1,776 Miles for Minnesota

Last year, we trudged 500+ miles from West Virginia to Nashville.

We were almost wrapped up with the walk and we said, "let's do Minnesota next year." We started eye balling north to south, east to west...and we landed on something different.

We landed on, "we got to go bigger". Walking around the entire perimeter of Minnesota (1776 miles in the 250th year of the USA!!). Leaving sometime in July and finishing up sometime in October. I will be with my teammate Jason Lennox, some Cadre peeps, and those who said they can't wait to walk some legs of the journey with us. Beyond pumped.

This was all prior to the events in Minnesota over the past few weeks/month.

Sometimes, you just got to take a moment and pause. This state has been through so much in the past 5-10 years. A LOT. If you live here, you know exactly what I am talking about. The division is real. The pain is real. The frustration is real. The "why" is real. It feels like things keep happening in our backyard and I think everyone is exhausted, saddened, heartbroken, angry, etc. Me too.

But, this state and the people are resilient and they show up.

This will all come together, I promise.

What I learned over the years doing misogis is when you do crazy things you must have a "why" or you will quit when it's hard. OR, you start questioning yourself, "what the hell am I doing?"

For example, when I ran 107.6 straight miles in 2023...I did it for the 107K that lost their lives to opioid addiction that year. This why got me through it. The folks that I even had the privilege to meet supporting Northstar Behavioral Health and the behavioral health space. It matters and continues to matter.

This year...I'm walking and running for my peeps of Minnesota. I literally can't wait to do this walk and talk to many of you around this great state with some of the most incredible people. This is personal.

When it becomes personal, you never quit.