WASHINGTON — Step-by-step and mile-by-mile a 29-year-old woman is working to uplift others with her hefty mission that involves 29 marathons -- two of which are in the DMV.
Summer Willis, who is from Beaumont, Texas, is the founder of Strength Through Strides, a nonprofit that was started just a few months ago to help girls and women overcome trauma. Starting on Sept. 16, which was her birthday, Willis started her ambitious journey to run 29 marathons around the world within one year.
And though she likes to run, she says this isn't something she started until she became a mom, and it was a way to get out of her home and enjoy some outside time in nature.
"It wasn't the running that necessarily captivated me," Willis said. "It was just challenging my mind and myself, like, okay, I walked a mile today. Can I run a mile today? Well, can I do two? And so I think that running marathons is just a really exciting way to see what you're truly capable of."
With this captivating spirit, Willis is hoping to help women achieve extraordinary feats because even when they don't realize it, she said, they are strong. This thought process started for her because she was a victim of sexual assault while she was in college.
"Although I shoved it down and never really confronted it, I became a mother and a wife, and I just realized I never recovered from it. So this year was just a mission just personally for me to show myself like, no, you are strong. He can't take that away from you," Willis said with determination in her voice. "You can do hard things and then as I started telling women about it, people would start telling me their journey of sexual assault."
People have also told her their story of domestic violence, not just sexual assault. Through the organization, there are four core things that they do to try to help people.
- Money is being raised for a women's retreat to provide a get together to be in a community with others and work to heal together, as well as find friends that understand what they are going through.
- Developing a Domestic Violence Emergency Fund for women who can't leave their home because they don't have the means to.
- Money is also being raised for counseling for women.
- Supporting women who are also hoping to take on a challenge like Willis -- whether they want to run a marathon or row across the Atlantic -- to help showcase them as strong individuals.
"We just want people to feel like they're superheroes, too," Willis said.
So far, the organization has raised around $50,000 of their $290,000 goal. They have been able to do this through multiple methods, such as shirts they are selling -- which all have a special message. In addition to the marathons, there is a mini documentary series that releases with each race -- aka 29 podcast episodes. In each there are guests, and quotes from them displaying hope and resilience are written on the shirts. She has even talked to 'Marathon Goddess' Julie Weiss in one of the episodes.
At the end of October, Willis said she had been training for four months -- which is just four months after she gave birth -- and said she was already envisioning the finish line at the Marine Corps Marathon in D.C. The race which took place on Oct. 29 had a special place in her heart for multiple reasons. The nation's capital is where she met her husband, and now she would be returning with her young sons and recreating those memories. Secondly, she said she had heard from other runners it was an incredible experience -- from skydivers coming down to military bands playing.
After completing the Marine 50K, the largest ultramarathon in the country, and having time to reflect, Willis wrote in an Instagram post: "After the first mile, I was ready to give up. Exhausted, battling a cold, running on a mere few hours of sleep, 31 miles seemed an impossible feat. But then, I remembered my WHY."
After tackling this milestone, she has so many more to go. She even plans to do seven marathons in seven days across seven continents. Willis is hoping to also tackle a couple of world record attempts. And as a Texan, one of her personal goals is to tackle the negative 30 degree temps in Antarctica. Willis also has plans of making it back to the DMV for another marathon during her one-year journey.
After the 29 marathons are over, the mission will not end.
"I just hope that this continues to grow into a community where it's good news and we can take something bad and turn it into something good," the survivor said.
For people hoping to take on a risk, big challenge, or just the day -- Willis said there are times we all hit rock bottom, but she has since realized we can all be limitless.
"We can dream big," she said with not just a smile on her face, but in her eyes. "We have the power to get ourselves out of there through finding an A team of people that love us by telling us, you don't have to be at rock bottom. You can crawl out. You can be like, who you want to be, so just believe in yourself. And I think we all feel like we can be extraordinary. We just have to let ourselves we have to stop putting the limits on ourselves."
Willis said she believes her need to help women stems in part because of her mom, grandmother, and her great grandmother, who are all still alive, have all gone through abuse at the hands of others at some point in their lives.
"I'm like the fourth generation of women who something like this has happened to, and I know it's still happening," she said. "It's been close to my heart, and it's just like, if we can all come together to raise awareness and to help those that were already affected and to believe."