See Essie...See Essie Run
(an overview)
You always recognize her. She's that woman who runs...the one with long braids. You know, that woman who's always in the paper...who carried the Olympic torch for Colorado... who runs on behalf of children, the homeless, education, and AIDS awareness...you know the woman who's always running and running. What's her name?
Okay, maybe you don't know her name is Essie Garrett, but you certainly know her work. She's the tireless, selfless, and boundless ultrarunner who has taken many causes under her wings. Essie's the guardian angel of the less fortunate and forgotten. So, if there's a charity run, you won't have to look far to find her. Don't try to give her money, trophies, or praise when she crosses the finish line either, she's not running for personal gain or glory. Essie's main focus is to help others by raising money so that they won't have to experience the destitution she felt growing up.
Essie's first serious run was a 5K race. She came in last. Seven years later, she won a 700-mile race and raised over $8,000. The recipient was a very needy and grateful Dr. Justina Ford House and the Denver Black History Museum. She began running for AIDS awareness years later, in 1991, after reading how unaware and uninformed minorities were about the disease. She has become a major proponent of the Colorado AIDS project and other AIDS awareness efforts throughout Colorado. Over the past three years, she has run from San Francisco to Denver, Denver to San Francisco, and from Coalville, Utah to Denver to benefit AIDS awareness and prevention.
Essie's dedication to Colorado charities has raised more than a million dollars over the past 17 years. Her efforts provide computers to schools, shelter to battered women, financial aid to families of fallen police officers, to name a few. In July 1996, during the Olympics, she made a 1500-mile cross-country run from Atlanta to Denver to benefit Children's Hospital's HIV Program and a young resident there named Josh Gomes.
On Thanksgiving, she completed her Sixth "Runner's Feat" during which she ran around the state capitol for 48 hours, raising money for the homeless. Essie lets this run serve as a reminder of a Thanksgiving dinner 34 years ago, to which she wasn't invited.
A long list of charities have benefited from her benevolence: American Heart Association, March of Dimes, Curtis Park Community Center, Denver Rescue Mission, Black History Museum, United Way, Make-A-Wish, and Save the Children, just to name a few. She tries to stay clear of organizations whose administrative payrolls eat up donations. So, recent years have seen her catering more to the "grassroots organizations." She now has over 250 charity runs to her credit because there is no limit to what Essie will do for a cause - wind, rain, snow, heat, nothing stops her. In May, Essie spent a weekend by starting a benefit run for MaxFund Animal Adoption center at 6:30 a.m. in Castle Rock that ended at 5:30 p.m. on the dance floor of the Grizzly Rose in Denver where, yes, she did a little line dancing. Then, off to bed? No way. Later that night, well 12 a.m. to be exact, Denver police took Essie to Monument Hill where she began her 50-mile run on behalf of Cop's 'N Kids. And what did she say when the weekend was over? "I'm thirsty." That's why sponsors love to sponsor Essie. She finishes, no matter how fatigued she gets.
So why does Essie run? Well, Essie believes the ability to run is the tool God gave her to do his work. A childhood of hunger, family illness, and nowhere to turn outlined her future of selfless dedication to others in hopes they would not have to suffer as she did. Yet, even as she ran mile after mile, she sometimes wondered if she was running for the benefit of others or away from her unhappy past. A trip to her childhood home last spring led her to some of the answers. Unfortunately, it had taken 17 years for her to get to them in Reisel, Texas, where she not only found some answers, she found the father she hadn't seen for 34 years.
Essie's mother died when she was 16. And in a way, her father died then also because it was at her mother's funeral she and her younger sister, Alma, saw him last. For 34 years, she never bothered to ask anyone why he'd left. The visit home allowed her to pose that question along with many others, fearful of what she would hear -- yet experiencing anticipation with each and every response.
The trip home to Reisel was successful -- reminiscing with aunts and cousins about people whose faces Essie had long forgotten , helped the most. One particular memory answered the question of Essie's charitable nature as one relative recalled the charitable nature of Essie's mother, Ozell. She was often giving away the things her family needed to families who needed them more. She was a woman who asked her children to gather money for the March of Dimes though they had no money of their own.
Essie's Aunt Hallie reconnected Essie to her father by reminding her how much her father loved to run. Another mention Aunt Hallie made attempted to explain why Essie's father ran right out of Essie's life leaving her and her sister helpless. Yet another mention, this one rather bittersweet, informed Essie that her father was alive and living in a town only 500 miles away from Reisel. There was no question: Essie would visit her father. She would figure out what to say once she saw him.
Essie's father, now residing at a west Texas nursing home, is the living link to her childhood -- a link Essie was sure she wanted to rejoin. She was happy to find him. Yes, she asked him for answers and he gave her some, which she accepted. Besides, she had made peace with his abandonment years earlier. What else could she do? Her spirituality required the closure. Now she's working a part-time job just to supply him with a little spending cash. She even visited on Father's Day and had the chance to wish him a "happy" one for the first time in 34 years.
Seeing the poverty of her childhood home, and trying to imagine it even worse 40 years ago, was overwhelming. Yet, it explained why Essie needs so little in her life today.
She sleeps on a mat, rises every day at 4 a.m., spends time in meditation, does some housecleaning, and plays with her four cats and her dogs, who she affectionately named Runner and Ultra-- then follows that up with a brisk run to work. She's a true minimalist. Only the absolute necessities for her. Essie does have a lot of one thing however -- commendations, although she doesn't see them as such. To her, each award and recognition represents the faces of her silent friends -- the ones who reap from what she sows.
Essie's courage, perseverance, and athleticism earned her a well-deserved place in the Sportswomen of Colorado Hall of Fame. She is one of nine women in the world to run 700 miles in only 12 days. She also holds the U.S./North American women's record for running 170 miles in 48 hours. Essie says a strict diet (vegetarian) and a daily exercise regime, keeps her focused. These are practices that have been in her life for many years.
Essie's ability to run and run well has taken years to perfect. Essie taught herself how to be a long distance runner. She now runs with less effort, less physical demand, and less pain. A perfected running style, a disciplined lifestyle, and a style of spirituality that teaches love of self and doesn't allow boundaries or limits, have made her one of America's best ultrarunners.
As a child she took apart and put together just about everything she could get her hands on. Most of us would find the ultrarunning a job in itself, but its just one of the many vocations Essie has under her belt. She also enjoys landscape architecture, carpentry, and writing poetry.
