For the 6^th year in a row, the Arlington Public Library is coordinating the Book It For Literacy 5K and 1 Mile Fun Run to raise money to support the library's adult and youth literacy programs.

Cary Siegfried, Director of the Arlington Public Library, will be running her fifth Book It 5K this year. She took a moment to share what makes the fun run special to her and offer encouragement to "first-time 5kers" to get out there and run.

"I love everything about the Library's Book-It 5K, but one of the things that I like best is that we've traditionally had it on a Saturday in August. The reason that I like having it in August is that anyone (ok maybe not really "anyone") can run/walk a 5K in April or October in Texas. Doing it in August is hard. And I think that's fitting because for an adult, learning to read for the first time is hard. Learning to speak a new language is hard. So I think it's fitting that we acknowledge and honor what our adult learners are going through by undertaking something that maybe makes us a little uncomfortable for an hour or so! Every year as I'm running, that's what I think about.

Book-It is also special to me because it was the first "official" 5K I ever ran. I had been "off" from running for a few years and when the first Book-It came along I was really nervous about it and I think I did some walking along that way that first time. Since then, I've done a lot more 5K's, a few 10K's, two half-marathons and a marathon. As the teenage girl who pretended to be sick on days that we had to run a mile in high school gym class, I really never expected to do any of those, certainly not the marathon.

I'm a very slow runner. I'll never win any medals, but I finish and that's what's important to me. I hope that this year's race attracts some of those "first-time 5Kers" who are challenging themselves to do something that they've never done before and that along the way they think about those adult learners struggling to learn to read for the first time (and the struggle they went through to admit that they couldn't read), as well as those adults who are taking on the learning of a new language so that they communicate better with their child's teacher or to get a promotion at work. Those adults are the real winners of our race."

Arlington Public Library's Book It for Literacy 5k and 1 Mile Fun Run will be held at River Legacy Park on August 8, 2015 at 8 a.m. You can register on Active.com or by visiting the library's website at http://www.arlingtonlibrary.org/book-it-literacy-5k-1-mile-fun-run.