“I’m running fast, and I’m running a lot right now,” said Sarabeth Morrell, an English teacher at Old Rochester Regional High School. Morrell is currently running 30 to 40 miles per week, training for the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. on October 26, 2014.
“My personal goal is to run this fast enough to be able to qualify for Boston next spring,” said Morrell. Thus she’s training for speed. Morrell, who normally runs at nine to ten minutes per mile, hopes to bump her average down to seven to eight minutes per mile.
A runner for most of her life, Morrell is no stranger to the strenuous 26.2 miles of a marathon. Before she had kids, Morrell ran several marathons. It’s only now that her children are older that she again has the time to train – but this time, she’s running for a cause.
“I used to do it for myself and for my own athletic challenges,” explained Morrell, “but now it seemed like as I’m older … I wanted to combine my love of running with helping out an organization.”
That’s when Morrell decided to join the Homes for Our Troops team in the Marine Corps Marathon. This team raises money for Homes for Our Troops (HFOT), an organization that builds homes for post 9/11 veterans who have lost limbs in war.
“This organization is important because of the state of the world in which we live,” said Morrell sincerely, “We have veterans coming home with injuries who can no longer take care of their families.”
With her own husband being a Marine Corps veteran, Morrell feels blessed that her family hasn’t had to face the struggles of seriously injured veterans’ families. She felt she could help those who weren’t so lucky by supporting HFOT in the Marine Corps Marathon.
The HFOT team currently has 25 to 30 members, but they hope to reach 50 members. Eventually, the runners will begin training as a team. For now, they’re focused on individual training and fundraising.
The Marine Corps Marathon requires that runners involved with a charity bib raise at least $500 before registering. The HFOT team is a little more ambitious: they’ve set a goal of $100,000 for their team. Through the generosity and the determination of the runners and other donators, the team has raised nearly $18,000 so far. Each day, they make more progress.
This summer, the HFOT team will be running local fundraisers to reach their goal. In the meantime, they rely on the altruism of the community. For more information, please visit http://hfotmcm14.kintera.org.
By Renae Reints
