I moved to Da Nang to volunteer as a speech pathologist in local hospitals, pouring everything I had into building Global Rehab Project from the ground up. What people don't tell you about starting something from nothing is how isolating it can be - long days at the hospital, then coming home to build a charity with no roadmap and no one who quite understood what you were trying to do.
Tag changed that.
I found this community at a point when the Global Rehab Project was still just an idea I was fighting to get off the ground, and Tag was the first place that made me feel like I wasn't doing it alone. Elliot, Tag's founder, was unbelievably supportive from day one - genuinely invested in lifting up anyone trying to build something for the community, not just the runners. He didn't just cheer from the sidelines; he helped us collaborate on our very first event together, the Run to Hoi An, giving our tiny charity a platform and a crowd of people who actually showed up.
That run was everything. It wasn't just a race, it was proof that a group of people who barely knew me were willing to lace up and run for something worth caring about. It gave Global Rehab Project momentum when we had none, and it gave me a community showing up for me on the days when I was too deep in hospital work to show up for myself.
There is no community like Tag. You can find run clubs anywhere, but you won't find another one built on this much genuine care for each other's lives outside of running - for the local patients I serve, for the causes we're quietly working on, for the people having a hard week. Tag didn't just support my charity. It supported me, and for that I will be forever greatful. Oh and of course - I left a 10x better runner than on day 1!
