- December 25, 2024
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Nancy Freeman said she had to fight back tears. Watching the scene unfold, I brushed away a ceaseless stream of sweat cascading from my bangs down my face.
As the Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics meandered its way up SR-100 on its way back to the Town Center Publix, Freeman — commandeering her 11-year-old son Derek in a large black stroller with one hand — grasped firm hold of the torch with the other.
“Oh wow, for me, it’s great to support the Special Olympics, especially since my son has Cerebral Palsy,” Nancy Freeman said. “I started running because I wanted to run the race with him.”
Derek will start playing flag football through the Special Olympics later this spring, but he’s not the only athlete who benefitted from Saturday’s event. About 70 runners and 15 Special Olympians took to the 2.8-mile course that started at Publix, went down Belle Terre Parkway, turned onto 100, and sliced through the Target parking lot before looping back. That number included me, but shhh! I didn’t sign up.
When I got up Saturday morning, I had no machinations of running. I set my alarm for 8:50 a.m., snoozed it four times until 9:30, and then threw on a Hollister polo and a pair of jeans. And yes, I laced up the Sperry’s that, in an upset, reprise their role from last week’s column.
But I’m glad I ran, glad I schlepped along the company Rebel T3i and 70-200 and probably just looked like an all-around joker, an absolute show. A few people good-naturedly gibed that I wasn’t wearing proper running attire. Hey, y’all weren’t in very proper reporting attire!
While running (let’s be transparent, this was more of a walk), I met people like Anthony Burroughs, a job coach with the Trails program that operates out of Indian Trails Middle School. The Trails works with Individuals with Disabilities who have run their course in the school system.
And I had the pleasure of chatting with one of those kids, 21-year-old Dale Marchetta. Marchetta has played soccer in the Special Olympics for more than a decade. To him, the day’s highlight was supporting the law enforcement personnel and firemen who were, in turn, actually there to support him.
Sheriff James Manfre noted that he was still on the mend from 5K he ran last week, but he rode the entire course on bike Saturday. Manfre feels a special connection with the athletes, as his sister-in-law suffers from Down Syndrome.
“We’re trying to highlight the Special Olympics throughout our community,” Manfre said. “We like to support it from a monetary and just a Sheriff’s Office standpoint.”
And props, to the people who readily wolfed down post-run baked ziti and pizza pies provided by Mezzaluna. I would’ve thrown up.
