Jodie Potter is a mom, runner, and advocate. She has run 32 half-marathons and 2 marathons, with many other crazy events.

—————————————————————

But even more incredible is that within those races, she's personally raised over $40,000 to fight pediatric cancer, and has participated with several teams that have collectively contributed over $1 million in the fight.

—————————————————————

She shares her story with me today, and so much more. We also talk about finding your "why" in running our whatever your sport may be, and the power of finding a community to share it with.

—————————————————————

For more information about Emily Whitehead Foundation, visit: www.emilywhiteheadfoundation.org, or follow us at https://www.facebook.com/EWhiteheadFdn , http://www.instagram.com/EWhiteheadFdn , or https://twitter.com/EWhiteheadFdn.

—————————————————————

https://emilywhiteheadfoundation.salsalabs.org/activatehope/index.html

Rachael Wittmer ran in Pittsburgh in 2018 with hopes of qualifying for the Boston Marathon. She missed the cutoff by just 90 seconds that year, and so she trained and qualified in 2019 to be in Boston for 2020. a few weeks ago, she got the news, along with so many others, that the Boston Marathon won’t be held on April 20, 2020.

————————————————————————————————————————

So she’s decided to run her own “Not-Boston Marathon” on April 20, 2020 with a purpose: to outrun COVID-19.

—————————————————————————

She is raising money for the community clinic in her county. With many unable to work due to COVID-19, those who rely on this clinic may feel the strain more than most.

—————————————————————————

Rachael tells me about her story of running, how she decided to do this, what inspired her, and why she feels that it’s important. She also gives some ideas on how we can use this time to look forward, have perspective, and find inspiration to do something, big or small, to help communities.

—————————————————————————

Rachel's "Outrunning COVID-19 GoFundMe page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/outrunning-covid19?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link-tip&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet

Welcome back to Trailblazer. This week's episode, the second episode, is a conversation that I had with a friend of mine and an advocate named Raymond Friend. Last summer, he decided to ride his bike across the state of Pennsylvania to raise money for CHILD USA, the leading non-profit that is working to end child abuse and neglect.

_________________________

In this conversation, he shares this ground-up crazy idea, how to plan for a trip like this, the unexpected highs and lows from the adventure, the value of both old friends and the new people you might meet along the way, and the personal growth found from embarking on an adventure like this or supporting another who is going after their crazy idea.

_________________________

- Raymond's bike tour video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ0Ki5xXObU&t=223s

- His website can be found here: https://rayjfriend.wixsite.com/personal

_________________________

Thanks for listening to Trailblazer. Catch us next week, and in the meantime, stay inspired to use your outdoors voice.

Megan Marshall is our very first guest. She's the business core administrator at Penn State University, mother and partner, and co-founder of the FLY Movement.

A former Penn State division-one student-athlete on the track and field team, she talks about how her experience as a college athlete brought forth some unexpected challenges.

Her story inspired her to reach out to a friend and start a movement that starts the conversation on body image, eating disorders, and mental health in sports, as well as across the broader college campus and social media.

She also shares the importance of being vulnerable, how taking a chance to share her story and her wild idea has made her who she is today. I hope that you enjoy this first of hopefully many episodes as much as I did - thanks.

You can find Megan at:

F.L.Y. Movement - https://www.fuelloveyou.com/

Megan Marshall - https://www.instagram.com/meg_marshall_/

This to Trailblazer, the podcast that explores the passion and purpose behind awesome people and their feats in the outdoors.

I'm your host Baylee, and I'll be talking with those who do some pretty incredible things by using their outside voice to spark change. I hope this will inspire you to use yours, too.