Note from the editor: Meet Dana Casanave–a KT Tape fan who has begun a major undertaking for a great cause.  Read her amazing story and join us in cheering her on!

From Dana Casanave: My name is Dana Casanave and I’m a 29 year old wife, mother and runner from Leesburg, Virginia. This past month I began my extreme challenge to run 52 marathons in 52 weeks.

I am very passionate about running and in 2008 I ran the Marine Corps Marathon for the non-profit organization 25:40, whose mission is to help children in South Africa survive the HIV/AIDS epidemic. I ran for a little boy who had lost both of his parents to AIDS and it was the first time I ran a race for someone else. That race was a life changing event for me and I knew then that I wanted to find ways to use my running for something positive, to help others.

After training hard in 2009, I decided to take on the 52 in 52 challenge. I knew right away I wanted to partner with 25:40 again. As a mother of 3 children myself, I couldn’t imagine if my own children were left orphaned.  Many of the children 25:40 supports have lost or both parents to AIDS and sadly many are HIV+ themselves. 25:40 supports and fosters the creation of orphanages, health clinics, day care centers, school and other entities that are critical to the care and health development of children impacted by AIDS.

I’m calling this journey 52 Beginnings and each of my 52 races will be run for a different child in the Ngqeleni District in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. In 2009, 25:40 identified more than 1,500 children in this region as being orphaned or vulnerable to becoming orphaned. They are working on a multi-year program designed to meet the basic and most essential needs of each of these children. While I’m beginning these marathon races 52 times, I also hope to make a new beginning for each child I’m running for. You can see more about this journey at www.52beginnings.com

I know this year is going to bring a huge set of physical challenges and KT Tape will help get me through. In 2009, while training for my first 24 hour race I injured my Achilles. It was then that my physical therapist introduced me to KT Tape. Like many people I had seen it before on Olympic athletes, but had no idea what a difference it would make for my own running. The day before the race I got taped up with bright pink tape. I had serious doubts as to how well my Achilles would hold up to the hours of running ahead. All through the race people spotted my pink tape and would ask me, “what’s that all about?” I shared with them how KT Tape works to provide pain relief and stabilization. After awhile I started hearing “there’s the pink girl again.” I was amazed at how much of a difference the KT Tape made! I not only ran 82.5 miles that day, winning first place of the women, but I also had no Achilles pain whatsoever! The following day I went back to my physical therapist and instead of getting treatment for my Achilles, I had them work on my quads, which after running 20+ hours were anything but pain free. By the time they were finished I had tape just about everywhere on my legs. I’m sure I looked like someone had done crazy artwork on my legs, but I was hopeful that it would help like it had for my Achilles. Within 24 hours the improvement was astounding! I was walking normally and right back at work. It helped relive the swelling and soreness better than any other kind of treatment I have ever tried before!  So here’s to a year of marathons, and I’m sure a ton of funky KT Tape leg art. I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Thanks so much, Dana, for what you do.

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