A Woman in NE Runs 137 Miles Across Maine for a Great Cause

As I read this article from runnersworld.com about Katie Spotz, a Member of the Maine Coast Guard, I was surprised at how it inspired me.

We read about individuals doing amazing feats of endurance, like competing in an Ironman competition or doing one of these monster runs and I usually am left feeling like "what am I doing with my life?"

But Katie Spotz’s story was different.

Katie is no stranger to challenges. When she was just 21, she swam the length of the Allegheny River (all 325 miles) in 2008, according to runnersworld.com, so extreme endurance events are part of her DNA. She has many challenges under her belt such as marathons, and the list goes on and on.

Last summer she took on the challenge of completing a 137-mile run across Maine and used her run to raise money for clean water initiatives, the runnersworld.com article stated. She also used her own hands to help build a water project for harvesting rainwater in Kenya.

At this point in her story, I was like, "Wow, I just sit around and eat pie and watch Netflix" but I continued to read on.

What really got me was Spotz knows that some have read about her feats of endurance and she tells runnersworld.com: "I would not have run 137 miles if I never ran one mile… every mile is worth celebrating.  Some people say, ‘Oh, I could never do that,’ and my answer would be, 'Well, I thought that too.'"

My take away from the feature in runnersworld.com about Katie Spotz is yes, she is a remarkable woman but she is grounded and has an important message that you don’t need to run marathons to feel a sense of achievement, every small mile you run, every charity you help makes a difference.

She made me feel proud of my powerwalking along Hampton beach for 30 minutes.  I may never compete in an Ironman, but I am enough.  I did not think that was going to be my takeaway from this article about the remarkable Katie Spotz.

Keep running, Katie, you are an inspiration in so many ways.