Through Endurance Sports Training, Miles with Maeve Raises Funds for Families Who’ve Lost a Child or Pregnancy
We Have Big Hearts for Families Coping With Loss
Upon learning the news that we’d lost our first child, Maeve, at 37 weeks, we went straight from what was supposed to be a routine checkup to a hospital delivery room to induce labor. Unable to grasp the concept of life without our daughter, we began to ponder ways we would carry on Maeve’s legacy and, in turn, make her spirit more tangible here on Earth.
The idea of Miles with Maeve was born the same night as our daughter. After hearing the worst words an expectant parent can hear, “your baby doesn’t have a heartbeat,” an image of an endless, empty road appeared. The future that we had so vividly imagined with Maeve now manifested itself as an empty highway, diminishing into a single point far off on the horizon, heading towards an uncertain destination that seemed impossibly far away.
Life itself without Maeve seemed impossible.
The imagery of the lonely road brought me back to my time training for triathlons with Team in Training, the charity fundraising & endurance sports coaching arm of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
Life for kids (and adults) battling with leukemia and lymphoma seems pretty impossible at times. The idea that determined people, working together, can lift these ailing people up and offer them research and resources towards a cure is tremendously healing for everyone involved. I am incredibly grateful for the two seasons that I raised money and competed with Team In Training. As I sat in the hospital on March 4 and thought of how impossible life seemed, I was reminded of the triumph over what once seemed like an insurmountable goal of finishing an Ironman triathlon. That goal was only achieved after thousands of miles training in the pool and on impossibly endless roads; roads such as the one dancing around in my head that night.
I wouldn’t be an Ironman without the Team In Training coaches who were there for me every step of the way, and I want to offer the same support to you.
Miles with Maeve humbly borrows the formula of endurance-coached fundraising and applies it to benefit families struggling to find possibility after the loss of a child or pregnancy. You can make an important difference in a hurting family’s life by raising money for causes which provide grief counseling, keepsakes, remembrance photography, and burial gowns, all while reaching your own personal endurance milestone.
-Maeve’s Dad (Garrett)
