2020 Was A Dumpster Fire But This Daughter Inspired Her Mother To Run Her First 5K To Raise Money To Build A Hospice House

It doesn’t even need to be said— 2020 has been a giant dumpster fire. Awful. Lonely. Devastating. And never ending.

For Olivia, her saving grace was the Badass Lady Gang’s training programs and knowing that there was a community of women struggling to get out of bed right along with her.

“I work much better with structure in my life and with everything going on nowadays-Right now, I'm not working. I just actually got a job. I got the call yesterday that I got a job. But there have literally been days during this training program that the only thing that's gotten me out of bed is knowing that I have a workout to do and knowing that there's this huge community- that there's this amazing group of women and individuals behind me has helped so much. I don't even have words. I'm actually tearing up a little bit because it's become so important to me to have that structure, to move my body and feel proud that I'm moving my body in ways that are difficult and challenging.”

Olivia started running like most women do…because it allegedly burned more calories. After becoming a half marathoner, she quickly fell in love with all the ways that running helped her feel strong both in her body and in who she was. AND it connected her to a pretty badass community (hey Badass Lady Gang).

The week she moved in with her Mom, the Badass Lady Gang launched a free 10-week #BALGTurkeyTrot training program. Ironically, Olivia’s Mom Katherine had just launched a virtual 5K, the Autumn Leaf 2020 Virtual 5K to Benefit Stillwaters Hospice House to raise money to open a community Hospice House. It was then that Olivia convinced her Mom to not only throw a virtual 5K to raise money but try to run some of it as well.

Training wasn’t easy for Katherine.

“The first week of training, I'm saying things to (Olivia) like, you know, there is no inheritance. You benefit nothing by killing me off now. But what I've gotten to do in the last nine weeks was, was really look at some of the deeper stuff in my attitude, in the hopelessness that I have felt entrenched in not just 2020, but some other things going on around us. It's like I can control my attitude. I can run to the next telephone for the first time.”

Running has a way of not only bringing people together but to show them just how strong and capable they already are.

For Katherine, she got to re-discover her strength.

“It's invigorating and exciting and really empowering. And I don't do much in my life where I really pat myself on the back and say, hey, you did good girl. But when I trotted into the driveway Saturday, it was like, oh, my God, look what I did.

It was an interesting progression to watch from your trying to kill me by making me run for 60 seconds to turn the timer off. I've got this. It was just an amazing thing to experience and to feel and to see that even at-I'm a month from my sixtieth birthday- That we can recapture strength in our body and we can recapture cardiovascular health. And there really is no place where the body will quit trying to be better than its current baseline. So for a whole bunch of different reasons, this has been an outstanding 10-week experience.”

And for Olivia? She got to watch her Mom train week after week for a goal that means something huge to her.

“It's been incredibly cool to be a part of that journey and have it be my mom and watching her get stronger and feel more confident in her body. And I get to be a part of watching the woman that I watched growing up go through a lot. We have a family joke that we're never allowed merrily down the path of life. We're kind of kicked out of the airplane and like, hey, you got a parachute and promise that now like this, with everything that's going on, being able to share the outlet that I have that I found so much strength in and watch her get to that strength to has been pretty awesome.”

If you’re looking for a fun 5K with a good cause, the Autumn Leaf 2020 Virtual 5K to Benefit Stillwaters Hospice House runs from November 15th-December 16th. (Katherine’s 60th birthday.) 100% of the proceeds are dedicated to the opening of a community hospice home.