On July 13, Lola Garcia of Port Hueneme, CA, suffered a stroke that left her paralyzed from the neck down in a quadriplegic state, unable to breathe on her own.
Due to the family’s lack of health coverage, treatment expenses reached well over a million dollars. This did not include the need for the family to remodel their home and purchase a car for Lola’s transportation.
In response to this, I initiated the project, “Laps for Lola,” which took place from Sept. 21 through Sept. 30.
This 10-day challenge involved me running multiple laps per day in the Rock Canyon / Provo Peak area of the Wasatch Mountains to bring attention to and raise funds for Lola’s treatment.
Each day, I set a goal of at least two 15.5-mile laps, each climbing close to 7,500 feet in elevation. Within each lap, I summited Provo Peak, one of the few 11,000+ ft peaks in Utah’s Wasatch Range. My daily goal was 31 miles and 15,000 feet of elevation gain and loss.
While each mountain I climbed pales in comparison to the mountains Lola and her family faced, I hoped this symbolic gesture would serve as a way to show our support for her in her climb.
