It was not your typical 5K.

I did not wake up before 5 a.m.

There was no race bib to wear or safety pins to fumble with.

I didn’t do my standard dynamic stretching routine or pre-race warm-up.

I lined up on the starting line with babies in strollers and kids and adults in wheelchairs. Running shoes were optional.

There were no age group awards, because everyone was a winner.

It was the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s 2016 Muscle Walk, and it was how I began my Saturday morning.

Along with my mom, my two best friends (yes, they are twins) and their kids and parents, we walked.

We walked for families who have muscular dytrophy and related muscle-debilitating diseases that take away everyday abilities we often take for granted, like walking, running, hugging, brushing our teeth, talking and even breathing.

We walked in unity for a cause much bigger and more important than ourselves.

We walked to create a better, brighter future with more hope, treatments and cures.

We walked to defy limits.

It wasn’t a 5K run. It wasn’t a normal Saturday morning long run with friends. But it was a handful of miles that were incredibly important and immensely special. Thank you to all my friends and family who helped me raise $1,000 to support MDA and help kids and adults with muscular dystrophy live longer and grow stronger. If you’d like to make a donation to MDA, check out my fundraising page here.

Tell me about the charities that are close to your heart. Have you ever trained/raced on a nonprofit charity team?