Fear and Fundraising on Santa Monica Mountain Backbone Trail

Last year, shortly after Thanksgiving, Dexter Eroen called the Sierra Club for the very first time. He had an idea to raise money for the Angeles Chapter as part of his goal to run 67.4 miles in one push across the Santa Monica Mountains Backbone Trail, an open space that inspires his love for the outdoors and desire to protect it. His passion for getting people outside and his sincere approach to this iconic trail were an immediate match with Sierra Club. With less than two weeks to pull this fundraising effort together, we managed to raise $3,000 - which pales in comparison to the newfound partnership between a generous adventurer and the Angeles Chapter.

 

In the early hours of December 9, 2024, Dexter set out to run the Santa Monica Backbone Trail. You can imagine the adrenaline and excitement as he hit those first miles. Rhythms set in nicely and aid stations supported by friends gave him fuel and encouragement to carry on. Dex recalls the feeling of reaching the halfway mark, breathing in the endless views, and confidently envisioning the finish surrounded by friends and pizza. As the hours and miles passed, the inclines became relentlessly steep, the sky grew darker, the wind whipped up, and all of the emotions set in while his body and mind were pushing towards a new limit. His goal was to finish, and that was beginning to feel daunting. 

 

While this was mostly a solo run, from start to finish Dex ran alongside the companion that always shows up: fear. He has an interesting relationship with fear. As a fear-coach at gobeyond.love, Dex doesn’t necessarily believe in fearlessness; in fact, he leads workshops and provides personal coaching to help others explore and build a positive relationship with fear as a way to achieve their highest potential. He doesn’t set fear aside nor subscribe to conquering fear; he recognizes it and is curious about it, and moves alongside it with an amazing sense of self discovery. 

 

For 67.4 miles, fear accompanied Dexter’s first journey across the Backbone, which he finished late into the night, exhausted, each step a sharp reminder of the miles behind him. In the following weeks, as he sat in ice baths and re-learned to move his muscles, Dex wondered if he’d recover, did he permanently injure himself, did his fundraising effort make a difference? Fear kept tapping on his shoulder. Fear taunted him, asking “could you do this again?” And his answer in the face of fear was, to no surprise, “yes.”

 

And now, Dexter has launched Backbone 2.0. He will be taking us with him over the next 6 months as he raises money for the Angeles Chapter while sharing his process of physical and mental preparedness. While his focus embraces daily experiences over the end product, his objectives are actually quite intentional: run the Backbone Trail in one push going the opposite direction, achieve a time goal that puts him in the top percentage of runners on that trail, and raise money for an organization that he trusts and believes in (and that supports him wholeheartedly).

 

Dexter’s goal is to raise $10,000 between now and the big run on Saturday, December 7th. Each donation adds inspiration to Dex’s ongoing effort to raise money for the Angeles Chapter. 100% of the money raised will directly support the work we do locally. Dexter expressed that he feels a personal connection to each donor who gives. If you’ve ever seen signs of encouragement along a marathon route, that’s what donations to the Sierra Club feel like for Dex. 

 

If you would like to cheer Dex on, please consider making a donation today at sc.org/GoBeyondWithDex

 

 

Keep an eye out for opportunities to join Dexter and the Sierra Club out on the trail leading up to Dex’s big run in December. Whether it is on a training run or joining him in on a community effort to clean up and maintain our beautiful trails, Dex would love to meet you! To find out where he is in this process, give him a follow on Instagram @gobeyond.love