150 Owls to swoop in on Broad Street Run

This year, my Broad Street Run career celebrates its 14th anniversary. I first ran America's largest 10-miler in 2003, and have run it every year since. Back then, Broad Street was left open to traffic on the northbound side once runners passed City Hall. That's absolutely unfathomable today.

For me, the Broad Street Run is more than a run. It melds a social aspect, and fosters pride in Philadelphia and a sense of community – particularly among my fellow Temple University runners.

Shortly after becoming a professor of risk management at Temple's Fox School of Business, I organized a team of my students and some alums who had run together in 2009.  That team had 15 runners; the following year, we had 25. In 2011 we learned Temple Police had a team, and we joined forces, using the Broad Street Run as an opportunity to raise money for charity. Our risk management program has a student organization, Gamma Iota Sigma, which annually chooses a charity for which it collects funds year round. That particular year our charity was the Gift of Life House, chosen because two of our recent alums had passed away and had made the generous decision to donate their organs. Our running team contributed to Gamma's gift, and raised enough money to have a room at the Gift of Life House be renamed after our alumni.

By word of mouth, our team continues to grow each year.

This year's team of 150 runners is our largest. We meet on Temple's campus in the morning, take a bus to the start, wear a team shirt during the Broad Street Run, and then meet back on campus for a post-race barbeque. We raised more than $4,300 this year, another high-water mark. We achieved that total in part due to a generous donation from Ivory Ella, a charitably minded apparel company owned by one of my former students and 2015 Fox School graduate.

I run Broad Street to engage with current students, and reunite with former ones. I run to partner with my friends on the Temple Police force, those who keep our campus safe. I run to build bonds. I run because the amazing people who organize the race continually embrace and support our team. And because running 10 miles through the heart of Philadelphia, the city in which I was born and raised, is always a treat.

And I run because our fundraising totals are more important than the numbers I clock when I cross the finish line.

Michael McCloskey, an avid runner, is an assistant professor of Risk, Insurance, and Healthcare Management at Temple University's Fox School of Business.

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