm going to take them one at a time, running for those who can't.

Please consider one of the following donation levels:

Race Day Fan: $26.2  or $1 per mile

Bells & Whistles Fan:  $52.4 or $2 per mile

Hardcore Face-Painted Fanatic: $78.6 or $3 per mile

Long-Run Training Partner: $104.8 or $4 per mile

7-days-a-Week Training Champion: $183.4 or $7 per mile

Donations of any size are greatly appreciated.  

Spaulding Rehabiliation Hospital wrote -

Spaulding Rehabiliation Hospital's Race for Rehab Team is proud to be running as part of the John Hancock Marathon Program.

Our team will be racing to raise funds toward Spaulding's Annual Fund. Our Annual Fund will support all of the hospital's most pressing needs. Spaulding prides itself on rehabilitation with a critically important "can-do" attitude. We encourage our patients to find their strength after suffering from injury or illness. We offer six major rehabilitation programs, based at the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston. Each rehab program is interdisciplinary, bringing the skills of a team of rehabilitation specialists to bear on the unique needs of each patient.

Our programs offer rehabilitation in the following areas:
Amputee and Vascular Disease Rehabilitation
Brain Injury Rehabilitation
Child and Adolescent Rehabilitation
Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation
Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation
Stroke/Neurology Rehabilitation

Spaulding is in the process of building a state-of-the-art new hospital in the Charlestown Navy Yard. Your New Hospital will be a very special resource for Greater Boston, New England, and beyond. It will greatly enhance clinical capacities, provide comfortable and accessible patient accommodations, promote a truly transformative clinical research enterprise, and be a source of aesthetic enjoyment for the community.