Jackson Tegan is a 7^th grader at Linus Pauling Middle School. At first glance he is a normal guy, albeit a Duck fan in Beaver County. But once you start talking to him you realize he is not a normal guy, he is quite amazing. While talking to him, there were moments I wanted to either bow to him or interrupt him and get his autograph. I wouldn't say he is shy, but rather he is humble and modest. When talking about his amazing accomplishments, he is so nonchalant. After the conversation with him, I was truly inspired.

On January 1, 2011 at the Heart of the Valley Running Club's (HOTV) Resolution Run Jackson decided to run every day in 2011. Why might you ask? His answer: to challenge himself and see if he could accomplish a long term goal. So with the support of his parents he came up with a plan. The plan at first was to run at least two miles every day. But after talking with his cross county coach, the plan was revised to at least 1 mile a day. Since he was on the cross country team, his coach felt that it was important to give his body recovery days after hard workouts or races.

But why this goal? Why running?

When Jackson was in 4^th grade his family moved to Corvallis and he started attending Adams Elementary. Thanks to amazing parents, teachers, community members, local businesses and local non-profits Adams Elementary had recently started a program called Adams In Motion (AIM). AIM is a running and walking program at the elementary where children are given the opportunity and encouraged to run or walk a 1/5 mile lap on their recess three days a week. Each lap is recorded and awards are given when certain amounts of miles are reached (10, 20, 30, 40, 50...).

With his mother's encouragement, Jackson started participating in the AIM program. At every opportunity he would log in AIM miles. By the end of the year he had run 113 miles. As a 4^th grader!

Then in 5^th grade, he decided to blow his own record out of the water with a goal of 200 miles. However, he didn't get 200 miles. He got 215 miles! Now a year later, he still holds the record at Adams Elementary for the most miles run in a school year through the AIM program.

So that is how he got started running. But what kept him running every day of 2011? When I asked him this his answer was simple, "I would just say to myself, 'Well I've gone this far, I might as well keep going.'"

Jackson was able to make it through the year without any major injuries that prohibited him from running, but once he got really sick and had a high fever. His grandfather, who is a pediatrician, tried to persuade him to not run. But Jackson wasn't having it. With intense supervision from his mother, who controlled a slow pace on the treadmill, Jackson was able to run a mile on the treadmill to keep the streak alive!

A few times when life got busy, or it slipped his mind to run that day, he would come running out of his room late at night and say, "I forgot to run today!" He would put on his reflective vest and head lamp and head out the door. For safety, his parents would follow behind him in the car with the headlights and taillights flashing. Rain or shine, day or night, Jackson ran his miles.

I have met very few people who are as self motivated as Jackson.  His first goal in 5^th grade was to run 200 miles during the year in the Adams in Motion program. Done! So he had to up the ante. His goal for 2011 was to run every day of the year. Done! And his next goal? Run every day in 2012, keeping his running streak alive for 2 years in a row! And his long term goal? To run track and cross country at U of O. (He was even wearing his U of O shorts during the interview!) With that kind of self motivation and passion, anything is possible.

As a follow up, Jackson was recently awarded the 2011 Junior Achievement Award from the Heart of the Valley Running Club. Nice job Jackson!

If you are like me, you probably have a billion race shirts.  Some fit perfect, but some aren't the right size or they are just too dorky.  A few are sentimental (the race I PR'd, the one I ran with my sister, my first marathon) but don't fit.  I wanted to find a way to save the sentimental ones and figure out what to do with the rest.

Here are some ideas I found...

• Headscarves for Chemo Patients - Chicagoland Head Huggers Halo of Hope will take clean unused race shirts and make head scarves out of them for chemo patients.
• Make a Quilt - Cut the shirts into squares and sew them together, viola a quilt.  Don't sew, no problem the people at Too Cool T-Shirt Quilts will do it for you.
• T-Shirt Pillow - Turn the shirt inside out and sew up the neck hole and the arm holes, flip right side out, stuff and sew up the bottom.
• Wall Art - Cut out the race logo and frame it!  And if you want to take it one step further, get a customized frame and put your race time on it.
• Beanbag chair - Here are some instructions.
• Set a Guinness World Record - The guy in the video got the record for the most t-shirts worn at once.
• Donate them!

What do you do with all your race shirts?

Yesterday Fauja Singh earned himself the title in the Guinness World Records as the oldest person to complete a marathon.  At 100 years old he finished the Toronto Marathon in 8 hours and 11 minutes.  When you watch him run you wouldn't believe he is 100 years old.  He still has a spring in his step.  He proves you are never too old to run!