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I am Slytherin, I am a Hogwarts Runner.

Hi y'all,



Today I want to talk about my running club (and the best house ever!) and why I feel that running races in the virtual world has been one of the most friendly experiences I have had in running. As y'all know I am an addicted event runner and I run at least 10 IRL races each year, so the motivation to run has always been there and yet...when I came across a post on -A year of Running - by someone who was talking about the Half Blood Prince Half Marathon my heart jumped. An actual Hogwarts Running Club?? Perfect for a Potterhead like me. I had to find out more and so I checked out the website and decided right away to join my first ever virtual race and run the Half Blood Prince Half marathon. I had been sorted on Pottermore before and at that time I was sorted into Slytherin (not at all to my surprise) so I joined Slytherin even though the newest version of Pottermore mistakenly put me in Ravenclaw. I found out just a little later that there's a whole bunch of SlytherClaws in my house.

Now why am I so happy with my fellow runners and Hogwarts Running Club? Let's begin with the amazing work we get done just by running events. As a Hogwarts Runner you can earn points for your house and at the end of the year the points decide which house wins the house cup. How? You log miles on Charity Miles each time you go out for a walk, run, bike ride etc. On the app you join both your house team for that year and Hogwarts Running Club team. That way  HRC can see how many miles are done by each house AND your energy gets transferred into actual cash by sponsors donating money per mile to a charitable organization of your choice. A few months ago the ALS association joined Charity Miles and as most of you know by now my beautiful mother is dying from bulbair ALS. Raising money for scientific research on ALS has never been more easy. But that is my personal goal. We all have our own organizations and the list on the app is enormous so there's always a good one to get up and active for. You can even make your own team next to your house's and the HRC one. Your runs will automatically log in all teams you have registered for.

Running my house towards the win this year is just one of the reasons I love my club. Another reason is the tremendous feel of community whenever a new race is announced. We all want all members to do well on their own merrits. How does it work? You register for a race, you pay for your medal and maybe even the event shirt and when the time comes you run to earn your bling. The fun thing about this is that you are running the event at any given time and place and still you feel like you are part of something big because you are not doing it alone. Somewhere on this orb we call home someone else is running that run too. The medals are the best I have ever seen and they are the reward waiting for you upon completion of your task.

The points you earn for your house at Charity Miles will create money for a charitable organization and the proceeds of the events goes to a selected charity for that specific event. Next to the events there are direct impact challenges which helps your local and smaller organizations in their cause. Those DIP's are registered as points towards your house's total. All in all our runclub really does make a change in the muggle world. I love how this makes the muggle world a little better each and every time I set out for a run.

Not only do I love my runclub but I absolutely love being a Slytherin and I belong in that house. Some of you might think that Slytherin is 'the bad house' but it is not. If you truely believe that Slytherin consists only of dark wizzards with a pure-blood idea for Hogwarts than you need to read all the books again. I am a true Slytherin not because I am dark wizzard, but because of the traits all Snakes (Slytherins) have in common:

"Extreme Loyalty to Friends and Allies, Very Clever, Wit, Lots of Ambition, Intelligence, Resourcefulness, Cunning, Willing to Bend Rules, and Lots of Self Preservation. Notes: a good example of Slytherin qualities in action for good was Snape." (https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/slytherin-qualities)




Most (if not all) of my friends will attest to all of the above within the person that is me. You simply do not mess with the people I love. It takes me a long time to truely trust people but once I do I am loyal to the core and I will come to your aid even if I haven't heard from you or seen you in ten years. The once I do trust are the ones I cut a lot of slack but hurt me one time too many and you will lose my loyalty for ever. Once that door is closed it will never open again. It takes a long time for me to fully trust a person so if you betray that trust than you will experience my venomous bite.

Once I have set my mind to something there is nothing that can stop me from getting what I want. Rules are made to aid me in my quest and if I have to slightly bend them in order to clear my path than I will.  I belong in Slytherin because this quote could easily have been mine:

"Don’t tell a Slytherin what they can’t do, because they’ll instinctively and immediately find away to prove you wrong." (https://www.tumblr.com/search/slytherin%20qualities)

Hogwarts Running Club has helped me in my quest to run more, be a better person, raise money for ALS and Slytherin is my home. I whole heartedly hope that you will join my amazing runclub. So please check us out right here: Hogwarts Running Club and when you're at it download this amazing app and start logging miles for a charity of your choice Charity Miles Be the change!!

This is my first year in Slytherin and I am running as much as I can to log all the miles I can manage. SlytherWIN will bring that house cup home!

That's it for now, until we read again,
Love, Marlies


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