Is that a bird? Or a plane?

Whenever she travels, Sarah Emerson tries to run a race in her destination city. Invited to visit a friend in Memphis, Tennessee, last year, she signed up for the 2015 St. Jude Memphis Marathon Weekend.

Emerson, who lives in Westbrook, Maine, registered for the race as a St. Jude Hero, committing to raising funds to support the lifesaving mission of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

“I can’t go down there and not raise money and be a Hero,” she said. “That didn’t feel right to me.”

That was only the beginning for Emerson.

“The minute I crossed the finish line, I felt I needed to come back, and I needed to do something more,” she said.

Emerson, 32, has now raised more than $8,000 for St. Jude: She ran up New Hampshire’s Mount Washington in a St. Jude Hero cape; coordinated and ran a 12-hour run around an outdoor high school track; rode an ElliptiGO^® — an elliptical on wheels — on a 190-mile trek from Kennebunk to Bar Harbor, Maine, and coordinated a 5K in her home state for a St. Jude patient named Nicholas, who returned home after completing treatment.

She will also travel to Memphis again this December for the 2016 St. Jude Memphis Marathon Weekend to run as a St. Jude Hero.

“St. Jude is where my passion is, and where I want to focus my energy,” Emerson said.

As a parent, Emerson said her support was inspired because St. Jude treats children from every state and from around the world.

Emerson is also moved by the fact that families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food — because all a family should worry about is helping their child live.

“Once I started learning about St. Jude, I felt that I needed to support it,” she said. “This is the right thing to do. This is how we should be caring for our children — or caring for anybody, really.”

Join Sarah in supporting the kids of St. Jude by signing up for the 5K at the 2016 St. Jude Memphis Marathon Weekend.