For Matthew, running is "a pleasant reminder that with patience and practice humans can do just about anything." Read on to see Matthew's reasons for running and his connection to Casey Cares! 

Matthew's history with running began when he "ran cross country in high school and then took a 12 year break from endurance sports after college. I signed up my son for an afterschool cross country program during COVID and started running with him again. He quit the program after a couple months but I kept running."

An often-held sentiment about running, Matthew acknowledges that, "I feel like a member of a cult when I talk about running because I love everything about running. Mostly, I love the feeling of being able to run farther or faster than I thought I could."

When it comes to something Matthew cannot run without, he names his playlists and, of course, his shoes.

"I have curated two Pandora stations for running that I cannot run without. For long easy runs, it's psychedelic pop like Animal Collective or Yeasayer. For harder runs it has to be alt metal like System of a Down or Rage Against the Machine. I also quite literally can't run without shoes, which are usually Hoka Cliftons these days," he says.

Running in Casey Cares 5K is a "no brainer" for Matthew. "I learned about Casey Cares from my neighbor, Erin Ritter, who works with Casey Cares. For me, helping kids is a no brainer, running is a no brainer, and saying "hi" to some animals at the Zoo is definitely a no brainer."

It's a "no brainer" that you should join us on August 5th for Casey Cares 14th Annual 5K/1-Mile Walk at The Maryland Zoo! Sign up here before the t-shirt deadline on July 15th!