by Kate Willoughby Hall, a Mother Runner, CEO of Richmondmom.com, and Roger Reynolds fan.
Some of you have followed our Mother Runner team and our journey to fitness through running together in the Monument 10K and most recently in the HCA 8K and SunTrust/McDonald’s Half Marathon.
There’s one member of our team I failed to mention in that last post, but it wasn’t because I forgot. It’s because he deserves his very own space: Roger Reynolds.
Some of you know the Reynolds family and their story; they lost their beautiful daughter Charlotte earlier this year (read the full story on Charlotte Reynolds, the Butterfly here). Roger has taken it upon himself to continue his running journey which he halted during Charlotte’s treatment to run not only one but TWO marathons–both Chicago and the SunTrust Marathon. And he did it with the help of the Mother Runners. In doing so, he raised over $10,000 for CJStuf.org. As our sole “team dude” he provided us much energy, comic relief, and smiles throughout the training. Although I didn’t get to run with him much, mostly because he dusted me.
There are times when as parents we’re not sure how we can manage it all. . .but I cannot imaging managing without my children. So when I think about Roger everything kind of comes into focus and I pray to God that he’ll continue to give Roger and Rachel the strength to do all that they do.
There are so many ways to describe Roger–business owner (he owns the Mechanicsville Romp n Roll with his wife Rachel), hero to many as they run CJStuf.org in memory of Charlotte, and provide donations to families going through illnesses, and dad, because forever he’ll be Charlotte’s daddy. Roger also acts as a surrogate hero to all the little kids that run through Romp n Roll every day. . if you saw him in action you’d want to give him a hug. If you ever are in need of inspiration about anything, Roger Reynolds is the guy to ask. Through his pain he has pushed himself mentally, physically, in every way possible to raise funds for CJStuf and to all of us that Charlotte’s life was not in vain. Oh, and he wears a mean pink running skirt, too. 
If you’d like to support CJStuf.org they’ve got an event on 11/20/10 called “Citations for CJ.” And they do lots of other amazing stuff all year long which they document on their CJStuf.org blog.
