Why I Run United: Chris Ott, Team Jeep

I was a runner in high school. I took a long break from it after college when I started working full time. Now, I’ve been at Stellantis for seven years, and even though I became aware of Run United in the past few years, I didn’t know a lot about it.

Last year, I decided to join Team Jeep. Initially, I wanted to improve my health. I thought of it as a way to be accountable and encourage myself to run more. Through the help of my team and sponsors, it became clear our mission was much greater than that. We say it all the time on Team Jeep, it’s for the kids.

Our primary focus is getting kids the supplies they need to have a great start to the school year. We are getting the word out to our networks of family, friends and colleagues. It provides me endless opportunities to connect with people. Our shared goal is to positively impact as many kids as possible.

I’m addicted to checking the OneCause feed; it was the best encouragement last year. Whenever I got a big donation, I’d think, “100 bucks? That’s awesome, that’s above and beyond!” And the next day, I’d go out and run a couple miles and I’d make sure to put it on the feed. I love that the feed collates the donation with the runs, so you can see it’s an all-around effort.

On Team Jeep, it’s competitive in that we have many talented fundraisers that go above and beyond in inspirational ways. We have weekly calls that we join with our team T-shirts. It’s one of the work meetings I most look forward to because people can be themselves. It’s genuine.

Run United was a big reason I was encouraged to think about running a marathon. During my first two months of fundraising and activity last year, my sister signed up for a marathon and I went to support her. Watching her made me participate more seriously in Run United and I made it my personal goal to run the marathon with her.

I’m still not convinced I’m going to be ready but Run United is going to help push me to that goal. I’m challenging myself to complete the marathon in October while fundraising for the United Way. Go TEAM JEEP!

United Way for Southeastern Michigan’s fifth annual Run United Virtual Marathon will support students in our region, helping them take on the school year with school supplies, books, and access to out-of-school time programming. Participants are challenged to log 26.4 miles from August 12 to September 13. Through One Cause, friends, family and teammates can view their progress and virtually cheer them on.