My recent 65-mile eight states in eight days running trip to celebrate my 30^th birthday was arguably one of the most fun, exciting and meaningful weeks of my life. I expected it to be a serious adventure, but what I didn’t expect was the immeasurable support, encouragement, camaraderie and love along the way.

I created stevenjgood.com to simply document my travel, but as the week went by, I realized that the trip and the blog were expressing many human principles and emotions that people enjoy reading and hearing about: giving, charity, challenge, perseverance, accomplishment, camaraderie, friendship and exploration. While I planned the trip as a personal celebration, the trip became more about those who supported me and those who I connected with during the trip. This was awesome.

When I returned to reality a week later, I’m not going to lie, I felt a bit of a void. I was obviously excited to be back home with my wife and dogs, but after that crazy week on the road, it was a weird feeling to be sitting still.  I kept thinking about what I had identified within my initial post as my main goal for the trip.

I hope one person will read about what I’m doing and decide to challenge themselves to accomplish something they think they can’t do.

As I wondered if I had accomplished this, I also began to think about some of the key takeaways from my trip:

• When you challenge yourself to do something for a good cause, more people will care.
• There is serious value in publicly recognizing and thanking those who support you.
• People love showing off their city and highlighting its unique culture, customs, food and landmarks. People also love learning about new cities.
• A good run has many positive benefits, but a run alongside friends has even more.
• I’m glad I had running buddies throughout the trip, because it is really tough to find running routes online that include descriptions, maps, visuals and information about what you’re passing along the way.

Combining my goal with what I learned on the trip, I’ve decided to transition stevenjgood.com to agoodrun.com, a blog that allows others to experience what I experienced during my run. Now, I’m not asking people to run eight states in eight days and travel via Megabus to participate. Rather, it’s an opportunity to go on a good run in your city (or a city that you are visiting). During the run, show us the city’s culture, history, food, and landmarks, thank those who support you in your life with thank you signs and tell us about a cause that you support. I don’t care how big or small the city. The only requirement is that you must be excited to share it with us.

Starting May 1, my goal is to feature one runner a week on the blog or 52 people in its first year.  Who knows, if there is enough interest, I might be able to post more frequently.

Requirements to have your run published:

1. A headshot photo
2. A paragraph personal biography
3. The run must have between five and ten stops along the route.  I don’t care how long or short the run is. At each stop, you must capture a picture of the landmark and in the process thank somebody with a thank you sign.  You must write about why you stopped where you stopped and why you thanked who you thanked. I would recommend that you bring a running buddy along to take your pictures. It is also encouraged to incorporate a good restaurant in that city, either during or after the run.
4. You must donate to your favorite cause prior to the run. I will take your word for it. Within your post, you’ll have the opportunity to write about your cause.
5. You must submit a picture of your route to be included in the post.  This can be done with MapMyRun, RunKeeper, Nike + or Google Maps.  We want other people to be able to run your route!

If you are interested, these are your next steps:

1. Reserve a week for your run to be published – This is the date that your blog post will be published.  You can do the running and writing prior to this date. You only have to run one city but if you’d like you can run multiple cities.
2. Plan your route.
3. Figure out who you will be thanking along the way.
4. Find a running buddy to accompany you.
5. Donate to your favorite cause.
6. Complete your run.
7. Submit your blog post, pictures, route, headshot and bio.
8. Share the post with those who you thanked along the route.

As mentioned, my eight state, eight day run brought with it many positive things that I want others to experience.  I hope to have a lot of fun with this and build a community of people who want to go for a good run that has a positive effect on the lives of others.