JUST IN: JUSTIN’s RUNspiration and ME

Who got to run with Justin Osmond?  ME!

 Yeah, my story went like this:  Drop off the little guy to preschool.  Come home.  Slump in my chair.  Sigh, “I wish I had something cool to do”.  Got on Facebook (isn’t that where we all go for excitement? Ha).  First post on my feed: “Justin Osmond is “here””.  I thought, “Oh, a run with Justin would be cool! 250 miles is a long way! It’d be fun to keep him company for a couple of those miles.”  So I hurried and changed my clothes and set off to search for Justin and his crew.  By the way, he’s a running beast!  I kept searching in the area I “thought” he’d be.  He was MUCH farther down the way than I expected.  But I found him and parked a half a mile up the road.  I ran back to where they were and started my run with him.

(You might be wondering, why is Justin running a crazy 250 miles?  The cause is awesome: It’s called Run4Hearing – raising funds so deaf kids can have access to hearing aids, FM systems, etc.  Check out his website!)

On my run, I learned first hand that Justin is a genuine guy with a heart of gold!  This fundraiser is really important to him – these deaf kids are really important to him!  He said that one day, he thought, “I want to make a difference  for deaf kids”, so he came up with a plan.  And because he loves to run he wanted to incorporate running into the fundraising idea. He asked me, “When you found out about my idea to run 250 miles, did you think I was crazy?”  I said, “No, I didn’t think you were crazy at all! I just thought it was WAY COOL!”  He said that the other day, near the beginning of this fundraising run, he was running through the freezing cold, sleet and rain. The only thing that kept him going was thinking about these deaf kids who will benefit from this run.  Hearing aids, FM systems, and assistive listening devices are expensive. Justin wants to help make sure deaf kids have what they need. This run will make a difference!

Talking with Justin made the run easy.   I left inspired!

It was interesting, this morning I was listening to a podcast by the amazing Michael Hyatt about how to get things done, even when others tell you that you’re crazy or the idea is too ambitious.  One thing that just kept repeating in my head was the idea to THINK BIG and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t.  Have a plan and just take it by the horns and do it.  Justin was a PRIME example of this.

I got the pleasure of running with Justin for 2 miles.  (I had to turn around and run back to my car cuz it was time to get my little guy.) My run with him was short but it was worth the crazy notion to change my clothes and scout him out.  It was an inspiring run!  And dang it, it was just fun – and the weather was absolutely perfect!  It really was awesome!

Good luck Justin!  I hope all your dreams and the dreams of many deaf kids come true!  My family is looking forward to running at the Super Hear-O 5k on Saturday in support of this tremendous cause!

Check out and support Justin’s 250-mile Run Fundraiser for Deaf Kids: Facebook.com/Run4Hearing, Run4Hearing.com and the Olive Osmond Hearing Fund