A few weeks ago I shared on my Instagram that I am a 2018 Books Run Happy Ambassador! I’m so honored to be a part of this amazing team this year and truly LOVE the company as well as the quality of their clothing and shoes! You may notice I wear the Brooks Levitate, Brooks Launch, and Brooks Hyperion very often during my training. I also love the Brooks Glycerin and Ghosts as well. The partnership just felt very natural so it was a no brainer to me when I accepted to be a part of of the 2018 team!

Brooks Running has many amazing professional athletes on their team, but one of the most inspiring is Gabe Grunewald. In case you aren’t familiar with Gabe’s story, here is a quick video that shares her story:

Gabe has been a professional runner for Brooks for 8 years, but during those 8 years she has been fighting a much bigger battle. She was first diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma during her college years at the University of Minnesota. While the battle has caused many periods of being unable to train, she has continued to compete through several periods of remission even going on to win the 3,000-meter run at US Indoor Nationals in 2014.

“Brave Like Gabe” has become the phrase behind Gabe’s story as a professional athlete and cancer patient. Gabe has been incredibly brave to continue training even when many doctor’s warned her that her professional career may be over. Gabe has set up a non-profit organization and is launching a website in early March. Her goal is to fundraise for research about rare cancers. She wants to use her positive experience with a immunotherapy clinical trial to help decrease the stigma surrounding clinical trials.

As a way to acknowledge Gabe’s extreme bravery and perseverance, Brooks is asking individuals to donate their miles to her. How do you do that? Easy!

Download and print off this PDF. Record your miles in the document. Then share your miles on social media using the hashtag #BraveLikeGabe.

Gabe can teach us all a lot about what it means to be brave. To persevere even through the toughest challenges without comparing yourself to anyone else.

So, who is with me? Let’s dedicate our miles and be #BraveLikeGabe