Now when Haefele hears that someone is thinking about trying a first 5K but is worried about finishing or belonging, she encourages them to take the risk. “I tell them the story about my first 5K, how afraid I was, and how it literally changed my life. If I can, I will offer to go with them,” she says. “I like to throw in John Bingham’s quote, ‘The miracle isn’t that I finished, it’s that I had the courage to start.’ I get weepy when I see that. If you can just find that little bit of courage that you need to start, it will change everything.”
