Dierks Bentley’s Wife Cassidy Running 2017 Boston Marathon for Nashville Charity
Dierks Bentley's wife Cassidy is getting ready to run the Boston Marathon for a second time in 2017, and she's raising money for a worthy Nashville-area cause while doing it.
Cassidy has run the Boston Marathon once before, in 2014, but this year, she and her country-star husband are asking for donations to Safe Haven, a Music City homeless shelter for families. Bentley's "Riser" music video features a woman who used to be homeless, which is how Cassidy was first introduced to Safe Haven.
“At the end, when it gets really hard, I’m going to be thinking about Safe Haven and the people who supported me,” Cassidy tells the Tennessean. Of those who have donated to the cause so far -- nearly $14,000 at press time -- she adds, "I feel total gratitude. It’s incredibly motivating, more so than I thought.”
When Cassidy and Bentley got married in late 2005, she was suddenly living on the then-rising star's hectic schedule. As reported by the Tennessean, although Cassidy joined Bentley out on the road occasionally, the fact that the tour bus was filled with Bentley's single bandmates didn't make for an ideal situation. On her Crowdrise fundraising page, Cassidy explains that she spent time at a Nashville gym to keep herself occupied since she didn't really know anyone.
"I’d played sports competitively and had done plenty of sprints when I was young but had never consistently done distance running. I can remember so clearly how long each of those miles felt, how hard it was to get through them and, the game changer, how different, how much better I felt every time I was done," she writes. "Over the weeks and months and years, I continued to step onto that treadmill, and the miles slowly got a little easier and the runs got longer. I did eventually make some friends, some of whom ran, and they dragged me off the treadmill (that I love) onto the road and trails and into races, until I was transformed into something that I had never imagined I would be: a runner."
Cassidy first worked her way up to a 5K, which was a success, and then set her sights on marathons.
"It’s hard to overestimate how important running has been to me in the last decade. It helped me transition through so many life changes and adjustments, most of all to being a parent. Its given me time to myself that I need but don’t often get," she continues. "It’s been both a meditative exercise and an escape, a way to be more present in my life and also a way to just zone out from it all when I needed to. I owe a lot to running."
Those interested in making a donation to Cassidy's cause can do so through Crowdrise. She's also set up a Facebook page and an Instagram account for those who want to follow her training progress until the race on April 17.
Cassidy isn't the first person with country music connections to run the Boston Marathon: In 2006, Jo Dee Messina ran the Marathon in five hours and 47 minutes. Her time was an hour longer than she'd anticipated, because she injured her knee about halfway through the course.
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