Getty Owl Foundation

Team Getty 2013

From Kate:

We swam, we biked, we ran. We saw coastal shores, high hills of mountain trails and asphalt, blue and rapid waves of a lake, and wooded areas of plenty. We sweat, we froze, we sweat, we froze, we sweat, we froze. 🙂 We fell over and skinned our knees on several occasions. Sorry, not we, I mean, me. We cheered each other on, we patted each other on the back, we hugged, and we proudly wore our Team Getty shirts.

2013 was a beautiful year for Team Getty. Signing up for a race is all well and good, but it is the training and the getting ready for the day that seems to be the hardest. It is not easy to fit in days to run while also taking care of Getty. I would like to thank Mark for stepping in when I needed to get in some mileage.

I would say that right after our 2nd Annual Getty Owl Run/Walk, there was feeling of adrenaline running through my veins. I wanted to push myself more than I ever have. I wanted to sign up for as many runs as I could to get SMA awareness out into whatever city I happened to be in. That is when the ” crazy” began. A few of my crazy friends, who shall remain nameless, started signing us up for half marathons every other weekend. I didn’t even have a chance to say no, one of them had already registered me. Thank you both. That kind of crazy, I mean motivation was what I needed to continue pushing.

Our 2013 Team Getty was a band of amazing individuals that took the time to help spread SMA awareness. You guys are awesome and I hope that you realize how motivating it was for me to know that we were all doing this together. It felt comforting to know that our mighty team was rockin it out there.

I would like to thank:

Krista

Stacey

Mike

Mike

Chrissy

Rici

Shane

Caitlyn

Melissa

Maida

For their commitment and love this year. I can’t tell you how invigorating it is to have a group of people want to be a part of Team Getty. Selfishly what I do know is that every time each member stepped up to the starting line and completed their distance, they made a difference of educating hundreds of people about SMA.

The back of our Team Getty shirts say:

“1 in 40 carry the SMA gene responsible for the #1 genetic killer of young children. Are you a carrier?”

My hope is that participants of each and every event saw this message and took the time to contemplate its call to action. My hope is that after each and every race, someone went online and looked up our website to check out more information about SMA. My hope is that after each and every race, someone felt a sense of duty to tell another person about SMA. It always starts with one person and I hope it started a conversation, a question with a doctor, an overall demand to help fight the #1 genetic killer of young children. The more people that know and talk about it, the less places SMA has to hide.

In June I registered for the California International Marathon. I am still not quite  sure why, but at the time it was far enough away that I didn’t really have to think about it. Then as the months got closer, it was clear why I was doing this. I wanted to meet Getty at the finish line. I wanted to push myself farther athletically because in certain ways I wanted to show Getty that I could fight just like she does every day. I wanted her to be proud of me. And to know that she would be at the finish line after 26.2 miles seemed like the best possible scenario to accomplish that goal and to share a special moment with my little lady.

So the day came. I froze, I ran, I jogged, I walked, my knees gave out at around 20 miles, I ran, I drank water, I ate copious amounts of energy everything. I did not do this run alone. Chrissy thank you for being my wing girl in this whole journey. No way could have finished this run without your encouragement.

The finish line was coming closer and closer. At 25 miles I just starting crying. I knew I was near and I knew Getty was waiting. The flood gates of tears and my need to end this run so I could just hug her pretty much came to a beautiful crescendo as I turned the corner to the see a the beautiful FINISH LINE. And wouldn’t you know it, Miss Getty was right there waiting for me. They allowed Mark and Getty to come inside passed the gates to be right there. My heart just about blew up when I saw her pink jacket. My body seemed to push me forward as if I was on auto pilot just to get me to the end.

As I crossed the finish line and I immediately ran over to Getty to embrace her little face, grab her little hand and tell her how happy I was to see her. Never, in a million years will I ever forget that moment, how my heart melted, and how I could not wait to tell her how excited I was to see her.

Ironically, one of the things I really wanted to do at the end of the race was to give her my medal to wear. However, girlfriend was already adorning a medal. How very sweet it was for the volunteer to give her one already. I will never forget the look on her face as I realized she already had a medal. It kind of like, “I don’t need yours Mom, I have one already. What took you so long to get yours?”

So yay, 2013 was pretty much awesome. My one outlet as a mother is to run. Whenever I am stressed, whenever I need a chance to ground myself, whenever SMA just gets to be too much, I run.

So what does 2014 look like for Team Getty? Just as ambitious. I hope our Team Getty can grow in numbers and I look forward to spending time with our group of bandits, pirates, and/or crazies as I like to call each of us.

I am one lucky human being. I get to be this little lady’s mama.

 Here is to 2014!