Brad Kloha didn’t spend his Thanksgiving dashing between the televised Lions game in the living room and the turkey in the dining room like most did Thursday.
Rather, the 29-year-old Central Michigan University employee ran two back-to-back races at Detroit’s Turkey Trot to raise awareness for Alzheimer’s.
Kloha, CMU’s Division Administrator for Enrollment and Student Services just hit the halfway mark of his 100-race goal for a 365-day span to raise money for Run to Remember, a fundraiser he created.
“My Grandma was diagnosed with the disease in 1998,” he said. “We started to see the disease begin to degrade her mind.”
In 2005, Kloha’s grandmother, who lived next door, had begun cooking her stove top stuffing on Thanksgiving when she got up and left for church.
She’d left the pot boiling on the stove and her house caught on fire.
“Eventually, the house was a total loss,” Kloha said. “That day and experience, we realized she could no longer live alone.”
Kloha’s grandmother passed away June 18 of 2011, and in June of this year, Kloha began his personal goal of running 100 races in 365 days to raise a million dollars for the Alzheimer’s Association.
Kloha had the idea last year, when he started getting involved in obstacle races.
“I really wanted to be able to have the chance to combine my love and passion for all these races with a cause that I was extremely passionate about,” he said. “I wanted to try to make a difference.”
Kloha said decided to run to raise awareness for Alzheimer’s because of the impact the disease has had on his family.
Both his grandmother and great-grandmother had been diagnosed with the disease.
Kloha ran the “drumstick double” in Detroit Thursday, completing both a 10k and a 5k.
The set marks races 50 and 51, he said.
By the end of the year, Kloha plans to complete 56 finish the rest of the races before June of 2014.
While a majority of the races have been done in Michigan, Kloha said he’s traveled to New Jersey, Oklahoma, Vermont, Florida, California, Illinois, Ohio and Indiana to complete races.
The athlete has upcoming races in Texas, Nevada and New York, as well as a trip back to California.
Kloha’s website, runtoremember.net, offers fundraising and progress updates, and supporters can pledge a per-race donation, or a one-time donation.
All funds go directly to the Alzheimer’s Association.
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