The Zyriek Zoo: Run to Peoria.....

There is a fundraiser every year for St. Jude called the Run to Peoria which involves about 300 people, of which about 250 are from Peoria, Illinois that literally in relay style run from Memphis, TN on the St. Jude campus to Peoria, Illinois, the site of one of St. Jude's affiliate clinics. Each runner agrees to raise at least $3,000 for St. Jude and commit to the 4-day 400+ mile journey. This year marked the 30th year of the fundraiser and our CEO at ALSAC thought it would be great if he plus several other senior staff members ran along with the teams on the first day of the run. I volunteered to be a part of the ALSAC Senior Staff team and it was such a great experience. The CEO and CIO ran the first leg and then headed back to Memphis. The other 6 of us continued on via RV for the entire day.

The run started on Wednesday, August 3rd, which just happened to be the hottest day of the year in Memphis with the actual temperature reaching 106 degrees and the heat index over 120 degrees. We were part of the gold team and there were 8 segments for the gold team to complete, each ranging from 5-7 miles. We joined in on parts of segment 2 & 5 and all of segment 8. I completed a total of 7.5 miles. The final segment was only 3 1/2 miles and all 6 of us from ALSAC completed it together. It was an amazing time...hot and humid which is why we did not complete all of each segment, but great to see so many people excited to fundraise and show their support for St. Jude.

We entered the park in Lauderdale County, TN and our shuttle arrived to take us back to the office to retrieve our cars and head home. Made it home by 11:30 and took the best shower of my life and then dropped in the bed. Long and hot and sweaty but so worth it!! Proud of our team which had some very experienced runners and some very novice runners as well. Can't imagine living out of the RV's with a team of 8-10 others in each RV for the 4 days but so glad we joined in the efforts.