How the Blood, Sweat and Tears 5-miler was founded

We had the privilege of timing the Blood, Sweat and Tears 5-miler in Lawn, Lebanon County, last November, and registration opened this month for the 2016 version of this great, unique race that combines miles on local roads and the Lebanon Valley Rail Trail. In the past four years, it has raised $18,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS), and Organizer Tom Garrett, who was treated for leukemia in 2003,  has a great story to tell about how and why he started the race.

Here he is, in his own words:

“I have been involved with the LLS since 2004. I started out as a participant in their Team in Training program. I graduated to cycling coach in 2007. I have done over 30 events for them including 100 mile bike rides along with some half and full marathons. I have also been an active fundraiser for the Society and I now serve on the Central PA LLS Board of Directors.

“I also have done a number of smaller running and cycling events. So as I attended these events, I noticed things that I liked and things I thought could have been better. Since I have done a lot of fundraising for LLS in terms of sub sales and bake sales, I got the notion in my head of trying to hold my own run and incorporate all the ideas I had. I figured since the fall Team in Training season usually ends in late October, holding an event in early November would be ideal in that I already had a built in clientele of runners who would support this run.

“My goal has always been to go slow and build gradually. I am a bit of a control freak so I basically wanted to run the whole thing. So I slowly went through  the motions of finding a venue, a name for the run, t-shirts, advertising and sponsors. I thought I would sooner have a small event that people enjoyed than trying to get big all at once and not providing an exceptional event.

“So we held the first Blood, Sweat and Tears (BST) in November 2012. It went very well. We worked with the local police in establishing a course. Being it is a rural event, we were able to shut down some roads and still utilize the Rails to Trails course, which was an added bonus. Since I know runners like food, we had a bake sale along with Kauffman’s BBQ chicken. We also held a drawing for some prizes.

“The first year was a success and since then, we have held 3 more events. During those three years, we started making some upgrades to the event like online registration, our own website, a DJ, a bounce house for the kids and some special guests. Then in 2015, due to popular demand, we added timing chips. So we basically evaluated each event, solicited feedback and made improvements for the following year.

“Since I have done so many events, I wanted mine to be different. I didn’t want the usual show up, get your t-shirt, run, grab a bottle of water and go home. I wanted people to use this event to help celebrate life and stick around and eat and enjoy all we offered. And the response has been great. We have had great weather all four years and it is very gratifying to see people hang around the finish line cheering others in. Then buying lots of food which really supplements our revenue from the run.

“Last year, we added a second charity, the Emily Whitehead Foundation. Emily, 11, has a remarkable story. In April 2012, she became the first child in history to be treated for cancer using her own re-engineered t-cells. This is cutting edge medical technology and she was a pioneer. She almost died and ended up in a coma for 2 weeks and on life support. Yet she woke up on May 2, which was  her 7th birthday, and was declared cancer-free. She is from the State College area and I have gotten to know Emily and her parents who have now started a foundation to help further fund pediatric cancer research. Both the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh marathons are used as fundraisers for the Foundation and I have participated in both to raise money for Emily.

“We are excited about this year’s run as we continue to tweak it to keep making it better. Runners like the performance t-shirts so this year, we are going with them over the cotton shirts. We are also looking at offering soup after the run for a small fee and coffee before the run. We also hope to have some major sponsors sign on which will help our bottom line. But as usual, we will have a DJ playing music before the run and a bounce house will be available for the kids. Our bake sale gets bigger every year and seems to be as enjoyable, or more so, than the run itself. We are also hoping to get at least 50 items for our prize drawing.

“I think our slow but sure approach is paying off.  Last year especially we had a bunch of new runners who spoke to me after the event and said how much they enjoyed it and hope to bring friends this year. Plus now we have businesses asking me about getting involved. Since this is our fifth anniversary, we are hoping to get the community more involved. I have talked to local leaders, churches and schools about our theme of ‘One Event, One Cause, One Community; Stop Cancer.’  I am hoping they buy into my idea of a one-day community wide effort  to fight cancer.”

We know so many people who have cancer, and friends, family and loved ones we have lost to cancer. We hope that you can get out to run in this fantastic event and support cancer research.