Why Support Running the Keys for Hope
Sebastian Ortiz was like most teenagers at time of diagnosis, a kid in the prime of his life and he did not even know it. He was the middle son of my three boys enjoying his high school experience at Columbus where he was a Mas Scholar and a cross country runner as well. In an instant in October of 2015 that all changed when we heard the words, “your child has cancer”. Unfortunately, after a brutal 14-month battle with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare soft tissue cancer, we lost Sebastian in December of 2016 at the young age of 16 years old.
This is a special route for me & Sebastian. I ran the Ragnar race from Miami to Key West 5 times from 2011 to 2015. The last two with my son Sebastian who, at 14 & 15 years old at the time, was the youngest runner out of over 5000 participants. When he did his first Ragnar in 2014, I joked with him that it was a tryout for him. When he crossed the finish line, we shared one of the greatest memories I have of us together. He asked me, “Dad, did I make the team for next year? I hope I did because this was one best times I’ve had in my life!”. I told him it was an equally amazing experience for me too and that he made the team!
The race will end on Higgs Beach in Key West where he finished the last Ragnar race we ran together.
To learn more about SebastianStrong, the work we do and why we do it, please visit www.sebastianstrong.org.