The 44th Annual St. Jude Run from Memphis, Tennessee, to Peoria wrapped up on August 2nd. This remarkable 465-mile event unites communities to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. This year, St. Jude Runs raised $1,557,840 during the telethon, bringing their 2025 fundraising total to $6,508,376.
Monmouth-Roseville Jr. High counselor and St. Jude runner Wendy Anderson shares what the 465-mile journey entails:
“It’s relay style. It’s 465 miles back from Memphis, Tennessee to Peoria, Illinois and there’s two teams, a blue team and a gold team. I’m on the blue team and the teams takes eight hour segments. Now that’s not to say I’m running for those eight hours, but when the blue team is on, we sign up for run segments, and so however many times you want to sign up to run. But with that being said, every 45 minutes to an hour, I’ll say that we switch runners. You are required to be out of the motorhome cheering those runners in. So that eight hours you’re constantly back and forth. Well you’re running, which keeps you active as well. Then you’re eight hours off that the gold team is on. You’ve got to fill up the RVs. You’ve got to drive down the road where you’re going to take over in eight hours. You’ve got to eat. You’ve got to have our run meeting. So sleep is very limited.”
For more information, check out St. Jude Runs on Facebook or visit their website at stjuderuns.org.
