I have struggled to know how to get involved in things these days. Educating myself via my smartphone pales to those I see on picket lines. But I’m not sure the crowd is my calling. People have told me to write; I have and I could and I might still, but this too, hasn’t felt the right step as yet, and social media exhausts me. In short, I’ve spent these hard months listening and watching, reflecting on possibilities.

Somewhere in the heat of the summer, I signed up for the New York City marathon as a member of the Mount Sinai Academic Health Center charity team. I’ll admit, I initially joined because I wanted to get running again, not because I thought it my way of getting involved in things. But now I’m fully convinced, after learning of the incredible work MSAHC does on behalf of New York’s adolescents, it’s a way to begin:

• MSAHC gives away free, integrated, comprehensive health care to >10,000 adolescents each year
• MSAHC provides one year of comprehensive health care coverage for each adolescent for only $1000
• MSAHC is an award-winning leader in adolescent health care, hosting training programs for physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses and other clinical members

60 days away from the marathon deadline, I feel ready to jump in and go. Providing free health care coverage for 10,000 young people is a pretty profound outcome. MSAHC leans in where our state and federal government hasn’t, isn’t or can’t. In the days of uncertainty that we find ourselves in, coupled with the rising rates of high risk comorbidities in the adolescent population, running in support of MSAHC feels right.

I posted on the team Crowdrise page today, sharing my thoughts about why giving to MSAHC is something I believe in – as a nurse, a New Yorker and as a woman who grew up with seamless health care coverage. A tease:

It was one of my physicians that first got me into running as a young twenty-something woman. I met him during a time in my life where I really needed his care. Looking back, I don’t know how I would have fared without his treatment, but I am certain that my health and recovery directly benefited from my absence of concern about how his bill would be paid.

Check out my full post and how to donate: www.crowdrise.com/runamandarun Stay tuned here and on my Twitter for updates on my training and progress.