On Sunday, I finished 4th in the Ibarra Regional Championship 10km road race and – for the first time – accepted prize money as a professional athlete. I’d actually won prize money before from road races, but, due to NCAA restrictions, had never accepted. And so, the feeling was fairly similar to my college graduation as I followed my competitors from the podium to the elite athletes’ tent – looking not insignificantly out of place among the short, strong Ecuadorians. There, a man whipped out a thick stack of US twentys, handed each of us a contract to sign, and doled out our respective rewards for half an hour of sweat, pain, and redemption.<

I’m not writing this to boast, but to lead into a secondary feeling that crept up on me afterwards. A few weeks ago, I posted an essay about “The Bug” where I described how supporting STRIVE’s mission to through running had reignited the competitive fire that got me excited about training again. With that in mind, the planets seemed to align during my trip to Ibarra. In that same weekend, I found myself finishing up the planning and preparations for the STRIVE Center’s new website and fundraising page. As I sat in my dining room that Sunday evening, alternately plunking away at HTML coding and massaging my aching legs, the thought came to me all of a sudden.

For my 2013 fall racing season, I will be donating 15% of all of my cash winnings to support the Center.

Once the thought came into my head, it seemed so obvious. What better way to stoke that fire under my feet, to keep the Bug strong and healthy, than to solidify an even stronger connection between my running and supporting STRIVE’s mission?  What better motivation to push through the toughest workouts, to chase down the man in front of me, to find that extra gear?

Already bring STRIVE into the South American press

For me, STRIVE has always appealed to me because of the balancing of the selfish and the selfless. Running CAN be a distinctly selfish sport. I want to improve my time, my health, my speed. Me, me, me. And perhaps that’s why running on a team is such a powerful motivator. Moving from the egocentric to the team-centric. Running for something bigger than yourself.

And that’s where I found myself while writing the bug article. I’d lost my team – my reason – upon graduating and I’d been floundering about, searching for a replacement. Yet, as always, that reason had been there all along.

Running for STRIVE pushes me to run for more than just myself and my own personal goals. With this commitment, I further fortify the link between myself – particularly my running – and STRIVE’s mission. Running for a reason, be it a team or a cause, has always pushed me to levels otherwise impossible. I have no doubt that this symbiosis – my contributing to STRIVE and STRIVE motivating me – will do the same. I can’t wait to see where we can go together.