Honored to serve

“Ian you should work with the City of Philadelphia to make a big July 4th race next summer… especially with all the 250 birthday celebrations happening!”

It was last fall. For the 17th time, someone was suggesting to start a July 4th race in celebration of our country’s 250th birthday.

At races, I hear a lot of different things. Much of it becomes noise. But when something gets repeated over and over, my pattern recognition alarms start going off and I get an uncomfortable feeling that doesn’t go away. At this point, I must run down the idea to the point that I get clarity it’s either impossible or not worth the time.

So I called the office of Philly Mayor Cherelle Parker. I asked if they’d be interested in working together on a 5k to celebrate July 4th. How cool would a night run on the Parkway be under fireworks?

They laughed.

“Ian, you don’t understand. On July 4, Philly is hosting a World Cup game and a concert with A listers — I can't tell you who yet, but it's going to be big…” (we now know that concert includes legends like Will Smith and Christina Aguilera). “Adding a run to that would be a logistical nightmare.”

I had my answer. I was now prepared with a response for the 18th person who proposed the concept of a 250th birthday celebration 5k in Philadelphia.

As I went to hang up the phone I heard “BUT Ian, we like what you’re all about — our city could use more unity and bringing people together to move would be a great way to celebrate America’s 250th birthday. In fact, we were just talking with City Fitness about how we could work together to do just that. Maybe you could call them and see if they’d work with you on a 5K run? It would need to be on a different date, so it’s less of a logistical nightmare, but maybe we could still create the positive impact that we all want on people’s health and our community’s unity.”

So I called City Fitness. We talked. We scheduled a follow up Zoom. We had lots more meetings. Eventually, we landed on a Memorial Day 5K, with the goal of bringing our city together to kick off an epic summer.

Last weekend, over 1,300 runners came together in the rain to run the first Ring It On 5K. As one runner wrote on Instagram, “Weather sucked, the race absolutely didn’t, let’s runnit back.”

At Run The Day, I’m lucky to serve many great communities. It’s an honor to work with great events that bring people together, encourage movement and create intense memories. But I felt especially honored to work with this race.

As an American who lives in Philadelphia, it felt special to bring together over 1,000 people on a rainy day — all in celebration of a country, which at 250 years old has accomplished quite a bit including putting man on the moon, winning World War II and building the modern economy with leading technology and the global reserve currency.

I don’t want to get carried away and compare the organization of a celebratory 5K to any of these world-changing accomplishments.

But as the celebrations for America’s 250th birthday get started, I can’t help but feel that it’s been an honor to serve.

— Ian

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Kicking Off America’s 250th Birthday Celebrations with a Run in the Rain