How to #ConquerLove

Discovery Place Kids Rockingham

If you haven’t heard of the Run for the Ribbons 1 Mile Fun Run & 5K, you have been missing out!

We hold this annual event in collaboration with the FirstHealth Richmond Memorial Hospital Foundation each April, and we are thrilled to report we more than doubled our race participants from last year!

Every year the morning of Run for the Ribbons is electric. It’s as if all of the running around, water bottle deliveries, filling race packets and hours of tying tiny little ribbons on wooden dowels never happened. You can feel the excitement in the air from the staff and runners as they start picking up their t-shirts and numbers.

We have first time participants of all ages, whether they’re running the 1 Mile Fun Run, or their very first 5K. Watching families participating together and friends meeting up in the morning to run gives you such a sense of community.

This year, we had over 200 people sign up for the 1 Mile Fun Run, with a large number of runners coming from Richmond County Schools. We host a school challenge where the school with the largest percentage of participants wins a $500 cash prize. This competition, and the support of the school district, helped pave the way for such a large turnout.

The 5K course is challenging, to say the least. It features a gigantic hill known as “Love Lane,” a beautiful trail along Hitchcock Creek and rolling hills to finish the last stretch of the 3.1 miles.

Katie and I have been physically training for the 5K since February. Three days a week after work, we would lace up our running shoes, throw on as much pink workout gear as possible and hit the trail.

But what started as a fun challenge for us turned into a much larger competition among our peers. We could have never anticipated the hype we started! While Love Lane is incredibly daunting, the “You Look So Skinny” and “I’m So Proud of You, Perfect Stranger” signs in the front yards of houses along the route kept us all going.

The overall race winner, Chris Mullen of Canada, finished in just 19 minutes, for his third year in a row! Katie and I finished 60th and 84th, out of 297 timed runners. Although we personally didn’t win any medals, knowing we had 500 participants and a community behind us feels JUST like winning.

We didn’t just #ConquerLove on race day, we felt Love from all over Richmond County and we are so proud of what we have, and what we have yet to accomplish.

Jessica Tullar
  • Written by
  • Jessica Tullar

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