GIVING BACK: DOING SOMETHING BIG

RUNNER’S WORLD

Dave McGillivray and the Transcontinental Relay Embracing Kids

Dave McGillivray is a charity runner. Please reach down and hold onto your knee that is jerking in reaction, dismissing him as an under-prepared glory-seeker using the sport to support an unrelated cause, who will likely never run again. Charity runners have earned a bad rep, some of it deserved, but there are many exceptions. They aren’t all looking for someone to pay their way to an exotic locale or for a back-door entry to the Boston Marathon.

True, McGillivray has run Boston for a charity. He did it blindfolded, to experience what running blind is like (the charity was the Caroll Center for the Blind). He trained for three months with the blindfold and finished in 3:14. In total, he has run Boston 33 consecutive times as a competitive runner who loves the sport, the last 17 of those in the evening after finishing his duties as Boston’s technical director, and later race director.

On May 25, 2004, he ran the Boston course again, as the last 26 miles of a relay across the country with 10 friends called TREK USA: Transcontinental Relay Embracing Kids.

The relay was an anniversary run, celebrating McGillivray’s first charity event: a solo cross-country run in 1978 from Medford, OR, to Medford, MA. McGillivray recalls two elements that inspired that run. First, his burning desire to do something no one, or few, had ever done before. Second, and more specifically, a friend biked across the country, prompting McGillivray to conclude, "If he can bike it, I can run it," which he says now was, "of course, ludicrous." But he was 19 at the time, just graduated from high school, and didn’t know any better. Four years of research, planning and training later—including a 10-day, 400-mile unsupported run from Boston to Rochester, NY—and he was ready.

And the charity aspect? From his office in the John Hancock tower, he could see into Fenway Park’s right field, where there was a sign saying, "Help Make a Dream Come True, Support the Jimmy Fund." He recalls thinking, "If I’m going to go all this way, make this monumental effort, maybe I can raise a few pennies."

In the end, he estimated that he raised 150 million pennies, but admits that no one is sure, as all funds went directly to the Jimmy Fund—none was used to support his run or tied to the run. He would have supported it all himself, but at the last minute, the low-budget affair was sponsored by a local shoe company, Pro-Specs.

After his run, McGillivray began to think, "If I can do this, and help people through it besides, maybe I can continue." He did another long-distance run, from Florida to Boston, also for the Jimmy Fund, and in the company of wheelchair athlete Bob Hall. He did a number of other runs, like a 24-hour, 120-mile tour of Boston, finishing in Foxboro Stadium, and began to develop both a habit and a philosophy for them.

Motivations

McGillivray, now founder and president of Dave McGillivray Sports Enterprises, Inc. (DMSE), which provides race management expertise around the country, says the motivation and purpose of his personal charity events are threefold:

1) Personal. He readily, and refreshingly, admits that the first motivation for his runs is selfish. Part of it is for the enjoyment of doing big, difficult things because he can. And part of it is for ego: "Ego is not a four-letter word," he says, and he opines that building one’s ego is both valid and necessary.

2) Philanthropic. He raises money for those who are less fortunate, using fund-raising as a means of giving back to the world in gratitude for what he can do.

3) Motivational. McGillivray’s M.O., he states, has always been to "motivate people to never underestimate themselves," to inspire them to believe that "it can be done"—whatever they dream of doing.

The latter two of these motivations are included in the official statement of TREK USA’s mission: "dedicated to helping kids who are being treated for cancer and related diseases, as well as aiding healthy children who are learning the value of sports for their physical and emotional development." The first of the motivations comes out in statements like this from team member Paul McGovern: "The reason I am involved with TREK USA is that I needed to have a new running goal or pursuit in my life. This relay certainly provides that for me." Or this from Tom Licciardello’s journal on the last day of the journey: "While we have been congratulated for our sacrifice, we have gained more than we have paid."

Making It Happen

Licciardello, in fact, helped inspire the TREK event. He heard McGillivray give a speech after his first run and invited McGillivray to speak where he taught school. They became friends, and a few weeks later, talking about whether he would do it again (no), McGillivray mused that he might like to do it as a relay someday, and asked Licciardello if he would like to go. A quarter-century later, he finally kept his word.

This cross-country trek began to take its final shape two years ago, when McGillivray was running with another running friend, Josh Nemzer. The relay—which had been tossed around between them for years, with one aborted attempt at the 20th anniversary—came up, and McGillivray recalls deciding then and there to make it happen. He recalls telling Nemzer that, first, they needed two years to plan and train for it, and second, they needed to personally fund it, not make it dependent on sponsors. Each of the 10 team members ponied up an initial $500 to get it off the ground before they got adequate sponsorship to cover the rest.

As in the initial journey 25 years ago, 100 percent of charity donations went to the five children-related charities. Says McGillivray, "I wouldn’t ever want to take $5 from someone in Iowa, who is giving it for kids with cancer, and then use it for gas."

Kids Connection

One of the key ways that TREK USA gave back to the sport, in addition to supporting greater societal causes, was through their educational programs with schools around the Boston metropolitan area. The idea was to encourage kids to participate in fun fitness activities while following the TREK team across the country. Every 15 minutes of exercise during the "Track the TREK" program equaled one TREK Mile. The kids charted their progress along the TREK team’s route on a wall map in their classrooms. Teachers were encouraged to link the trip with academic disciplines, such as studying geography, history, and weather patterns along the route.

Licciardello reports that Sheri Vigeant’s fourth-grade class at Brookside Elementary School in Dracut, MA, "got into it so much that they beat us across the country, ran down to Florida, circled back to Ohio and joined the team coming in, for their second time." Licciardello and other team members spoke to nearly all the 1,700 students in the program before and after the relay. After the trip, he says, "When I went back to the schools, you would have thought I was a rock star."

John Laverty, assistant principal at Federal Furnace Elementary School in West Plymouth, MA, says that the TREK program really captured the students’ attention: "Every day when they got off the bus you’d see large groups of kids stopping at the bulletin board, seeing where they were, what the weather was like there, what was happening."

Looking Back

As for the run itself, McGillivray says, "On all accounts, it was a successful journey. We raised the funds we set as a goal, we finished the run on schedule, no one got hurt." Comparing this time to the first, he says that for him there were no difficult moments or stretches—of course, he only had to run 15 miles per day this time, in five-mile increments, as opposed to 40–50 per day, and his pace averaged 8:30 per mile, as opposed to 7:15 in 1978. But, he reports, there were different difficulties. The first time, he was a kid with no responsibilities, just putting one foot in front of the other. This time they were all adults, with an average age of about 50, with jobs to keep, programs to run, and families to care for. In fact, McGillivray and his wife had a baby girl only four days before he flew to California to start the trip.

Licciardello summed up well what the trek meant to the team, writing before the run, "If a person is really lucky, he may get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to tackle a Herculean personal challenge, or maybe raise a lot of money for those in need, or live an experience few could ever dream . . . to get to do all three with nine of the nicest guys in the world takes my breath away." And after, "Perhaps one of our greatest rewards was the knowledge that we may have motivated some people to do more with their lives. One of our goals was to be good examples for the school kids and get them to be more active. According to many of the emails we have received, we may have encouraged a few adults as well."