Well, we’re less than 4 weeks out from the Fargo Marathon and our Fargo Fitness Challenge on Facebook has been a great success. While we hit 70 fans and at least 32 confirmed runners, I have a feeling that it’s impact is going to be much larger than that.

Let’s just take a look at my immediate family for an example. The Selvig clan has slowly grown into a running family. My father was a runner before the boom and as a result, is a little broken down. His running has been limited (by physicians, not him) but has sought the help of a trainer and will running the 5K. While it took a little work on my dad, my mom was “gung ho” from the beginning. She’s always been in shape and a dare anybody to stick with her exercise schedule. My sister and brother-in-law will be running the 5K and 1/2 marathon with me and I talked my cousin and his wife to join the family reunion run. Now, to top it off…my 85 year old grandmother wants to walk the 5K. 85!!!

Side note: there will be over 20 people staying at my parents place that weekend!!!

For those of you that lost count, thats 8 fair-skinned Norwegians that will be hitting the streets of Fargo, ND – all in the name of fitness and health. It didn’t take a whole lot of encouragement. It was more infectious than anything. People get excited if your truly excited and motivated to do something.

Sometimes we keep to ourselves because we don’t want to drown a conversation with our running stories. I challenge you to dangle the bait the next time your in a group of nonrunners and see who takes the bait. You never know whose life you could change by introducing them to running.

RMFR

Believe it or not, ORB is officially 1 year old. Time has gone by so fast that it’s actually 1 week and 1 year!!! Who would have thought that 1) I would have found time to keep providing content to this website (181 posts) and 2) have enough things to write about!!!

What originally started as a place to write down the many random thoughts that passed thru my brain while running has now taken on many forms:

• Spirituality – After reading “Running the Spiritual Path” by Roger D. Joslin, I committed my time running to giving that time back to God. What better way to spend hours of solitude than sharing that time praying and meditating?
• Runner Safety – Finding myself running early in the mornings, I saw many runner’s in danger on our roadways. It has been a goal of mine to share what I’ve learned and read so that many more runner’s will be more visible while running. It went so far as Troy’s post on “Dexting” getting him interviewed in Runner’s World for Liz Robbins’ article Collision Course.
• Encouraging Others towards Fitness – With the creation of the Fargo Fitness Challenge, I’ve now embarked on another passion, encouraging others to take up running. I know what running has done for my health and if I can get one person off the coach and back into fitness, I’ll consider this one a success.

I would personally like to thank the nearly 3,500 people who have come to this site from over 50 countries and every U.S. state. To the many friends that I have met here, I’m glad that this site has been a conduit for some really great stories and friendships that span the globe.

Who knows what the future holds but if it’s anything like the last year, it’s anybody’s guess!!!

RMFR (also another thing that came about over the last year and my proudest accomplishment)