Putting Feet to Faith at the Mercer Island Rotary Half Marathon

On Sunday, March 20, the pews at will be empty, the halls silent, and Pastor Greg Asimakoupoulos won’t be taking his place behind the pulpit for his weekly sermon.

Instead, nearly 250 of the church's 300 members will don track suits and sneakers and run, walk or volunteer for the 39th annual at the .

This is the second year that "Pastor Greg" capitalized on an idea by church member Ken Lottis, who noticed 4 years ago that his church, which was across the street from the Half Marathon at , was ignoring an event that had most of the Island’s 22,000 residents in attendance.

“He wondered why the church was behind walls, instead of engaging in the lives of the community, bringing faith outside the walls,” said Asimakoupoulos. “He said, ‘wouldn’t it be dramatic if we closed the church and became involved?”

A few years later, the pastor’s daughter asked to run in the half marathon when she came home from Chicago, and he preached a sermon on getting his congregation in shape physically, spiritually and relationally. The response from his congregation was overwhelmingly positive.

“I said let’s not just talk about faith, lets put our feet to it, so that’s where we got the name for our church group “Feet to Faith,” Asimakoupoulos said. “I said let’s join hands with city hall, parks and rec and Rotary and show them how we serve our faith.”

Ironically, Ken Lottis’ son, Kent, collapsed last year with a heart attack but made a full recovery due to the EMTs standing ready at the finish line.

The Half Marathon is actually six timed races starting at the Community Center at Mercer View with the half marathon walk (13.1 miles) at 7:30 a.m., followed by a half mile kid’s dash at 8 a.m., a 10 K (6.2 mile) run at 8:30 a.m., the half marathon run (13.1 miles) at 9 a.m. and the 5K (3 miles) run/walk starting at 9:30 a.m.

Last year, (through race registration and donations), the Mercer Island Rotary raised $16,000 for Washington Colon Cancer Stars, an organization that supports people with colon cancer, $76,000 to colon cancer awareness organizations, and $160,000 to other Rotary charities.

“We’re still talking about pastor Greg’s (Covenant Church) group, and how they really got involved last year,” said Dawn Naye, Race Coordinator, who noted that it takes 300 volunteers to coordinate the 5,000 race participants. “They were complete godsends!”

Significant road closures will affect local roads on Sunday morning, including East and West and North Mercer Way. For more information visit www.mercerislandhalf.com.