Unbound Trailblazer April Arnold and her daughter, Adalynn, hold a photo of their sponsored friend, Maria, from Guatemala.

I first started running out of desperation to lose weight from having my daughter. It was a struggle.

I ran in my basement on a treadmill so no one could see me, although at that point it was a lot more walking than running. I slowly built up my endurance and began to run more than I walked. I still remember the first time I completed a 5K on my treadmill. I was so proud of myself because I never thought I would do one. I ran in high school, but I was a sprinter, so I didn’t run more than 200 meters.

When my mom asked me to do a 5K with her, I reluctantly signed up. I was nervous. I never would have thought I would love it and become addicted to group races. It’s a lot more fun to run outside with hundreds of people than alone on my treadmill.

After logging several 5K runs under my belt, I heard about the Unbound Trailblazers through a breakfast meeting we had at work. I really liked the idea of adding a purpose to my runs. It also made me want to challenge myself. So I joined as a Trailblazer and set up my fundraising page. I decided to run the Heartland 30K series, which is three 10K runs in three weeks.

I’d never run a 10K before, so this was going to be a challenge, but I felt like I had a lot of support behind me. Getting postcards from Unbound with words of motivation was just what I needed on tough days.
Keep reading