From Chris Kaag, Founder IM ABLE
From our Founder, Chris Kaag:
Many of you have participated in Got the Nerve over the years and know the story behind it. For those who signed up for the first time, you need to know how personal this is to me.
I was a healthy, active US Marine at 21 when I was diagnosed with Adrenomyeloneuropathy, a degenerative nerve disorder that eventually took from me my ability to walk. I started Got the Nerve in 2004 as a means of raising funds to research the disease in the hope that there could someday be a cure for me and others who live with it, or will someday in the future. So that funds raised through this race stayed in our community, helping our neighbors, I started the IM ABLE Foundation in 2007.
Our mission is to remove obstacles that prevented people in the mid-Atlantic region from getting active, to enable and empower athletes with physical, cognitive, and/or behavioral challenges. Thousands of athletes with challenges of all kinds have redefined what they thought possible, accomplishing feats they never dreamed they could do.
This race and your participation in it, makes is possible for the IM ABLE Foundation to provide, throughout the entire year, athletic opportunities to people who would otherwise never have them.
- Chris Kaag
Founder, IM ABLE Foundation
